Park Review! Nopporo Forest Park

Disaster strikes! Unsurprisingly (considering I dropped it in the snow three times, on the beach once, and onto concrete more than once) my camera is dying in fits and starts. Most of the time now when I turn it on I'm faced with a black void, which is also what I get when I take photos and although I could, y'know, "make lemonade" and turn my blog into a 365 project about "null", it's a pretty big pain in the ass.

The first time it happened was when Yuki and I drove out to Nopporo Forest Park - home of the Hokkaido Historical Village (which we didn't check out) and the Hokkaido Centennial Memorial Tower (which we did).

The Centennial Memorial tower is very tall, and since it's located far to the East of Sapporo, where there's nothing quite as tall you often notice it when you're looking across the city from other lookout points. Also the fact that it's shaped like a sinister, black, tapering spike makes it pretty eye catching too.

I've always wanted to visit the tower (which, seriously, would make a great villain's lair in almost any vaguely "dark" genre), and while we could only climb to the low observation window, it still gives you a great view of the city with the mountains in the background.

These are the photos that I took before my camera succumbed to... the darkness:




Like that first one? It's all about the juxtaposition of the light and shadow, presence and absence and...

Man, I hope my camera heals itself soon.

Park Review! Ishiyama Park

I spotted Ishiyama Park on the Sapporo government website back when Bunny was staying with me. It looked kind a like a modernist colosseum... as a park in Sapporo? Thus I really wanted to go there, and finally got my wish last week.





It's not too far south of Makomanai, but it is easier to get there by car than by any other means (oh! maybe horse would be convenient?) and it's not really marked very well on any maps. In fact, despite the epic scale of the stone installations above, it actually feels like a pretty small community park. Though living in a community with that stuff in your park would rock like Beethoven in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Park Review! Asahiyama Memorial Park!

Man, I was like a park fiend this Golden Week with Bunny, I really got my fix. I finally went to Asahiyama Park, which I wanted to visit for a long time. It's low in the mountains to the West of Sapporo, and it has a beautiful panoramic view of the city like Mount Moiwa, the Mount Okura Ski Jump and that rose garden whose name I've forgotten. This might be my favourite one though, it's really beautiful:





The park goes off into the hills as well, but we didn't explore, we just soaked up the view. I guess the problem with this place is that I don't know how you get there without a car and... frankly can't be bothered to do the research right now. It's worth the trip though.

Park Review! Maeda Forest Park!

Maeda Forest Park is at the end of the North 72 bus line, out in the suburban wilds near Mount Teine. As with almost all the parks in Sapporo, it's very beautiful, but as with most places in spring they hadn't got the water features completely sorted out because the snow only just melted.





We missed the bus back and had to wait for an hour for the next one, but it was ok because we could sit by the river and look at the mountains while we waited and the sun went down.

Hanami in Maruyama Kouen

The whole of Maruyama Park smelt like it was on fire, there were that many barbecues. That's the real meaning of Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) parties. Or maybe it's getting hammered in the trees. Or possibly looking at flowers with your colleagues... I'm not 100% sure.


The cherry blossoms have come and gone everywhere else in Japan, but here in Hokkaido we're always fashionably late. Or fashionably early when it comes to Winter. One or the other, rarely on time, that's for sure. So, perfectly timed for the big public holiday week of Golden Week the flowers arrive in Sapporo and everyone can go get drunk in the park and play badminton and space out and look at flowers:


They're very pretty. We also walked to Hokkaido Shrine, which was surrounded with festival food stands where we bought potato snacks and Bunny got a blue banana on a stick. Here's the path leading up to the shrine:


The Shrine was all decked out in preparation for May 5th celebrations, with huge great carp banners:


May 5th is Children's Day (sometimes Boys' Day) and there'll be a big celebration for that too. I'm not sure what the relevance of the carp is, I should probably look that up. Today - more park action, upon which I will report anon.

Park Review! Moerenuma Park!

How do you rate parks? Well, I give Moerenuma Park, in the East of Sapporo, five out of five. That's like five non-functioning fountains out of five, or five mysterious pyramid constructions out of five!

Moerenuma Park was designed by the artist Isamu Noguchi and is just a wonderful, beautiful place. The last time I was there was to go sledding in the snow over a year ago, and though I thought I'd been there since... I guess I hadn't because all of this was new to me:





Mostly Moerenuma park feels like a huge set for a 1970s Sci-Fi flick about a utopian society that worships pyramids but eventually turns against itself in an orgy of violence and ray guns.

The only problem was that since Sapporo is still recovering from being violently assaulted by winter for four or five months, the grass was hardly a verdant green, and they haven't turned most of the fountains on yet. But we randomly happened upon the Sea Fountain display which had only started the day before. It was big, beautiful and soothing and very nautical, but a little simple.

Takino Suzuran Kouen

Takino Suzuran Kouen (Takino Forest Park) is just south of Sapporo. It's a little tricky to get to and a little expensive by bus, but on a sunny day it's worth every penny. Go to Makomanai station on the Namboku Line and catch the 102 bus on the Takino Line. And if you've got kids... jesus you just have to go.