I decided to "Drive! Hokkaido!" as the brochures say. When I left the Sapporo airport in my rental car, I was amazed at the surrounding scenery. Wow -- trees! I was so excited, I started barking (a trick I learned from years of driving with a dog in the car back home).
And I had no problem driving on the opposite side of the road from what I am used to. Problem is, they put the turn signal function on the opposite side, too. So in the U.S., where the turn signal is, is the place where the windshield wipers are in Japan. So the next time you see a "gaijin" driving on a sunny day with their windshield wipers on, you'll know they're just getting ready to make a turn.
I was headed to Obihiro -- cow country. I wanted to see the cows Hokkaido is famous for. Not that we don't have cows in Okayama, where I live. On milk cartons they have pictures of Okayama cows grazing in large green pastures. But we have no large green pastures in Okayama. That's right, they use cow studios for those pictures! In reality, the cows live in barns their entire lives.