Sapporo Traffic Ballet

A few weeks ago I went up to Sapporo for a long weekend. You know, it's on the northern most island  Hokkaido. Yeah that's it, where the beer is from.

Getting there on my first domestic Japan flight was interesting. ANA alone has a dozen flights a day from Tokyo and nearly half of them are big 747 planes.  I'm sure JAL has just as many which is pretty amazing considering it's less than a 90 minute flight. There isn't bullet train (shinkansen) service up to there yet so on regular trains it can take over 12 hours. They are apparently building new tracks so the service should begin in a few years.

The art of traffic direction is alive and well in Sapporo. Check out this ballet I captured:

Is he a Jedi? Is that a lightsaber?

And how about this cute little inflated guy giving you warning about road construction. Ever see things like this back in USA ?

And I can't forget the great lamb "Ghengis Khan" dish we ate at the restaurant  Ram. That's lamb sashimi (yum) on the lower left.

And Sapporo has its own Eiffel-esque tower at the end of a nice park. Hey, it's 12:34!

And the famous old clock tower...

And the newest landmark in town is the Sapporo Apple Store.

Still to come - Owning a French car and driving in Tokyo....