Sapporo, JP

Sapporo, JP

Sunday, 18. May 2014

After a lot of running about in Hakodate in search of the right street, we finally managed to find the right spot and quickly got a lift in the direction of Toyako.

There is of course a glass studio in Toyako, the Glass Café gla_gla of Daisuke Takatomi. Unfortunately our timing was bad so we only met his staff, but it didn’t matter as they were friendly and showed us around. We spent one night at the neighbouring campsite, and from Lake Toyako we left for Lake Shikotsuko. When we reached this tiny touristy place by the lake, it was already getting dark and as not much was going on, we headed for the cleanest disabled toilet.

The next day we left our rucksacks at the tourist information to go in search of a nice spot, where we might want to pitch the tent for the next few days.  We found a nice place by a river which had a few amenities for camping. Reluctantly we left this peaceful spot a few days later and hitched a ride back to Sapporo and to civilisation, which we had to get used to again.

From here we took a day trip to Otaru, which is Hokkaido’s glass city. We were somewhat overwhelmed for a number of reasons: it was raining cats and dogs, there was a swarm of tourists that could be likened to that of Neuschwanstein, plus there seems to be a true Murano outpost. The entrance area of the Otaru Venice Glass Museum gives you the feeling of being in Murano. A big screen shows you a film about life on Murano, next to that they have put a gondola, and either side of this there are chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. Right next door there is a Venini gallery and in every glass store there is at least one Italian product to be found. After three hours we’d reached the end of our tether as we were completely soaked and decided to return home to warm up in an Onsen. (Japanese sauna with warm and cold pools)