I lived in Sapporo for a year near the Kita-24 subway station stop
(north-south line).  The Hokudai station is around Kita-14 so it is
only about 10 blocks north.  There is an EXCELLENT yakitori restaurant
right at the Kita-24 exit.  You should definitely give it a try.  I
can't remember the name but you can't miss it because they have glass
windows in the front where they cook the food and steam and grill
smoke pours out of the roof vents.  They have about 30 varieties of
yakitori (not only chicken, plenty of food choices including my
favorite "mochi-bacon") and the prices are very reasonable.  In fact,
I think it was 100 yen a stick for most all varieties.   Also beer on
tap (nama-biiru) was only 300 yen a glass back when I was there and
that was a pretty good price compared to the other retaurants.  You
can go in there on a Friday night, meet a lot of good people and leave
happy and full for less than 3000 yen.  Please give it a try.  Also, a
local specialty fish of that area is "Hokke".  It is one of my
favorite.  There are plenty of restaurants that serve it.  I recommend
trying it at least once if you like baked fish.

BTW, I'm the same height as you and wear size 9 shoes and I found
plenty more clothes in Japan that would fit me compared to the USA.
You are pretty much the average size by Japan standards so you will
have plenty to choose from.

Sapporo is great but, as you know, it snows a lot in the winter so be
prepared.  Some days you may not feel like going out much.  It can be
quite an effort getting around.  The Oodori subway stop is great
because you can do a lot of shopping and never go above ground.  Also,
there are a lot of places to ski around Sapporo and accessible by
subway so you could get some exercise doing that if you are
interested.  Just a couple random thoughts there.  I miss Sapporo!

Here are live camera shots of Sapporo.  I check this out once in
awhile when I am missing that area:

http://www.dosanko.co.jp/weather/index.html

Have fun, Rick

On 20 Sep 2004 16:49:37 GMT, doctorc2@aol.comdiespam (Matthew Caesar)
wrote:

>Hey all,
>
>I'm about 12 days away from a year-long stint in Sapporo, as I recieved a
>Monbusho scholarship to study at Hokkaido University.  I've been to Japan
>before, but never for this long, and never to Hokkaido, so I have a few
>questions.
>
>First off, I'm about 5'8, with size 10 feet, which are a...28 in Japan, I
>think.  I don't think I'll have trouble with clothing (32 waist), but will I
>have problems finding shoes (specifically winter boots)?
>
>I'm also looking for a foreigner-friendly gym.  I'd like to work out while I'm
>over there, and it'd be nice to know of a good gym.  I have no experience with
>gyms, so if the group of people there are nice too and willing to help, that'd
>be awesome.
>
>Thirdly, anyone have any restaurant/bar recommendations?  I'm a glutton, and I
>love good food.  I always hear about how good the food is in Hokkaido, and I
>can't wait to see if that's true or not.
>
>Lastly, anyone in the area up for some drinks?  Hehe.
>
>Thanks for your time,