Tuesday, April 2, 2013

An update from Sapporo, where we've still got snow

Fuzzy memories of this late night at Kalahana

Oh, April, is it? Well then. All is well in Sapporo, where spring has come in earnest. What that means here is that the piles of snow on the side of the road are getting smaller, the women all wear tall rubber boots, and the men all have wet pant-bottoms, a condition that isn't as vulgar as it sounds.

Over at Hokkaido Explorer, a new online magazine for Hokkaido which I helped launch and act as editor for, I posted an article not long ago about Adanonki, the low key used book/magazine store which also serves craft beer. The news hook for the article was the shop's expansion into the space next door, opening up more room for a couple of tables near the bar counter.

Besides that, I've made some visits to Mugishutei, Higurashi, Kalahana, and Beer Bar North Island, mostly when old friends from Ise are in town and I can play booze-guide to the city. I'm sketching out plans for a nice big feature about craft beer in Sapporo and/or Hokkaido to go up on Hokkaido Explorer, but don't expect anything official for a while. I'd love to get that kind of special content, along with other guide articles and features, in a printed special edition some day down the road.

Then you can come up to Sapporo, have a seat at Adanonki, page through the Hokkaido Explorer printed edition, and plan the craft beer crawl you'll set out on that night.

Hope all is well in your city or town, and look out for a report from Mie after Golden Week, a possible report from Oregon this summer, and who knows what else in between.