Day 4 Goodbye friends

So today was a bittersweet day as I was parting with the friends I came on the trip with.

So after a quick and rushed goodbye, I stayed in the Air B&B until the checkout time and left my bags. I didn't know what to do so I just mindlessly walked around exploring the area. I knew I wanted to hit up the Sapporo beer museum and I had to buy some accessories for my hike the following day.

Sapporo was chilly and cloudy, I don't recall seeing much sunlight and the weather reflected my mood quite well. I was sad that my friends left but at the same time I was really looking forward to feeling that sense of freedom, being able to do what I want, when I want etc. There are definitely pros and cons to travelling with people. On the one hand, its nice to have that familiarity, and a sense of belonging, but I realised whilst travelling with 3 other people that I am not good at compromising at all. And with that realisation I was grateful for being on my own and decided that my deep longing for travelling with someone "special (aka a partner) may not be that glittery and enticing as I once thought it to be.

Grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it? :P

Anyway, I ended up going to the Sapporo beer museum and reading all these interesting facts about how the whole beer culture started in Japan. All I remember reading was that a young 17 year old Japanese went to Germany to study the whole brewing process as he had a great passion for beer and bringing it to Japan. Back then, it was advertised as a "healthy digestive drink" best served chilled. They originally wanted to build the first factory in Tokyo however they realised that it was too warm there and that the beer would ferment. As an interesting side note, beer back then was priced higher than the highest quality sake...!

I wish I had taken photos of the various advertisements displayed, but they were mostly of these upper class women holding these bottles of Sapporo looking elegant and posh. Most of them if not all were painted images. Oh I managed to Google some pics!

URL: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4829245523_a4fdf52123.jpg

URL: http://girlflapper.blogspot.ca/2010/12/sapporo-beer-ebisu-beer-and-asahi-beer.html

 So here is a progression of how the labels changed with time

     
                                          To what we are familiar with today!

The museum building

Reminds me of a University campus

Enter through here

What blog is complete without a selfie?

                                 Me attempting to fully enjoy my kiddie sized beer (not a beer drinker)