Today we had to check out of the hotel and eventually fly to Sapporo. We had most of the day to kill so we decided to store our luggage and explore. This proved a little more difficult then anticipated as it was super super busy. With all the coin lockers full we managed to find an information centre that would look after our bags. So with them dropped off we went to sort out a very late breakfast.
We were going to go to Ichiran but the line was over an hour. We just headed to Yoshinoya instead. After getting fuelled up we headed into Asakusa market and Sensoji shrine.
Asakusa market and surrounding areas are one of my favourite places in Tokyo. I am not sure if it’s because it was the first place I visited on my first Japan trip or because of the hustle and bustle of the market and the beauty of the shrine. Either way we joined the throng of people and the market and enjoyed shopping and browsing and seeing all the Shiba dogs.
We got to the temple grounds and I decided to give a fortune a go. I found instructions in English and shook the box to get a stick. Depending which stick came out there is the little drawer you open which has your fortune. It was a regular fortune which was fine.
We decided to walk through the back shops to go and find where you get the good Melon pans. We managed to find it and also quite a few really cool shops. The melon pans at this shop are amazing! Anthony got it with cream and i got matcha icecream.
It was then about time to collect our bags and head to the airport. We were flying out of Haneda domestic airport. We had no issues checking in and before we knew it we were bagless again and able to go explore. Haneda Airport has a mall in it so there were plenty of options to eat and shop at. We saw a katsu curry place and decided to join the line to get in. It was definitely worth it as not only did it have a wonderful view of the airport but it had the best katsu curry I have had ever!
Our flight was meant to be at 5:35pm, however Sapporo Airport was having some issues with weather and snow on the runway. Long story short we ended being delayed over 3 hours. The problem with this was we arrived in Sapporo at 11:05pm and the last train was at 11:26. We managed to get on the train. Celebrate NYE on a super cramped train with every person from our flight who was lucky enough to get on the last train. This was not the last issue we encountered. We arrived at Sapporo Station and found that there were no more local trains either. The line for taxis was going to be multiple hours long. We decided maybe stupidly to walk it, huge luggage, -5 degrees through snow for about 2km. Eitherway we made it to our hotel eventually and fell into bed. Happy New year everyone.
