After a total journey of 29 hours, we arrived in Sapporo! We’re using the days to recover, enjoy the first cultural impressions and of course continue preparing for our hiking journey.
On the first day we wandered through the streets of Sapporo and picked up our first onigiris, rice balls or rather triangles with differents kinds of filling. An easy and tasteful snack. We properly sat down on a bench of course, since eating while walking is not accepted in Japan. We were joined by a crow that came a little closer with every bite, almost sitting on my shoulder and eventually pecked with its beak in my hair.
Sapporo is a city full of interesting places. With French influences like the Eiffel Tower and café MonLapin, where you can cuddle rabbits for a fee. A shop filled with capsule machines. And, small crowded restaurants that are barely visible from the outside and smelling delicious. Sapporo is known as the birth place of miso ramen. So we went to the ramen alley and had an awesome bowl of miso ramen, oishi!
Besides getting to know the city we can’t wait to start hiking, luckily Sapporo is also surrounded by nature. We did our first nature hike climbing Mount Moiwa. As soon as we hiked into the forrest we were surrounded by the loud chirping sound of cycads and birdsong. At first I was a bit nervous because of a sign that a bear had been sighted earlier this week. So we shouted and clapped our hands regularly until we met more hikers on the trail which made us feel more relaxed.
We enjoyed the hike very much and loved the beautiful lush green surrounding, the insects and birds we spotted and their orchestra of animal sounds. On the top of Mt Moiwa we had an amazing view of the entire city of Sapporo. In the distance we got a peek of where we will be hiking in a couple of weeks when we pass this region again on our thru hike.
The last day we used to make arrangements for our hike on the Shiretoko peninsula. A truly wild national park with barely any hiking trails and teeming with wildlife. It will be one of the more challenging and definitely most special parts of our hike. It takes some planning because the route will be though, with steep rock faces to climb and partially submerged areas to pass during low tide. We are really looking forward to start!
While preparing for the hike we did our groceries which took a lot of effort trying to translate all the Japanese packages. After which we did the last research about our route and contacted people in the area about places where we can pitch our tent. Now, while writing this blog we are in the bus towards the most northern place for us in Japan and from there we will go only on foot until we reach the south of Japan.
When we arrive in Shari village after hiking Shiretoko we will post our first video and photos. Subscribe to the newsletter or follow us on Instagram or Facebook to get a notification as soon as it’s available!
