Ugh!  I woke up at 3:30 am again. My body clock game sucks. I have to remember to close the blackout drapes tomorrow.  The sun comes up at 4 a.m. here in Sapporo. Fortunately, the kids woke up pretty early too. We ate breakfast that we got from the convenience store and we made our way to Asahikawa. We went straight from the train station to the Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa by city bus.
It was a great zoo!  The exhibits were well-built and make it easy to view animals from different perspectives. I would go back and visit this zoo on future trips to Hokkaido. We caught the taxi back to the station. I’m so glad we did.  The driver drove past a sake shop and pointed it out to us. Of course, we made her turn around and take us back to the sake shop. It turned out to be a sake shop specializing in Takasago sake which has been brewing sake in Hokkaido since 1899. The sake was clean-tasting and delicious.  These spontaneous stops are the best!  Love exploring and adventuring.

After Asahikawa, we returned to Sapporo and took my son to BIC Camera department store.

Since Pokemon Go hadn’t been released in Japan yet, he wanted to play some of the Pokemon video games in the department store.  He has been playing these games in Japan every time we make a trip there.  My daughter and I waited patiently for him.  Thank goodness for the couch. After game time, at my daughter’s request, we had ramen again!This time we went up to the tenth floor of the BIC Camera building where they have a whole floor of ramen restaurants. We selected one that specialized in char siu and had a delicious dinner.We ended the evening with a walk through Susukino as we made our way back to the hotel. Another great day in Hokkaido.