Hokkaido vs. Michigan: Comparing and Contrasting

A view of the central avenue in Sapporo from our theatre venue. 

So after 15 years in Japan, Ive finally managed to make it to a city I've always wanted to visit here- Sapporo. It's in Japan's northernmost prefecture, Hokkaido. As it's on the same longitute and is equally as green, wide-open and natural as my own home state of Michigan, so I've always wanted to compare and contrast. Upon arrival, from the airport in Hokkaido, we had a long drive to Sapporo, and looking out the window, sure enough, it was basically indistinguishable from the side of the road in Michigan- low rolling hills, and nothing but deciduous greenery (or farms) on either side of the road for as far as the eye can see.

Driving through the countryside in Hokkaido, mountains aside,
it looks just like Michigan. 

There were a few differences though. For one it's actually a lot colder. In August, Michigan is still fairly hot with temps between 20-30C (70-85F) where as here was pretty cool at15C (about 60F) degrees). That may be unseasonal however. Anyway, it was cool enough that you need a light Jacket and pants to be comfortable- especially at night- and seeing how Tokyo is about 100F right now, that was pretty shocking.

Another big difference I have noticed is that the sun still sets quite early. In Michigan, in the summer it doesn't get dark until 10pm or so; here, it gets dark at about 6:30pm; only about a 10 min. difference from Tokyo, despite being considerably farther north. After puzzling on this for a while, I thought a googling was in order, and came to find out that the reason is because 1) there is no daylight savings time in Japan, and 2) the tilt of the Earth's axis causes vastly different sunrise and sunset times depending on where you are. So apparently being father north does not automatically guarantee a longer day as I always assumed it did.

Sapporo itself was a cool city. For starters, it was considerably bigger than I thought; all I needed was to take the cable car up Mt. Moiwa on the edge of the city to see so. From where we were staying downtown, it was only a 15 cab ride there, and then 6 min. up in the cable car to get to the top, so it was easy to do in about 2 hours or so. It was only more time consuming coming down because we stayed for the night view (which is apparently one of the top three in Japan), which EVERYONE seems to come for and was super packed on the way out.

The view of Sapporo at dusk from Mt. Moiwa

While the day view was cool, what people really come to
Mt. Moiwa to see is Sapporo's night view. 

Sapporo's TV Tower

Rainy Day View from the TV Tower

As it was raining for our first new days there, I didn't do much in the city, but tried to make it out to the Sapporo TV tower, the only other main attraction in the city. Not a bad view at all, but I got drenched walking there. I didn't realize that much like Toronto and Chicago's Pedway,  the city is filled with underground tunnels for getting around in the winter when the city is slammed with snow. I was really grateful for them on the way back, although I wish I wasn't already soaked. There is also a moderate subway system; although not nearly as comprehensive as Tokyo's. Taxis were also not too difficult to catch and started at 690 yen.



Given the fact that 90% of the time, I don't really go out, party or doing touristy, it was fun to take in a bit of the city. I could really see living here...if it wasn't for the fact that there is no film/ entertainment industry, (which constitutes half or more of the work I do), and without it I think I would just get bored. Haven't seen the winter here either, lol. One other start difference between here and Michigan is that this place is just covered in mountains. And while we do get snow for a good part of the winter, this place just gets slammed, and it's more or less all powder snow. I've heard time and time again that Hokkaido is a skier and snowboarders heaven- so much in fact that the town of Niseko is apparently largely populated by Australians. lol

Hokkaido's winters are intensely cold, so Sapporo is filled with
underground tunnels to walk around in and connect the subway
stations. 

Seeing as how I haven't touched my snowboard in at least 3 years now (due to the knee injury) I think it might be time to dust it off and make a trip up here again to see how it is in the winter ;)

Another interesting city was Obihiro. While Sapporo felt a bit like Chicago, Obihiro with it's low skyline felt a lot like Lansing.