Japan 2012 Day 9

My basic idea for today was to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum and more importantly the Sapporo Bier Garden.  That meant that I got up a touch later than usual at 6:30am and got ready in a reasonably normal and not rushed manor  When I was ready I headed to the JR station and decided to have breakfast at the Doutour which is a common place Ronni and I broke fast at during the last trip. I deciced to stick with what I know which was a cheese toast and an American coffee. The place was very crowded and I didn't hang onto my meal too long before heading out. I thought the next best destination would be the University of Hokkaido botanical gardens, but of course they would not be open on Monday and I had to decide my next best plan which was to head further south to Nakajima Park which did turn out to be open. Nakajima park was a fairly nice park with a few different features including a duck pond and a landscape garden  as well as a lucky find in a couple posing for wedding photographs in traditional Japanese gear.  Nakajima was quite nice and very peaceful and I took my time heading through it on my way south.  When I hit the southern most point of the park I transferred over to the river and worked my way further south. I realized at this point that I could walk to Mount Moiwa and decided it was the best course of action for me. Mount Moiwa was probably a stupid walk for anyone but me and a couple other people I know. I was quite fine with the distance especially because for the most part everythingwas staying level.  I do have to admit that I questioned myself a little bit because I knew I was going to be completely on the other side of the city from the bier garden when the time came but I chose to keep on it because, heck, this was vacation and you only live once and all that...  I made it to the location of a free shuttle to the mountain ropeway and figure this was a good place to stop walking.

The shuttle showed up a few minutes later and drove us up a hill I am glad I chose not to walk up to the base of the ropeway which meant getting up to the 4th floor of the building where  I was able to buy tickets to the top. Yes, for those of you keeping score this meant cable car number 2 in 2 days. The round trip ticket was 1700 yen which basically translates to $20USD (thanks bam bam) and involved two rides. The first was my friend the cable car which brought us to the halfway point. Not too scary as it was crammed full of people and about the size of the car I took up Zugspitze in Bavaria which means very large. From there the next stage was something like a cog railway ride (they call it a ropeway which meant it was a train pulled up by cables on a track as best as I can explain it).  This ride was also quick.  At the top you have a good view of the city of Sapporo from the mountain but it is a brief visit at best because there is really only one direction of views to see. I was fortunate enough to ride up with a car full of mentally handicapped kids so it was even more so a fast visit for me then back onto my way down.  At the base I again started on foot back to the center of town (This time avoiding the shuttle van when I realized how little distance it actually covered, free or not.)

I headed back to the JR station where I knew I would turn directly for the Sappor Beer Museum. Since I knew a basic path I did not stray from it at all. The idea that a shortcut is the longest distance between points A and B was fully ingrained in my head so why mess with what I knew. I headed back towards Nakajima and then back to the JR station where I turned eastward based on the map I had. I will admit I got a little bit worried on my path based on the inconsistency of my direction and the suggested route but somehow I did manage to find the Sapporo Beer Museum after all.  I would say it was probably about 15 minutes east of Sapporo Station which meant I probably walked about an hour and a half from Mount Moiwa to the beer museum.  When I got there I found they had a tasting room and first tried a Sapporo Classic before taking a quick run through the free museum. Unfortunately the museum was not all that exciting, kind of like the Guiness museum but at least it was basically free. The first sample cost 200 yen and when I was done with the museum I tried the 3 beer sampler for 500 yen.  The best beer on that list was still the Sappporo classic.  I then headed to the Sapporo Bier Garden where I was seated and ordered a lamb butt with vegetables meal to be cooked by me on the Mongolian grill. The beer and the food came surprisingly fast and the waitress gave me a quick rundown of how to do things before I was on my own grilling lamb. This was sort of fun for the fact I didn't want it overcooked but I think I did quite well if I do say so myself.  While the food was cooking and being eaten I had a couple beers (all Sapporo classic) and drank 2 liters of beer in the beer garden plus probably another liter in the sample hall before that when I was finished and on my way. When I was done at Sapporo I headed back to the room where I relaxed and wrote this for a few minutes before intending to head back out. It was already past 5pm when I got back to the room.  I meant to take a small breather but apparently I fell asleep until almost 9pm and decided that would be the end of my day for certain.

The pictures for today are found here.