One of our goals for the summer was to actually “live” in Japan. By which I meant get an apartment, find a grocery store, learn to get around by train or bus and just go about daily life and see what it was like. For June, since it starts getting hot elsewhere in Japan, we chose to go north to Sapporo in Hokkaido. Yes, where they make the beer. Asahi is brewed there too. It was nice and temperate there as this fancy thermometer on the side of the building told us. (The other time we saw it, it read 18. That day, we needed socks and jackets)
Our apartment was some distance from downtown Sapporo with the touristy sights (like the building with the thermometer) but that worked out very well for us. We found a condo-tel airbnb with two bedrooms, kitchen and nice bathroom. On the third floor of this building.
Northeast of the apartment about 12 minutes walking distance was a regional JR station; in the direct opposite direction (southwest), was a subway, but for convenience, we also took the bus in front of our building; it took about 20 minutes to downtown Sapporo. The apartment was excellent for the goal of “living” in Japan — it was located where people actually live, and shop, and work, and as far as we could tell, we were the only tourists for about a mile around. The place was within walking distance of not one, but two, Daiso (which are found in LA, and are like high end dollar stores). We also found two very nice grocery stores, a “Coop” and a “Big House.” It is very helpful that grocery stores use Latin/English characters for the names of their stores.
On the ground floor of the building next door to ours was a Ramen joint with a very friendly owner. We ate several meals there.
The suburban location of the apartment was a good 30 minutes away from the main sights, but well in line with what I wanted in terms of living in Japan. I even found a children’s library, with assistance from the Sapporo City English line. It was on the sixth floor of the Shiroishi ward city hall, at the exit of the Shiroishi subway stop. I never would have found it if I had not been able to call the City of Sapporo and ask about child friendly city services in English. They had plenty of English language books and a small play area. Great for a rainy day.
There were several, and I mean several — like half a dozen — children’s parks within five minutes walking distance from our house. The girls got daily park outings, even once in the rain wearing their swimsuits.
There were other restaurants, that were not used to seeing tourists, We had a lot of really nice experiences, with super friendly owners, like eating surprisingly good paella in this Spanish restaurant 3 blocks from the apartment. (The Sangria was not good, on the other hand)
With all the other travel, we ended up not allowing enough weeks to just “live” there, which was a regret since we really enjoyed “living” in Japan. We lived the life of the immigrant, trying to make our way around the requirements of daily life without understanding the language or the culture. We were 99% illiterate and unfamiliar with the norms. It was disconcerting. Yet, for me, familiar, as I still remember my first year in the U.S. and then my year in France and summer in Germany where it was similar. And now, my goal for the coming year is to actually learn Japanese and come back next summer to perfect it! I am not sure if my almost 50-year-old brain can handle it.