Part one of our Hokkaido Trip from February 14th to February 20th with my parents in law.

On Sunday morning we woke up at five am because we had to leave the house at six at latest to get to the airport in time.
My parents-in-law had arrived only the day before, together with my husband, and I think none of us got a lot of sleep that night. Fortunately our flight was scheduled from Haneda, which can be easily reached by airport limousine within 25 minutes.

The airport personnel at the ANA help desk was very polite and courteous and made sure, that my mother-in-law was well taken care of. Her wheelchair was changed for a in-airport wheelchair and a very friendly lady led us to the airplane before the actual boarding, so my MIL could take her time to sit down and get comfortable. The flight itself went smoothly and thanks to a shuttle bus we were able to be in our rental car and on the way shortly after we arrived in Chitose.

On our way to Sapporo and after an early start into the day (without breakfast) we searched for a place to eat and accidentally found a Costco. We stopped for one of their rotisserie chicken and pizzas. Considering the size and price of (delivery) pizza in Japan the pizzas from Costco are really unbelievable – enormous and with less than 15 $ surprisingly cheap.

The days before the weather in Tokyo wasn’t really warm, but the -8°C in Sapporo were something else. Gosh is that cold! Especially with a harsh wind blowing.

Our first stop was Sapporo because we wanted to visit the Snow Festival, which is held every year with huge ice and snow sculptures. I always wanted to go and see it. Unfortunately we were out of luck. We arrived on February 14th but the festival ended on February 11th, so we just took a walk through the city while freezing.

The underground town in Sapporo is huge, so we were able to walk quite a distance without being subjected to the icy weather, though it was not always easy to find an elevator. In theory easy accessibility is granted, but the reality (signs before the exit, etc.) showed, that many of the facilities, like an wheelchair only elevator in a department store, are not used often. Nevertheless, everyone tried to help (^_^)=b

Sapporo

Shopping mile

Owl display

Sapporo Tower

Sapporo Tokeidai