So desu ne, Hokkaido then

[Andy C]

Standard form: I'm off to Japan for the first time next week and I'd be grateful for any pointers that the assembled can offer. I'll be based around Sapporo - in Ebetsu, to be precise - and as it's basically a dutiful visit to meet my wife's family for the first time I won't exactly be a free agent to explore the hinterland as I please. Nevertheless - any hints?

[Wyatt Earp]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Next week is tricky. My mate Dan (whom I've now mentioned in two posts running) has a sister in Sapporo, and is full of knowledge about Hokkaido, but he's scuba-diving in Greece at the moment.

All I have to offer is "Sapporo Yebisu is by some distance the best national-brand lager in Japan." There are probably even better beers brewed and sold in local micros, though, because it's the great brewing area of the country, I think.

[JtS]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Sapporo beer (lager I think) is the greatest beer based drink of all time. Drink of much of it as possible.

[JtS]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

I posted that before reading WE's post.

[Wyatt Earp]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

I don't go a bundle on the ordinary Sapporo, to be honest. Yebisu is their Reinheitsgebot line, and is much firmer and better balanced.

[JtS]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Ponce

[Wyatt Earp]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Guilty.

[Reed John]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Surely, nobody goes all the way to Japan to drink the beer. Not that I doubt that there are some fine beers there, but it's not really what Japan is all about.

I'd like to visit Japan, especially the colder northern bits. I want to visit one of their amazing manga shops and also go to a baseball game there, where no doubt I'll commit some horrible faux pas like criticizing the umpire.

[linus]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Orion beer, from Okinawa, the other end of Japan, is my favorite Japanese lager, followed by Kirin Ichiban. Hitachino, a smaller brewery that has a line of rice-based ales, is the best though:

http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid42739.aspx

[Guest]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Japan is aces. I loved it. What you want to do is go and buy a litre of sake for about 25p and then warm it gently and then spend 6 hours talking nonsense with people you only just met.

[Andy C]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Sorry to have kept you on tenterhooks for so long, but this was the best beer I had when in Japan.

[Mumpo]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

as it's basically a dutiful visit to meet my wife's family for the first time I won't exactly be a free agent to explore the hinterland as I please

That really annoyed me about our first trip to Iran. Three weeks in Tehran on endless rounds of house invitations, follwoed by a frustratingly brief whistle-stop tour of Shiraz and Esfahan.

[Andy C]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Yeah, there was certainly that constraint. But it didn't really bother me - I rather enjoyed seeing Japan from the perspective of everyday domestic life rather than that of the tourist.

[Furtho]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Did you get out into the country at all, Andy? I'd love to visit rural Hokkaido.

[Andy C]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Only a little, and not into the mountain areas which I guess are what one thinks of as the most typical landscapes of the island. But I got to spend quite a bit of time in Shinrinkoen, which is a large, mostly forested, public park - something around the size of Richmond Park I suppose - on the fringe of Sapporo. Lovely.

The mountains and caldera lakes and all that will just have to wait until next time.

[Furtho]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

Sounds great. How, if I might be so bold, was the mother-in-law's cooking?

[Andy C]

So desu ne, Hokkaido then

My wife ended up doing most of the cooking as it happened, although it wasn't quite the version of Japanese food I've been getting used to at home because she was less inclined to westernise it a bit for my benefit and, of course, because of the vastly wider availability of the right ingredients and components.

My brother-in-law (who, incidentally, follows the same sort of academic line of work as toro) knocked together some stupendous sushi, I must say.