After our five weeks in Seoul concluded in early June we took a week’s holiday in Japan before returning to Minnesota. On our previous (and first) visit to the country last summer, we’d divided our time between Tokyo and Kyoto. We had fond memories of both great cities but less fond memories of the heat and humidity. And so for this trip we’d decided to go to a part of Japan where the weather is a lot more pleasant in the summer: Hokkaido. There are a number of airlines that fly from Seoul to Sapporo and thankfully the flight is not very long and prices are quite reasonable. Accordingly, we flew from Seoul to Sapporo. We stayed in Sapporo for a couple of days before heading north to Otaru, where we rented a car. We then drove around the western part of the island for a few days before ending up in Hakodate in the southwest, where we returned the car and stayed a few more days before returning to Tokyo to catch our flight back to Minnesota. It was a wonderful week—and yes, the weather was as advertised. Of course, we ate a lot of good food; it’s kind of hard to not eat very well in Japan. This began just minutes after arrival at Sapporo’s New Chitose airport. Continue reading →