Final day in Sapporo...

The day after returning from Shiretoko and barhopping with Paul was my last day in Sapporo. It was a pretty low-key day. I basically spent the entire day (after waking up near noon) in the hostel on the Internet trying to plan the rest of my trip in Japan, because I realized I hadn't really set anything up for after Hokkaido. It's hard to try to do a free-style trip in a country where everyone plans ahead...I actually had difficulty finding a good hostel in Osaka (but more on that in another post). It took an incredibly long time just planning all the hostel arrangements and train schedules.

The only times I left the hostel were to grab some food. For dinner, Jin suggested one more soup curry place that was quite different from the other places in terms of presentation. It was called Spice Box (I think), and it definitely was different from the rest. The restaurant had an Indian theme, which was really strange for my last dinner in Sapporo (I had initially planned to eat somewhere more Japanese). It ended up being my most expensive dinner so far, around 1400 yen, because it cost extra to add extra spice, and I decided to get a new thing they were trying which cost an extra 300 yen (they put cheese and some other ingredients in the soup curry and bake the soup curry!). I got the spiciness level of 80 (out of 100)...and I finally got some soup curry with a little heat. If you ever go to this restaurant in Sapporo, I don't suggest you try the baked style though...it just seemed to throw a curve in the curry flavour, and the cheese was slightly burnt.

My last dinner in Sapporo and Hokkaido!

I had to wake up at 6AM the next morning to catch the earliest train out to Sendai (because the entire trip would take 8 hours). It was kind of hard leaving Sapporo to be quite honest. Time Peace Apartment, the hostel where I stayed while I was in Sapporo, had a very homey and comfortable environment. Jin did a really great job setting up the place. And as I may have mentioned before, the location was awesome (7-8 minute walk to Susukino), so everything I needed to get to was walkable. I really loved the city (minus all the ridiculous number of escorts and related services in the Susukino area), it had some of the big lights of bigger cities, a good urban feel while maintaining a feeling of safety, and it wasn't overcrowded and the people were still friendly (not cold like in the bigger cities). I couldn't believe 2 weeks had passed by in Hokkaido as I was leaving. There was still so much I had wanted to see and do that I hadn't got a chance to (because of my shoulder and lack of funds and poor transportation services in the more rural areas), but I guess that leaves things to do for my next trip back to Japan? I will definitely be returning to Sapporo again.