Woke up in the morning and realized that there was a big snow storm the night before. Our car was covered with snow what was probably 10 inch thick in the early morning.

If you notice, it seems that it is a practice to keeps the wiper blades up during snow period. I do not know why, but I did what everyone is doing. While reading more on the internet, it seems that the practice is not necessary. Anyhow, I think there must be a good reason for this, since everyone is doing it.

While the family is having breakfast in the cozy lodge, Daddy went out to clear the snow from the car as well as the driveway.

Though the heavy snow causes a bit of a sweat, it does beautify the surrounding.

After breakfast, Jaydon was all ready for the second day of skiing. The falling snow and the drop in temperature, did not deter him from joining his new found friends for another day of skiing with the ski school.

While Jaydon is enjoying the slopes, we drove out of town towards Niseko Village. It is about about 5km west of Hirafu.

Along the way to Niseko Village, we stopped by Mike Kobo cafe, which is a popular stop for ice cream, tarts, cream puffs.  The cheese tarts, cream puffs and ice creams are the ultimate showcase of the great dairy produce from the region. It is a delight having a piping hot cheese tart and cream puff while looking out of the window on the falling snowflakes.

Heading to Niseko Village, we did not find much to venture around the area. We decided to head back to lodge, to pack our luggage and getting ready to hit the road towards Sapporo. Looking back, Niseko it is a nice little ski town. With snows covering houses and trees, the town is beautiful in the snow, especially when sun is shining on the town.

At 12 noon, we picked Jaydon up from the ski school. He left with a heavy heart, questioning why he cannot complete his lesson for the day. We explained to him that the journey to Sapporo is long and the weather may get bad. While we made the right choice.

After a hearty meal of Curry Goro,  we were well on our way to Sapporo. Sun was shining and the journey seems easy to Sapporo.

However, an hour in our journey, we met a snow storm. It reduced our visibility to almost zero. We were unable to see the roads as the plains that we weretraveling was filled with a carpet of snow. We could only rely on the arrows on power poles and followed closely to the cars before us, assuming that they knew where they were going. Along the way, we saw a car that hit the divider and overturned. Driving pass and seeing that the driver is doing well, we continue our journey towards Sapporo at an average speed of 40km/h.

Night falls, as we continue our  journey. By the time we hit the town of Yochi & Otaru, along the coast, the weather was getting better. After 5 hours journey, we finally reached Sapporo. We stayed at Mitsui Garden Hotel Sapporo, which is just beside JR towers.

We rewarded ourselves after the long and dreadful journey with a Mcdonald meal. Jaydon got a treats as we manage to find a pokemon outlet in Dimaru Sapporo was opened recently. He had a good time in the store and we got him some cards & toys – after all it is his birthday the following day.

Jaydon receives a voucher for his birthday, courtesy of the Pokémon shop. We use it to offset the cost of our purchase!

 

It was a long day and we were all ready for the next leg of our journey to Tomamu Resort.