Hokkaido Trip Day 2 (Sapporo 札幌 & Otaru 小樽)

I had a very good sleep and I felt so happy when I woke up realising I'm at Hokkaido. I woke up at 8+, updated my blog again (the previous entry was really long), fell asleep, woke up again feeling hungry but P was still sleepin
g. This is nothing unusual, it is always so hard to get him out of bed when we are having holidays.

The reception called us asking if we wanted makeup service when it was already 1pm, I was looking at the wrong time (Singapore time 12pm) and told them we will be out at 1pm. P finally woke up and we got ready to go. I had planned to visit Shiroi Kobito Park but I decided we probably do not have time for that, so we just headed to Kani-Honke (famous crab restaurant for tourists) to get our stomach filled. We walked to the Sapporo Station, walked through Daimaru and the building with a crab in front was quite prominent across the street from Tokyu Department Store. There were tourists from Hong Kong and Korean also looking for a table we were inside. They lady told us that it is a 30min wait, so we went out to look at the menu and walk around the area.

Us looking good and happy in our winter wear

When we got back, the other two groups waiting for the table were already gone, so I figured it did not take that long to get a table, even on a Saturday afternoon. We removed our shoes at the ground floor and took the elevator up to the 6th floor to get seated. The floor was covered with mat and carpet so it was not cold without our shoes. I did not take note of the highest floor in that building, but I think it is a really huge restaurant since we were already going up to the 6th floor. It was very quiet when we got to the 6th floor, we did not see other customers around so I reckoned it should not be that difficult to get a table, especially for lunch. The servers were all wearing kimono, one of them led us to this private room and slid open the door for us to go in, it was really quite cool as it was the first time we get to sit on the tatami in a Japanese style private room. The few rooms next to us were occupied so I guess most of the guests will have their own private rooms like ours. Just like Hotel Keihan Sapporo and 丸海堂, the first thing they did was to pass us warm towels to freshen up, it is really a good gesture during winter. P looked at the menu and decided that he would like to try those steam Hairy Crab (different from the seasonal ones from China) as it looked really good. We decided to get a set meal for two, and the dishes started to arrive soon.

Big Japanese snow crab and hairy crab in the pool

We started with appetizer and sashimi, the quality of the food was good and fresh, it was the first time I tried snow crab sashimi and I got to say I prefer the cooked version even though the ones I tried was really fresh too. It just feel odd eating crab meat that feels slimy in my mouth. The main Hairy Crab dish arrived and that was the highlight of the whole meal, each of the legs and shells were filled with thick succulent meat and we could taste the freshness. We felt really relaxed and took our time to devour the food slowly. There was also this sticky rice with thick gravy thingy with some crab meat inside and a crab meat soup, lastly the sushi came and then the dessert. I tried my best to try everything that had arrived but stopped at the soup and left with a piece of sushi that I could not finish. P ordered two bowls of rice and a extra baked crab dish so he did not really try the remaining dishes. We ate so slowly in the private and quiet room that it probably took us two hours.  It was quite amusing when we walked out after brunch and it was already dark outside.

Outside the restaurant, fascinating 'fake food' typical of Japan

Nice private room, they close up the sliding door when we were eating

Outside the building with the signature big crab

The main thing of our meal, steamed hairy crab

Total crab indulgence 

We bought some reserved seats train tickets to Otaru (quite exciting to buy reserved seats tickets for the first time) and we set off. Even though the journey was only 30 min, it felt good to have seats at the reserved car 4 and the seat were big and comfortable. When it was reached Otaru, we managed to walk to the canal area with some directions I had taken off from online blogs, it was quite cold as the temp was 4 degree. For most people, the main highlight of going to Otaru was visiting the canal area, supposedly very romantic to walk there. The whole stretch was just 100m-200m long, unfortunately there were not much snow at the moment so the it did not feel that special walking there, but we could see that the surrounding buildings look very nice with European feel. In fact, we were quite surprised as the whole area was already like a ghost town even though it was not even 7pm yet. Except for a tour group from Taiwan at the canal area, there were not many people around. We tried to find Sakaimachi street where it was said to have some nice snacks like LeTao, Rokkatei and so on, but we ended walking around in circles, taking pictures of some extraordinary design of the buildings. We finally reached Sakaimachi but the entire stretch was already closed at 7pm, I reckon there is no point keeping the shops open as we only see some tourists wandering around like us every now and then. Luckily I did not book a night at Otaru as the town rest early and it was a little disappointing that we did not get to see much of the well known little town as even the Music Box Museum was closed at 6pm. I get tourists who are used to nightlife like us and are basically nocturnal find it hard to get used to the winter touring timing. Nevertheless, we still had some fun taking some instragram worthy pictures around the place, somehow the buildings looked very Christmassy in the cold winter. If we could come slightly earlier before the sun set, it would be even better to get to see the place in daylight.

Common feature on the streets, sand for people to use (anti slip)

Our first ride on comfortable reserved seats

Nice santa claus costume for Colonel Sanders

Older style Japanese buildings along the canal (used to be warehouses)

The canal at night, pity there were no snow

Tourists were taking pictures here

We specially bought a GoPro for this trip

And we took many selfies

Only 4.3 degree that night

Nice building across the street from canal

Xmas tree at Otaru

With Otra 'Bun-chan' the firefighter's dog

The clock was giving up steam and playing some melody every hourly

Otaru train station (every station has a clock as timing is impt to catch a train)

We tried to get reserved seats on the way back but the reserved cars was already full. We were glad that there were seats available in the ordinary car when we boarded at Otaru. The car was mainly filled with tourists from Taiwan, Thailand etc instead of locals. Japanese are very quiet when in the train, so it was totally peaceful when we were in the reserved seats but the Thais were laughing and talking loudly on the way back.

Corn chocolate which I think is a yummy and good souvenir

When we reached Sapporo, I did not feel hungry due to the very full meal earlier, I just wanted to look for desserts since my craving was not fulfilled at Otaru earlier. P was ready for dinner so we ventured to the 8th floor of Daimaru to look for food. The restaurants there were still opened and buzzing with activity, clearly they cater to tourists as there were a variety of western food, pasta and so on. We were looking at the list of restaurants earlier and P was attracted to this picture with burger steak (he was having his steak craving since we reached). The whole restaurant was named Hamburg and there was a variety of steaks and burger steaks which suited P tastebuds. The place even had a English menu for us, but there were mostly locals dining when we were there. The taste of the burger steak with cheese filling was quite mediocre as steak dishes are clearly not a specialty in Japan, and a restaurant in a mall like this serving western food is also quite far off from the very nice steakhouse we found in the streets of Shinjuku.

Finally Onsen time

Ladies and Guys card access to the onsen 

We stopped at 7-11 on our way back and since it was early, we rested for awhile before heading to the onsen downstairs (finally!). The female onsen was crowded when I reached, I think there should be 15-20 ladies bathing and changing when I was there at 11pm. It was crowded at the locker area with mostly locals as they were chatting in Japanese. They were also polite enough to wait for one another to dry off or keep their clothes before reaching for their own lockers. There was only one pool in the female onsen, it is slightly disappointing but still better than nothing as this is part of the amenities of the hotel, cant compare to the one we paid a lot to bathe in Tokyo. Clearly, it is very popular among the locals although I didnt see much difference from filling up the bathtub with hot water and then jumping in. I realised that they basically dont stay too long in the pool, most of them only soaked for 10-15min before going to the bathing area to wash. Basically, the onsen was really bathing facilities and they much preferred it to the private ones in the hotel rooms. Personally, I also find it refreshing, even washing myself while sitting on the small stool with the toiletries was fun, and I told myself to try it again the next morning.