I'm doing 3 stops in Hokkaido:
- Sapporo, the prefecture capital.
- Noboribetsu, a famous hot spring town.
- Hakodate, a harbor town south of the island.
I arrived in Sapporo late and tired after a long day of travel, so I didn't do anything until the next morning. My first stop in Sapporo was, surprisingly, a cemetery.
Makomanai Takino Reien
Until a few years ago, there wasn't much interesting there. The main attraction was a giant buddha statue, but there are a lot of these in Japan.
But in late 2015 this all changed after the architect Tadao Ando completed an art project around this buddha that transformed the place. The idea: hide the buddha within a hill of lavender, such that only his head is visible from afar. Just like the other Tadao Ando buildings I've been to (on Naoshima just a week ago, as it turns out) this looked amazing. It's very interesting to see how much can be done with just concrete and natural light. Unfortunately lavenders don't bloom in May just yet (especially in the colder climate of Hokkaido) and there was some groundskeeping going on, but hey, still nice.
That's not the only thing around the cemetery though. For some weird reason, this was also part of the scenery:
Moerenuma Park
This large park in the outskirts east of Sapporo is completely artificial: it was built on top of an old landfill which closed in 1990. The park was designed by artist Isamu Noguchi, and includes multiple art installations, two artificial hills (one of which is 62m tall!), fountains, an artificial beach, a cherry trees forest, and a large glass pyramid that doubles as a view point and a museum.
And of course, finishing the day with some Hokkaido-style Miso Ramen!
