It's a Lawson town

We were the last passengers aboard our flight to Hokkaido - arriving at the departure gate two minutes before takeoff. I don't think I've ever cut a flight that close. The flight was fairly standard procedure, 90 minute flight. I couldn't see much of Tokyo as we ascended because of thick cloud cover (we got snow for the first time in Tokyo too, just the night before - a Christmas miracle indeed!). We arrived at New Chitose Airport to this sight:

A random village with colourfully painted buildings.

The average winter temperature is a high of 0C and low of -10C. Today was a balmy -1C at night time.

We arrived at DK House Sapporo after taking two trains for about an hour and a 15 minute walk, navigating the slippery streets. I couldn't really take many photos during the daylight hours as I was laden with a heavy suitcase and backpack at the time, but I'll get some to you later.

After crashing in our rooms for half an hour we set out for some food due to starvation. We wandered around the bitter cold and after realising that there isn't much to eat (or do) near DK Sapporo, we settled on a fairly expensive Chinese restaurant after getting to the point of settling for anything. It was usual chinese cuisine - but it was obvious that the price was definitely influenced by the expensive decor. We were the only customers in the whole shop, and it was a bit awkward as we sat there for about 15 minutes trying to translate the menu, but the waitress was very sweet. We gave her a wave when we headed home later that night and there were still no customers. I think we were their only customers that night.

After dinner we thought we'd take a quick detour "around the corner" which ended up taking us down the Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade that stretched about 7 blocks which ends up in the Susukino area - the main entertainment area of Sapporo. It was a fairly ordinary shopping arcade, but towards the end of the arcade a whole lot of street performers trying to gather a crowd and dance groups practicing routines.

But these guys were really impressive. To the point where we all bought their CD. We could have just copied the music files, but we actually all paid money for a CD-R with a hand-scrawled title. And a disclaimer, I personally think it was better hearing it in person - the acoustics were really good in the arcade and you can't hear the timbre of the lead's voice as well in the video.

One thing we noticed on the way home was the omnipresence of Lawson convenience stores. There were intersections where a Lawson was diagonally opposite another Lawson. And basically a Lawson within eyesight at all times. One fantastic thing we found at Lawson was this チョコまん (chocoman). Like nikuman, the outside is a steamed bun with filling - but instead of meat, it's melted chocolate sauce. I've only ever seen this in Lawsons over here, and even then they're not in all Lawsons. Fresh hot from the warmer it was the BEST thing to eat on a cold winter's day.

Sorry I didn't stop to take a photo of the inside. I was lost in the moment of eating it.

The night was accompanied by lightly Lawson falling snow which was really nice. We made it home tired, but happy.