Day #4 - Sapporo to Jozankei

It was a late night at the rugby to see Tonga nearly beat England, .... well not really.... even scoring a try was tough for them.

 An eventful atmosphere, 40,000 seat Sapporo Dome, full of Poms, singing ‘swing low ....’ and then there was a hand full of us all going for Tonga. A funny sight though was to see a bunch of slightly inebriated Aussie fan walk in with BBQ tongs... and start clapping them together chanting ‘tong..a’ ... we all got a laugh from that.

Due to not getting back to the hotel until 11ish, we have the boys a well deserved sleep in and rest this morning, before once again jumping on the bus, and heading into Sapporo Central.

But for that we enjoyed the hotels delicious breakfast... traditional Japanese breakfasts are not very appealing to the eye or smell, just ask Leigh Holtsbaum who tried the local delicacy "Squid and Guts marinated on Salt"... lets just say, he wont be eating that again.

Sapporo Central is a bustling vibrant area especially on a public holiday like today, and also when its raining. On a side note, apparently we are in the middle of a typhoon up this way but apart from a bit of rain, its fine...

In town, we walked around and gave the boys some t]free time to explore a 2km covered mall. at one end was the local fish markets and then 100s of shops and restaurants in between. A few of the bys tried the differing Japanese ramin and noodle houses, with others preferring MOS Burger???... apparently quite nice.

After this we once again head out of the city and back towards where we played rugby yesterday. Jonzankei is a very rural wooded lush green area, with many Springs, and Onsens. The hotel itself if a very traditional one, with a tatami room in all rooms. from here boys will pull out a thin mattress and sleep on it tonight, Japanese style!!! Look at the photos to see our room for an idea of what I'm talking about.

In the basement of the hit though is a huge water park and onsen (hot springs bath house) area. Thuis afternoon Matt Brown conducted a stretching session and then we all enjoyed a few hours of what action. You'll notice my photos today from there are sa little foggy its because of the heat and steam in the rooms... anyway, the boys had a ball, and thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing day.

Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo, and then onto Yokohama for the night.... A big travel day once again but certainly looking forward to see another part of this wonderful country.

I do hope you are enjoying the Blog and Flickr. ... all the best Ian