Sapporo

For the 4th of July long weekend we decided to take one last family trip before Kyle leaves on TDY. We went up to the north island of Japan, Hokaido, to visit the city Sapporo. A brand new LDS temple was just completed up there and the open house is in two weeks, followed by the dedication on Auust 21st. It would have been fun to go to the actual open house, but Kyle won't be around and let's face it, our kids are too young to appreciate it and be reverent inside.

We decided to make a trip up to the north island anyways to explore Sapporo and visit the temple to show our kids how important it is. After 2 hours via bullet train followed by 3.5 hours of a regular slow train to get there (not to mention the wait time in between), I was starting to regret this decision to travel up north. The kids were very rowdy and driving both Kyle and myself bonkers. When we finally arrived to Sapporo it was pouring rain. Not the best first impression, but we were determined to have a good time.

Since Sapporo and the whole northern Japanese island is covered in snow for majority of the year they have created underground walk ways between subway  stations that have different shopping outlets. We almost felt like mole people, living underground for part of our trip. Sapporo is a relatively newer city (started growing after WWII) and is now one of Japan's biggest. It's really pretty and has a lot of fun things to do.

Since we had limited time we tried to squeeze in as much as we could. We walked around downtown as well as visited Nijo fish market. It's a market that's been around since the beginning of the city and they mainly sell crab and their oh so famous cantaloupe melon. Apparently this melon will give you wings, make you invincible, or something cause if you wanted to buy a whole melon the going price was 95,000¥. That's about $95 for a stinkin melon!!!!!!! Obviously we passed, but we were dying to try it cause it must be amazing at that price, right? We found a stand that was selling slices of the melon for 500¥ a piece, so we could swallow $5 for a couple bites. I will say that it was delicious, but definitely not $95 worth. At least we can say we tried it now.

We decided to let the kids run around at Odori park which is a long skinny park dead center of the city. It reminded me of a mini Central Park that they have in New York. There we tried the famous Sapporo BBQ corn on the cob and ate at a delicious little Italian place. It was hands down the best Italian food we have had since being here in Japan. 

After lunch the kids were exhausted so we headed back to our hotel room for a small nap. It really was refreshing since we had been walking around all day long. Unfortunately our hotel room and beds were Japanese style and not western style meaning two small twin beds close to the floor that were rock solid. It was very uncomfortable to say the least and made for some horrible nights rest for Kyle and myself for our nights there. Maybe we are just starting to get old. After all Kyle is 30 now, I guess our bodies have a harder time adjusting to different beds.

After nap time we packed up our bags and headed towards the temple. We had to take the subway since the temple was just outside the city, a little too far to walk. Once we arrived we knew the kids were squirrely again from being on the subway so we found a perfect little park across from the temple to let them get all their wiggles out. I think Kyle enjoyed getting his wiggles out too cause he and the kids kept going down the roller slide over and over again :) one of my favorite things about Japan= roller slides!

The temple was gorgeous. It was a very large temple and the grounds were maculate. Since the Tokyo temple is in the heart of the city it is skinny and tall with no beautiful garden grounds. This temple is just outside the city and on more property so they really took advantage and made it a piece of art. My favorite part was how they incorporated Japanese texture into the design on the temple as well as architecture. They added a beautiful pond/reflective pool with a very Japanese style bridge to walk over. 

As we were walking around the temple grounds out of the visitors center next to the temple came an army of sister missionaries. They all funneled out with their mission president, a member of the 70, as well as the temple president into the temple. They all shook our hands and thanked us for coming to the temple. Even though we were dressed in casual clothes and had two little toddlers running around they made us feel welcomed and understood the example we were trying to set for our kids. As they shook our hands they smiled and nodded thanking us for making the sacrifice. Living in Japan has REALLY made the temple special for me. It has always been special, but I guess I have always taken it for granted. Where ever we have lived we have lived within 45 minutes of the nearest temple. Now being in Japan, the Tokyo temple is 10 hours away and the new Sapporo temple is 11 plus hours away, not to mention very expensive to travel to and from. Kyle and I have tried to make a goal of attending the temple every 6 months while here in Japan but sometimes it ends up being 8-10 months due to his TDYs and other obstacle. Being so far away has made the temple that much more special to me when I attend, and I can promise you I will never take advantage of living close to a temple again!

Since the beds were so uncomfortable and Kyle needed to get back to make preparations for his upcoming TDY, we decided to cut our trip one day short and head back early to have one relaxing day at home together as a family. On our way out we made sure to visit the kids favorite park as well as check out the famous ramen alley. It was a really cool alley way filled with different ramen shops. It smelled amazing! Overall it was a fast yet fun little trip. We can now say we have been as far south as Hiroshima and as far north as Sapporo. We have successfully traveled around Japan and explored different areas, tried different foods, and seen different things. Living here had truly been a once and a lifetime opportunity. Now that we are half way through our time in Japan and have seen a lot in this country, we are ready to do some more exploring to neighboring countries here in Asia!