DAY 7

OUR BIGGEST SURPRISE IN SAPPORO

14.12.2024

Today I woke Mami at 6.30am so she could go to the onsen (traditional Japanese hot baths) which are on the ground floor of the hotel. We also didn’t want to miss out on the breakfast which has been surprisingly good for a low budget hotel. Perhaps the clue is in it’s name, Super Hotel. We would definitely stay here on any future trips to Sapporo.

We have nothing planned for today except for a musical concert featuring, Ezo Acappella Relationship, Sea of Grace and Friends and Sapporo High School Choir. I am really looking forward to this concert as school choirs, from my experience of them, are exceptionally good in Japan and the acappella group sounds interesting but could go either way. And I guess church choirs are …well church choirs.

Mami was a little bit tired this morning, probably exhausted after looking after her wanna be ice skating husband. It was snowing quite heavily when Mami had a nap but within an hour we had blue skies, a miniscule amount of snow falling and the temperature wa s a mere -3 degrees.

Mami slowly raised herself from the bed and agreed we should do something while the weather is good. We did the 15 minute walk to the Daimaru shopping mall to get a coffee at Starbucks. The chilly wind was partially negated by the brilliant sunshine. We managed to clock up 2619 steps, without a fall, for which I am very grateful.

So I am finally getting to write this blog while sipping on a coffee and with the occasional bite on my coffee scroll. This definitely is my preferred way of doing a blog. Much better than trying to do everything after dinner when my writing is not the best. It is also a good way to watch what people around me are doing. People watching is one of my favourite pastimes.

One thing I have noticed as I sit here is the amount of people in Japan who are now drinking coffee. This has been huge growth in the amount of not just Starbucks but also a plethora of smaller niche coffee shops. When I first came to Japan 20 years ago, my young girlfriend took me to a restaurant. At the end of the meal I ordered coffee. As soon as I sipped it I looked at Mami in despair and said, ‘This is instant coffee’. The culture has changed drastically since then and coffee is rapidly increasing in popularity.

The other thing that has changed is smoking in restaurants. Twenty years ago Mami and I would ask before entering a restaurant, ‘kin en’, which means ‘is smoking banned in this restaurant’. The law now states the smoking is generally prohibited in restaurants but Izakaya (bars and pubs). This was really big because Japan had a lot of smokers. In 1965 figures show 24.8% of men smoke and 6.2% of women. In 2022 the smoking figures showed only 14.8% of adults smoked, the lowest figure since 1965.

Having finished that section of the blog at the same time as I finished my Grande size latte, Mami and I decided to have a look around the underground shopping malls. These malls are the warmest place to be when it is snowing with a fairly strong breeze propelling the snow. It can however get a bit too warm for my liking especially if you are wearing a winter jacket as I was, The music concert in the park was scheduled to start at 2.00pm with acapella group first on stage, so we had about 40 minutes to wander around before making our way to the park.

So the next thing on our list of to do’s was the musical concert, which I admit I wasn’t overly confident it would be good and I was right. It wasn’t good because It was unbelievably brilliant!!

We arrived at the park just as the first a capella group took to the stage. The six members of this group consisted of 4 young men and 2 young women. They were breathtakingly good as were the ensuing next two acapella groups. Each group had a guy doing all the drum sounds, including tom-tom sounds (how good is that) and another guy doing base guitar runs. All three groups had at least one female member and 2 of the members of the second group also sang with the third group. I’ve videoed all the acts and all were stunningly brilliant and my brilliant wife has put the clips on You Tube. you can access them through the link Mami will put up on today’s blog.

Next was the church choir. I was expecting the usual happy clapper songs but instead I got and amplified backing track for Celebration by Kool and the Gang from the 1980’s. It was fantastic! They also did great versions of several Christmas carols. The harmonies were spot on and everyone in this group of about 20 singers got to step up and showcase their singing. I loved their energy, harmonies and arrangements, A class act.

Last of all was the Sapporo High School Choir, It was a mix of girls and boys and 2 male teachers. The teachers took turns at conducting and singing with the choir. Both men were so full of energy and passion they fired this choir up to produce brilliant 4 part harmonies that made me want to be a part of it.

In summary I would have paid good money to see these three acts perform. I almost teared up a couple of times as the singing was so spot on, the harmonies unwavering and the passion they all showed through in their performance. This was the highlight of this trip to Japan. I can’t imagine anything beating what we saw today. Outstanding!!!

If you’re a lover of music, the youtube links for the 3 performances are as follows: