Jawaad Mahmood in Tokyo

Sapporo is a city that reminds me much of dirty little Montreal. Both are among the largest cities in their respective countries (Montreal is the second largest, Sapporo is the 5th), both hosted Olympic games (Sapporo with the 1972 Winter Olympics, Montreal with the 1976 Summer Olympics), and both have similar snowy climates. Montreal was initially a native American settlement by the name of “Hochelaga”; Sapporo was initially a native Ainu community that was called Ishikari. Both have populations in the neighbourhood of 1.5 million people. However, where Montreal is clearly a city on the decline, Sapporo may yet avoid sharing the fate of its older cousin.

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Kanazawa to Sapporo is a long trip – even in a best case scenario, it won’t take less than 13 hours and 43 minutes to travel 1600 kilometers. The majority of the distance (Echigoyuzawa -> Saitama -> Hachinohe) is on the Shinkansen. However, a majority of the time is on small trains; the White Wing (Hakutaka) from Kanazawa to Echigoyuzawa, the Hakucho (Swan) from Hachinohe and the Hokuto (Northeast) from Hakodate to Sapporo. From the window, I managed to snap a couple of pictures – people who I would never meet, places I would never see. What is Itoigawa? Any stories behind Saigata? What are their stories and the ambitions of the people who live there? Maybe I will never know.
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