Sapporro

Day 19 – Sapporro

Sapporo

Monday, 23 April 2012

We must be on holidays as we have forgotten which day of the week it is. A text from the girls saying it was Monday put us initially in a spin – was today the day we had booked for the Twilight Express to Osaka???

If it really was Monday then all museums would be closed. We were already at Moerenuma Park having bought an all-day excursion ticket for trains an buses at 1000 yen each. Moerenuma Park was designed by the world famous sculptor Isamu Noguchi but he died before his ideas were realized. It’s unique as the 189 ha park was constructed on what was once a site for a waste treatment plant. The park is really a sculpture park with various large sculptures that you can climb or interact with. There is the glass pyramid, Moere beach, Play mountain, Tetra Mound, and Mt Moere which we climbed. It was an inhospitable day – very cold and windy on top of Mt Moere and we unfortunately didn’t see all the sculptures. glass mountain is closed on Mondays and there were very few people around.

It started to rain so we went back to the street and waited for the next bus in a bus shelter. It took ages to come.

We retraced our footsteps back by bus and train but got off the train at Odori and found more underground shopping. Lunch and tea at the Afternoon Tea cafe. We headed above ground and discovered the entertainment district. It was good to see people above ground! Lots of shops and restaurants and bars.

We saw the former Hokkaido Government office building which is a red brick building constructed in 1888.

Tempura fish dinner at a little cafe in the JR complex at a cost of about 1200 yen each.

	Bus driver to Moerenuma park [Map]		Glass pyramid at Moerenuma Park [Map]
	Views from top of Mt Moere [Map]		Commemoration to sculptor Isamu Noguchi on Mt Moer [Map]
	View towards Sapporro from Mt Moere [Map]		Very cold and windswept on top of Mt Moere [Map]
	Birch forest surrounding Mt Moere [Map]		Entertainment district in Sapporro [Map]
	The crab building [Map]		Former Hokkaido Government Office building Sapporr [Map]
	Tempura dinner [Map]		Mt Moere [Map]