My Birthday Week (Treasure Box 22)

Last week was my birthday! As the week included 2 Japanese public holidays, I decided to take a few more days off work and enjoy some downtime. Megumi and I enjoyed an overnight stay in Sapporo, the largest city on our island, and took some time exploring some parks in town. Here are photos from the week.

Morning Tea at the Portom Airport Hotel

The airport on our island is just a few minutes down the road from where we live. We’d heard a new hotel had opened up inside the terminal during covid, so decided to go check it out.

The Portom International Hotel was a classy hotel at the far end of the international terminal. Since there weren’t any international flights that day, the terminal was pretty much deserted. The hotel staff were quite friendly, though, and the café attendants seemed happy we came. We enjoyed some desserts while watching planes take off and land every 10 minutes or so.

Strolling through Yurigahara Park

We then visited Yurigahara Park, one of the larger outdoor parks in Sapporo. The park is famous for its lilies, but the season for lilies had finished when we went. We still enjoyed just walking around the park, though, and seeing the different themed gardens.

Megumi and Benjamin standing in front of Yurigahara Park's main entrance

There was a bonsai competition going on in the greenhouse, too. These were absolutely amazing!

A Night at The Knot

That night, we stayed at a newer hotel – The Knot. The hotel was decorated with modern artwork. Even the round three-layer plate our breakfast came in was a piece of art! Since we don’t have food delivery services where we live, the tacos we ordered through Wolt were a treat for us.

round three-layer dish at served at breakfast at The Knot Hotel

More Strolling at Satoland Park

The following day, we decided to visit another large park in time. While the focus of the first park was on flowers, the second park was more like a huge farm. (I forgot to take a lot of photos here ?)

Megumi and Benjamin in front of a horse pen

Megumi sitting on a bench shaped like a cow

Finishing Up at Otaru City

Finally, we drove a bit further to a famous port town – Otaru. Megumi and I have visited Otaru a couple of times, but it has always been raining. This was the first time we got to see the city in nice weather. There were more tourists there than we had anticipated… a good sign that the tourism slump we saw through covid is hopefully ending.