Just back from a week or so in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. It's still pretty cold up there, and the further north you go the colder it gets (well, duh). 

Nagoya (where I live now) was still on the cold side when we left, although it would naturally prove to be significantly colder in Hokkaido, given its location.

We took off from Nagoya Centrair Airport (Chubu, as it's known locally). The flight to Sapporo's Chitose Airport is around an hour and a half. 

My trusty Nikon D3 was making the trip with me, along with a 24 F2.8, a 50 F1.8 and my mainstay, the 70-300  F4.5-5.6. All the shots here will also be viewable in the "Travel and blog related" gallery.

Man watching planes at Chubu:

We got in to Sapporo itself late in the afternoon, whereupon I dropped my stuff off at the hotel and went out to make use of the rather nice afternoon light. Sapporo is a nice city. It reminds me somewhat of Nagoya in terms of size and population, but it has the advantage of being fit for human habitation in the summer months.

Woman crossing road (check out the sunlight hitting her face)

Sunlit building:

Another sunlit building:

Like Nagoya, Sapporo has a TV tower with an observation platform and, like Nagoya, Sapporo's TV tower yields some impressive views:

View from Sapporo TV tower 1:

View from Sapporo TV tower 2:

View from Sapporo TV tower 3:

View from Sapporo TV tower 4 (I got a reasonably sharp 8 second exposure here by holding the lens against the window and trying not to breathe)

The last part is for those who speak and read Japanese:

 テレビ塔からホテルに帰る時、奥さんが、"あら、雪に字が書いている"と言いました。だから、私は,文字通りに、雪に”ぢ”を書いちゃった

Couldn't resist it, sorry!

Part 2 will follow shortly. Stay tuned.