Sapporo, Japan

December 15 – 19, 2025

Our last stop traveling in SE and E Asia was Sapporo, Japan! Sapporo is known for Sapporo Beer as well as many great skiing locations in the surrounding mountains.

We stayed in a hotel embracing the cozy atmosphere commonly associated with onsens (public baths).

Our first day we skied at Sapporo Teine:

Skiing in Sapporo is incredible – we skied at the beginning of the season and there was already over 3 meters of snowfall! On top of that, ski passes, transportation, and gear rentals are significantly less expensive than skiing in the western US.

On day two, we took a day off from skiing and visited the famous Sapporo Brewery.

We capped the day with a visit to an outdoors winter market.

On our final day in Sapporo, we skied at Kiroro Snow World. The rental shop did not rent out goggles, so we had to ski in sunglasses – it was a bit cold!

After wrapping our last day in Sapporo, we flew south to Tokyo before we flew back home for the holidays.

We enjoyed a popular sushi restaurant on our last night in Tokyo.

The next day I was off for the US – with my two bags I’ve been traveling with (in green) plus an extra orange bag Brian and I shared for items we collected along the way.

That’s a wrap on just under three months of travel with Brian across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, Japan, and South Korea!