We found out yesterday morning that Jack and Gretchen’s flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis was cancelled due to maintenance. After almost an hour of figuring out an alternate plan they were rebooked to fly through Canada to get home.

Got a late start yesterday, didn’t leave the hostel until past noon because we had to do laundry and dryers in Asia take forever to dry. One thing on my checklist while in Sapporo was to try miso style ramen.

While we were staying at the ryokan in Yamanouchi we met an Australian named James. His job was to travel around the world giving snowboard tours to people who would hire him (Australians are the coolest).

Super early morning yesterday. To make the final bus to the Shiobara onsen town at 3pm we had to wake up at 4:30 and catch a taxi at 5:15 to make it to Sapporo station to catch the first train out of town at 6am. We arrived so early in fact that the station wasn’t even open yet.

Yesterday morning was amazing in its own way at Shimofujia ryokan. The previous night they told us that we needed to check out at 9:30.