Took the trains all the way to Sapporo, the route has improved a lot since I was last here and it’s now a fair bit quicker, especially across the Tsugaru Strait from the mainland.

Being winter and a fair bit further north, the sun is already weakening by 4pm and the snow hits us hard. This is it!

We met up with Elena and her friend to go and appreciate the illumination in town. She’s staying in Kyoto but serendipitously happens to be visiting Sapporo at the same time as us. We get hammered by sudden heavy snowfall, have some good food, then pass out for the night.