Hokkaido Summer Trip 2017 Day 1 (1/6/17)

This is my 7th trip to Japan (this place is like my second home?!), 2nd trip to Hokkaido, and our very 1st mother-daughter trip. It's June hols and I have been planning this for a long time to get myself motivated through the term. P only have a few days of annual leave left after we booked our Dec honeymoon trip to US, so we are only going to make a short trip to Bkk this June. I was doing some research online to book a runcation or another solo trip on top of the bkk trip, and had shortlisted NZ (the Christchurch marathon is first weekend of June). Then my mum suddenly mentioned that I've been going to places on my own, and I had not offered to bring her on my solo trips etc. I felt rather guilty as the idea of bringing them overseas had honestly not cross my mind after our trip to Hong Kong in 2015. I know my parents are really aging faster than I wanted them to and sooner or later, they will get too old and tired to go on trips with us. Mum was deliberating on the idea of going NZ after she knew that I was actually going for a race, she was not that keen and instead mentioned that she really wanted to go Japan as she's not been there before. I also got lazy about running after my Nagoya marathon this year, so I decided to drop the idea of runcation altogether and decided to bring her to the land I really love. Having said that, I still pondered really hard if I should proceed with this trip as P and I are quite financially tied after settling into our new home and with the wedding coming up in less than 2 months. But its also meaningful to make the trip at this point of time as I'll be marrying soon and no longer mama's girl as much as the past 36 years, thus I decided that I do not want to postpone the trip to another June or December break. 

My mama

Waited a little for the gate to open

It's the first time I'm taking JAL to Japan, although P and I should have taken JAL when we first came to Hokkaido in December 2015. Like what I wrote in my long blog post then, we had a whole series of adventures then and ended up taking United Airlines instead. The trip to Hokkaido is just two days after I'm back from my school trip to Taipei, and I'm practically just taking out my clothes for a wash before putting them back to the same luggage. We went to the airport quite early as the time of our red eye flight is 1.50am on a weekday night. My first impression of JAL was not too bad, the seats are comfortable with enough legroom, the IFE is a bit lacking but it did not affect me much as I knocked out for most of the journey. We had to transit at Tokyo and it was much better than my previous trip on United Airlines (taking Jetstar to Sapporo) as JAL has their own shuttle bus bringing passengers to the domestic terminal and we could check in our luggages before boarding the shuttle bus. 

Maroon Red is the theme for JAL

Waiting for the JAL shuttle to domestic terminal

This time round, I ordered the Hokkaido Rail Pass from Changi Recommend, it cost the same as the one we bought in 2015 and I intend to utilise the 7 days pass for the whole duration of my trip. We collected the printout vouchers at Changi airport together with the wifi router. Once we reached Hokkaido New Chitose Airport, I headed to the JR information counter for serving tourists at the airport. I got my Hokkaido Rail Pass there and immediately reserved my seat on the train heading to Sapporo.

My must-have in Hokkaido, although it look slightly different from the one I had in 2015

The journey on the train and our journey to the hotel is quite smooth, as I've decided to book the same hotel that P and I stayed in 2015 (Hotel Keihan Sapporo). The weather is really pleasant this time and we did not have to drag our luggage in the snow or icy ground though I do miss the cold weather a little. The weather was warmer than what we expected as the forecast shown really low temperature so I even brought a down jacket with me. We reached the hotel before 3pm and decided to head out to explore a little before dinner.

Lots of my favourite 御飯團 here

Saw some interesting designs for phone covers

Unfortunately, it started raining when we headed out, but it was not too cold. We walked around Daiso and bought some foodstuff like instant miso soup (tried it and it was really good) etc. I gave mum two choices for dinner, either Kani-Honke or the Sapporo famous Genghis Khan BBQ lamb. She chose Genghis Khan which I did not mind as I did not have the chance to try it when P and I were here, and I also remember there's another outlet of Kani-Honke at Asahikawa Aeon Mall, so we'll still have other chances to try that. It was still early and initially we wanted to take a bus to Sapporo Beer Garden, but the rain made it difficult for us to navigate our way to the bus stop. Reading somewhere that it'll cost only 700+Y to get there from Sapporo Station, we decided to hop on a cab. It cost more than 1000Y eventually but I guess the convenience was still worth it, walking around in the rain was really a hassle. There were a few dining halls for us to choose from, and we decided to just go with Trommel Hall. We stepped into the first building we saw where there was a reception area for making reservations for dining and touring. The person noted our choice on a piece of paper and we headed out to the next building where we were ushered to the second floor.

Trommel Hall was in this building

The Sapporo Beer Garden area had iconic buildings and it looked interesting from the outside, but we did not have the chance to take that many pictures or explore much in the rain. The dining hall was not that crowded as it was barely 6pm when we sat down, we chose All-You-Can-Eat option for two people, and it cost 2900Y per pax. The other option included beer and the price was also quite reasonable at 3900Y, as one can eat and drink as much as he/she wants, but we did not choose that since Mum does not drink.

The table with grill in the centre and paper apron for us

When we were sitting down, the server thoughtfully brought plastic bags for our jackets and bags. I was not surprised as I read from somewhere of their good service and that the strong smell of the BBQ mutton will stay on the clothes after our meals. Very promptly, they served us our very first set of fresh lamb meat, frozen lamb meat and vegetables (mainly cabbage and bean sprouts). There was also a set of instructions of how we can grill those meat.

My happy mama

I think I'm not really a big eater so it's always quite 'lugi' for me to go to buffets. We only managed to order one more portion of fresh lamb and vegetables before I felt too full to continue. It was really oily and some oil splatter onto my phone after awhile, the apron was useful as at least the oil did not get onto our clothes that much. I would still say its worth a try as the fresh lamb were cut really thin, and it tasted really tender and good. The lamb meat Genghis Khan is afterall a specialty of Hokkaido as I bet it'll be really shiok to taste it during cold winter, together with a dip in onsen. When we walked out, the bus just left and Mum thought that we should get a cab to send us back to the hotel instead of waiting another 20min. The trip back cost less than 1000Y, it was still early but Mum wanted to rest for the night since we did not have a proper sleep the previous night.

As my hair smell of BBQ mutton, I went down to onsen while she took a nap. My very first hotel onsen experience was at this very same place, and I got so addicted to onsen after that, every hotel with a onsen is a big plus for me. As it was still early, I had the changing, bathing and soaking area to myself for quite sometime before it got too crowded. I had blogged a lot of details about Hotel Keihan Sapporo during our previous trip so I shall skip those for now.