Summer vacation (part 2)

On August 16 we departed for Hokkaido, the northern-most island of Japan. We were hoping for cooler weather than Tokyo. It was somewhat cooler, but not as cool as we hoped. We took a short 1.5 hour flight into Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. While Sapporo is a large city, it's not as big as Tokyo and does not rely as much on subways and trains so we rented a car. We checked into the Prince Hotel and then set out on foot. Addison doesn't seem to mind her backpack too much. Both Ian and I have taken her in it and it's not bad for us either.

We quickly found Odori Kouen (park) and began exploring. Odori Kouen is a very large park and there seemed to be something different going on in each section. One section had an exhibit commemorating the fifth anniversary of Disney Sea in Tokyo. Another section had a craft show. And a third section was set up for the Sapporo summer festival, which goes on every night for a month. Most summer festivals are only a few days.

What's that?!?

It's a slide!!

The hydrangeas that we saw blooming in late June in Tokyo were blooming now in Sapporo. We saw many other beautiful sights in the park.

For dinner we found a Genghis Khan restaurant. Genghis Khan is very popular in Hokkaido and it refers to small pieces of mutton that are grilled. This restaurant in Sapporo brought a grill to our table where we grilled the meat ourselves. We also had vegetables and rice. But, the star of the meal was the tare (ta-ray) sauce. Oishii desu!! (It's delicious!!) As we were leaving the restaurant, the nice waitresses gave Addison a grape popsicle. She loved it!



I couldn't leave Sapporo without experiencing their summer festival. So after dinner we returned to Odori Kouen for music and dancing. Addison LOVED it! She loves to dance and make new friends. I admit, I'm a little overboard with the number of videos here, but I couldn't help myself! Hope you enjoy!