Although I finished my Thesis in November last year, I still haven’t officially graduated yet. The reason for this is simple, I couldn’t fit in the graduation ceremony schedule before my leave to Japan, so instead I decided to postpone it till this August.

The day has finally arrived! Next week, Wednesday the 20th of August, Beany will officially become Master Beany. My graduation ceremony will be at the Auditorium at the Vrije Universiteit. It will start at 15.00, but people should assemble a bit earlier, namely 14.30. If you’d like to attend, please send me a message, so I can give you more details.

After the ceremony I’ll go for drinks and dinner, after which it is of course time to celebrate at the Noodlanding in Paradiso. So I hope to see you there!

It’s about time I continued telling about Hokkaido isn’t it? After my wonderful experiences in Morioka, I was very excited to continue with my journey to Sapporo in the Hokkaido region. Traveling to Sapporo, my destructive lifestyle of the couple of days before finally kicked in, so I pretty much slept all the way. Therefore, when I got to Sapporo I was nice and rested and fit to start looking for a hotel. The hotel I found was called Marks Inn, conveniently located near the city center and walking distance from several restaurants, bars, clubs and of course the metro. The staff was nice and the price included free breakfast, which I managed to be in time for twice .

After checking in, I went into town to find the famous Ramen alley, which is one of the most famous and best Ramen spots in Japan. I quickly found out why, it’s an immensely narrow ally, crammed with Ramen shops only, each shop boasting its own special kind of Ramen. I went into one at random and got served the best Miso Ramen I had in my life. Truly, Sapporo Ramen is one of a kind, which is kind of strange come to think of it, since it is basically just noodle soup…

I went to bed early, so I could wake up in time the next day to start doing the tourist thing. I grabbed my Lonely Planet and decided on which tourist spots I wanted to visit, picking only spots in town for my first day, so I could do everything on foot. I quickly located the television tower (called Terebi Tousan: Television daddy) but decided not to go up there, until after dusk because city views are usually better at night .

Leaving the TV tower for what it was, I bumped into the clock tower. This small wooden tower really stands out between the large building surrounding it, creating a nice contrast between the high tech concrete age we are living in now, versus the simpler, wooden habits of old (or something like that). Supposedly the clock never missed a beat for about 130 years now. Which is of course more than enough to merit a must see status in Japan.

After the clock tower I wanted to visit some museums and gardens, so I started of for those. After walking around for about an hour I found the garden I wanted to check out, only to find that it was closed until Spring. The only part of it that was open, was the greenhouse area next to it, featuring “100s of plants from all over the world.” As I was freezing by then (still snow in Sapporo!) and the entry was only 100 Yen (0,60 Euro) I decided to check out the greenhouse to see what the fuss was about.

I must say, being from Aalsmeer, Holland, where the primary source of income is growing plants in greenhouses, I wasn’t very impressed by this particular greenhouse. Sure they had a lot of different plants, but they were spread throughout the place in a haphazard way, and most of them showing signs of decay. Still it was warm, and I managed to take some nice shots anyway. So I can only conclude, 100 Yen well spent.

Having warmed up a bit at the greenhouse, I walked around some more looking for the museums mentioned in my travel guide. I found some of them, but unfortunately all were closed on Mondays. So though luck for me, I just had to settle for an outside view of the places. I did, however, run into the cutest police car ever.

Since I was very cold and done with walking for hours, I decided it was time to get some study on. So I went into the first coffee house I encountered and hit the books until it was time to get some dinner. I didn’t feel like going for anything fancy for dinner, so just had some curry, after which I made my way back to the TV tower, to get those much coveted nighttime shots of the city.

Although it was raining a bit, the view was still spectacular. You can even see the Olympic Ski jump looming on the mountainside in the distance… Well, ok, It’s just a gray dot in the distance, but still. Oh, apparently some of the buildings in Hokkaido aren’t as solid as they would seem, when seen from street level.

Since university roots never let you go, I went to check out Hokkaido University. And boy, I must say, quite the difference from my university back home (Vrije Universiteit). Instead of a dull gray campus, this university features a full on park, several traditional buildings and even a museum detailing the history and accomplishments of the university and its students since it was founded in 1876.

I even managed to find where they created Godzilla!

Oh and… How about this for a Faculty of Sciences. Although of course, all Universities look the same on the inside.

Being at the university, I simply had to do a “cross country cafeteria check” and see what the food’s like in a Japanese university. My only conclusion can be that the food at Hokkaido University is truly very good. For less than 2 Euro you can eat an excellent meal, which actually tastes like a true meal, instead of the warmed up leftovers taste they always seem to manage at the VU.

That’s it for now, I gotta prepare for a party in Ebisu. Tomorrow I’ll finish the story of my Hokkaido trip, barring any severe hangovers. Stay tuned for: Onsen, beer factories and awesome Japanese bartenders…