Weekend in Sapporo

Alright you guys are letting me down and getting your free lunch and thus in return not feeding me. Don't try me. 

This weekend found the Chiu and I in Sapporo enjoying the Capital of Hokkaido. It's a little bit bigger than Hiroshima with plenty to do like in every city of the world. We enjoyed a quality bike path that strolled right past the Holy Temple.

We stayed at our first Warmshowers host. For those of you that don't know what Warmshowers is, let me Indulge for you. 

When I was young, my dad would let cyclists stay at our house while they were traveling through town. We met some *interesting* people, including one of Einstein's sons. The Einstein. Another guy brought his dog named Hummus that slept in my room. And one time, a German professor and his students came to stay. Talmage made out with one of them. I hated him for that. 

Anyways, I used Warmshowers once during my American cross country trip 12 years ago. And in order to use Warmshowers you need to be a member yourself and you can either set your status for available to host or unavailable. Earlier this year, I received an email from Warmshowers  saying that my status was still set to unavailable. I thought, "If I want to bike across Japan I better start to get to know some cyclists and pick their brains." So I set my status for available and within the next few days I got two notifications: one from a Swiss guy. His was a nice visit and he gave me some good tips. The second was from HQC asking if she could also stay with me (that's how we met) and the rest is history. Pretty neat huh?

Since people who use Warmshowers are bikers themselves, our host spent 4 years of his late 20's to bike 55,000 kilometers around the world on several continents. His family was very friendly. They cooked for us and washed our clothes. 

I've learned from my niece, Dana, that a pic doesn't count unless it's blurry beyond recognition. I almost #nailedit.

Usually bike paths are converted from old canals or railroads. I don't know where they got the real estate for this path in Sapporo.

Sometimes in life you just have to look at it before you can do anything else.

"I've been though there, [Sapporo] is a fine town."

In certain intersections there are crosswalks that go in every direction, as you can see here. It's neat.

Zoom in and you can see another naked statue. 

I really, really hate when cities discourage biking by placing no bike parking signs in the busy downtown areas. The officials really are idiots for doing that. I hope at least one official is reading this now so he/she will know that. We could care less about those no parking signs, however, even to the point of parking my bike on top of the sign. "How do you like your bagels now?!"

One of my favorite stores is called Don Quixote. This one had a section where people can come play Magic: The Gathering or other games. I didn't know people still played that today. Pennell and the Scarbers would love that. 

Eiffel Tower ya'll.

Our Warmshowers host's house.

With Covid-19 making everyone live in fear, "[church] has been cancelled, due to lack of hustle. Deal with it." I'm still waiting for the day when I can worship the Almighty in the chapels again. 

Look how fun these things are. 

                                        Jana, if you ever get on my blog again, you'll like this bit. 

Our host is showing us where to go to see this neat village museum. 

Old houses brought in from over 100 years ago.

This green one was all neat.

Many homes still look the same today. They age very well, you might say. 

The different buildings were coolo. 

She's giving me Asian attitude but I'm not having any of it.

Me during school.

This house had a ton of organs in it. Tiny ones, too.

This was how people dressed back then.

Finally a decent Japanese style house. They are rare in Hokkaido. The only con about this part of the country.

I think this was an armory. Actually I have no idea what this was for because "Mother of Mercy, I don't speak Japanese!"

Hay to eat. 

I love how the center of the rooms will have little places for fire to heat up the water.

Fall colors. I'm telling you.

I think farmersonly.com would love this part of the tour.

It's not every day that you see an apple tree.

Why don't we have rooms like this in the US? Oh yeah, cuz you're all watching stupid Netflix everyday and wasting your lives. 

I think this was for the Slaves.

Do you guys think these sandals are comfy? Yay or nay. Or keep playing the Quiet Game and never comment at all. You're doing good at that one.

Thomas the Train has nothing against these. 

Looking outside the boarding room.

I like how part of this roof was see-through to allow for more light to come in here for professional photographs.

Hard at work.

They even wore masks in the Olden Days.

Mr Police Officer is going to write someone a ticket. I just know it.

These sliding walls are all rich. 

This was where the doctors worked. They even had little sinks.

Somethings never change. The Cans.

This poor horse was struggling. I felt bad for him.

Another fun building exterior shot.

Railroads for days.

Holly with the Orthanc.

Now it's time to pack all my crap to leave in the morning.

Not wanting to over-burden ourselves, we shipped our front panniers to Sapporo loaded with food and other goodies. Now we have fully-loaded equiped bikes.