Sapporo Snowshoeing

Our first day in Sapporo is a do-it-yourself day in. Carol finds a brochure for snowshoeing a sculpture garden and the Sapporo Arts Center.

We take a taxi the 15km out of town into the hills and forest to the place. After paying for the expensive taxi ride, we arrive and discover the modest rental fee for the snowshoes is "cash only"! After significant groveling, CJ manages to get them to waive the fee. Said groveling is conducted using the translation apps on CJ's phone and the attendant's phone since she didn't speak English and we don't speak Japanese.

Between a video and written instructions, securing the snowshoes to our feet was complicated. It did not help that our less flexible aging bodies made getting into the snowshoes virtually impossible.

The same nice lady who negotiated our fee waiver arrives to save the day and installs the snowshoes on each of our feet.

We head out on the trek. Seeing the course map for the first time, CJ understands why they were a bit worried we could not complete the trek in five hours. This expensive foray out of Sapporo and into the foothills turns from a walk through a snow-covered sculpture garden into a photo op.

We attempt to return to Sapporo. Three attempts does not get us an Uber driver. There is a bus we can take to the subway station. We have seen the bus return three times. It is not returning. Again using a translation app, Carol finds a young couple who go to the office and get the staff to call us a taxi.

We are off to the Sapporo Beer Museum. The route takes us along the river and under a good part of the city. By the time we arrive at the museum, we are overdue for lunch. It is snowing heavily.