Coach to Sapporo

Day 17 – Coach to Sapporo

Sapporo

Saturday, 21 April 2012

After a similar breakfast to yesterday, we said farewell to Shirotoko and caught a limousine coach from the hotel at 9.30am to Sapporro.

The coach ride was comfortable with not many people on board. Everyone had their own individual seats rather than pairs. I was comfortable as lovely grey woollen blankets were supplied if you needed them and there was enough space to have a sleep. The driver stopped often, including once where we bought junk food (chocolate donut looking bread and crisps) and other times for drinks or toilet stops.

Views along the way were of quite forested mountainous areas with lots of snow and agricultural land. We saw cattle for the first time!

Arrived in Sapporro before 5.00pm and found that the Hotel Gracery Sapporro was very close to the railway/bus station. In fact it is connected from the basement level to the underground shopping malls and JR station. JR has its own hotel and a 36 storey observation tower. There are huge interconnected multi-storey shopping centres – Diamaru, Apia, Paseo, Sapporro Stella Place. It’s like an underground city!

We didn’t need to venture outside of the station. For dinner we went to a small place where you have your own BBQ grill plate and cooked noodles with cabbage and pork (yaki soba) and pancake with shrimps (okonomiyaki)

Great to have a bed! Our 11th floor room is small but compact and has excellent views!

	Breakfast again [Map]		The door to the restaurant [Map]
	The foyer of the Hotel Shirotoko [Map]		Inside our coach to Sapporro [Map]
	From water views [Map]		To mountain views [Map]
	Rest stops [Map]		Our room at the Hotel Gracery [Map]
	Interconnected shopping and transport [Map]		Our pancake cooking [Map]
	The menu [Map]		Nighttime view from our window at the Hotel Gracer [Map]