{"id":9173,"date":"2019-09-14T01:32:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T08:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=9173"},"modified":"2022-05-24T13:41:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:41:46","slug":"japan-day-10-sapporo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=9173","title":{"rendered":"Japan Day 10: Sapporo"},"content":{"rendered":"

I made several poor decisions today. First, I thought I should leave the onsen early because WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? I missed the mochi-making at 9AM because I had to get in a taxi at 8AM to catch my train. That means I had to get up at 6AM, start packing (the electronics take some time to pack), take another onsen bath, eat breakfast, and andiamo. Breakfast wasn’t inconsequential and I was a few minute late for the taxi. The driver was kinda surly so screw that guy.<\/p>\n

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I slept most of the way on the train because I was tired. I got to Sapporo with not much difficulty but my hotel isn’t close to the train station, it’s on a shopping arcade near the drinking area of Susukino. There’s a row of hotels down here. Somehow I got screwed by booking.com because I have never paid so much for a hotel in Japan (outside of onsens that include dinner and breakfast). $1000 for five nights! And the room isn\u2019t really that fancy! I was so pissed that I called my sister to complain.<\/p>\n

I think my reasoning was that if I paid that much, I’d get a nice big relaxing room. Nope.<\/p>\n

Here’s what they think a desk is:<\/p>\n

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Nice Ikea furniture. No sofa like some of the cheaper places I stayed in earlier.<\/p>\n

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And here’s my view from my non-opening window:<\/p>\n

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I was mad, but I figured there must be SOMETHING going on making the hotels scarce. There’s a month-long Oktoberfest fairly close by in Odori park and the first thing I did was order a plate of meat and a Sapporo beer.<\/p>\n

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Can you see what time it is? It’s not even 11AM and I’m drinking. Well, I get chatty when I drink and I went into the information booth where the woman was a beer fan. She told me there was a beer garden at one end of the festival, and I could drink a special Sapporo beer IN A GLASS at the opposite end. Oh, and North Island Beer had a booth and she’d met Tagaya-san, the North Island brewer who came to Portland for OBF. I called the factory to see if he was going to be around but it turns out there’s a beer festival in Saitama and he was there!<\/p>\n

Anyway, here’s the special festival Peach Weizen.<\/p>\n

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I can’t get away from Portland beer: Migration is pouring here!<\/p>\n

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I had the festival lager and now I’m three beers in.<\/p>\n

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I walked the length of the festival to have the Sapporo beer that’s made with hops that were developed here but grow better in the US, so they grow them in Washington and ship them back. (That’s four.)<\/p>\n

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Now it was time to get back to the North Island booth so I could talk to the president’s wife and ask her about Tagaya-san, etc. But on the way back, in the section that has booths from different Japanese cities, an older woman from Asahikawa said, “Drink our Asahikawa beer!” I also had a pork and cheese (I think) bun. (That’s five.)<\/p>\n

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So I made it to North Island’s booth and had their sampler: a Pilsner, a Weizen, a Brown ale, and a Stout. At this point I didn’t have the sense to take a picture before I drank them.<\/p>\n

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And also, at this point, about seven to nine beers in (the samplers were smaller), I had a brilliant idea! (OK, not so brilliant.) But I wasn’t so drunk that I don’t remember installing the Japan Taxi app to make this happen:<\/p>\n

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The next tour was at 4:30 (in 40 minutes) but since I was alone, they stuck me in an earlier tour at 4PM.<\/p>\n

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The original recipe beer, on the left, still had yeast left and tasted more like a craft beer. (I had another of those after this. Is that 11?)<\/p>\n

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I never felt THAT drunk. I knew I’d pay for the all-day drinking but I didn’t know where to get dinner except for the North Island taproom two blocks away.<\/p>\n

I had their IPA, and a beer from the guest tap from an old brewer from North Island. (I had the sense to have small pours of 12 & 13).<\/p>\n

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The salmon fish and chips were very tasty there.<\/p>\n

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After that, I made it back to the hotel (it wasn’t that late) and took a shower in the room. There’s a big bath downstairs but I didn’t have the energy. I hit the hay at 9PM. I’ll probably feel it tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made several poor decisions today. First, I thought I should leave the onsen early because WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? I missed the mochi-making at 9AM because I had to get in a taxi at 8AM to catch my train. That means I had to get up at 6AM, start packing (the electronics take some time to pack), take another onsen bath, eat breakfast, and andiamo. Breakfast wasn’t inconsequential and I was a few minute late for the taxi. The driver was kinda surly so screw that guy. I slept most of the way on the train because I was tired. I got to Sapporo with not much … Continue reading Japan Day 10: Sapporo<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10210,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions\/10210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}