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January 5. Instagram The earliest train that will take me to Hakodate is at 8:39am, which is later than I want it to be, but it all works out because I can have breakfast ramen in Sapporo. Isonokatsuo Ramen, or at least I'm pretty sure that's where I ate. I went to the shop that google maps and the concierge told me to on the map, but something didn't seem quite right, but regardless, I ate ramen and it was delicious. Extra nori on my ramen at Isonokatsuo, Sapporo. My arrival in Hakodate was about 12:30pm, which again means I'll have a short afternoon, but plenty of night activities again, which includes the big one here: Mount Hakodate at Sunset. Honestly, that's such a big ticket item for me that I literally put nothing else on my to-do list in Hakodate, and I'd just let the wind take me where it pleased. Luckily for me, as soon as I stepped off the train, it showed me an advertisement for a really rad observation tower and park, so off we go! I sp...

January 4. Instagram Today is the longest train ride of my journey split into two pieces. The first is Sendai to Shin-Hakodate 6:40am-10:01am, switch trains, and then Shin-Hakodate to Sapporo 10:24pm-1:46pm. For a total of 7 hours and 6 minutes. I used most of this time to write short stories and anecdotes that I will never publish, but just to have them saved somewhere outside of my brain, and to research my route through Sapporo. The one downside of the train method is that I'll be losing the most time of this trip by arriving in Sapporo late in the afternoon. A small benefit is that Sapporo being the 5th largest city, there are a lot of late-night options, and I'll have a 4 hour train ride in the morning and can use that for nap time if I need to. Yes, I'm a light sleeper, but the trains feel like they're floating on clouds and it's such a smooth ride. On my arrival to Sapporo, my first stop is a ramen shop by the station called Sapporo Ichiryuan. Based o...