Hokkaido Travelogue: Day 7 - Sapporo

Initially, I have planned to have cakes at Odori Bisse for breakfast on Day 7 in Sapporo, but somehow, along the way, Kinotoya Cafe at Bisse Sweets got me distracted, mainly because their bakes look way more "breakfast worthy" as compared to those fancy looking cakes, which might be a little too surfeiting. 

Omelette Parfait Set - 756 Yen

Actually, I was really expecting an omelette, but it was actually a layer of very soft and fluffy (a tad dry, though) sponge cake, topped with a generous layer of light whipped cream and cut fruits like strawberry, kiwi, peach, grapefruit and etc. First look at the amount of whipped cream and I was a little put off, thinking that it would be too jerlak (surfeiting), but it turned out pretty all right, partially because the sponge cake was on the drier side, so having more of the whipped cream really helped. 

Morning Set B - 756 Yen

The BF's set B consist of this pretzel croissant, along with clam chowder, a side salad and a cup of hot coffee/tea. 

First time trying a pretzel croissant, but I can't decide if I really like it. Perhaps either a croissant, or a pretzel would have been better? 

Kinotoya Cafe Odori Koen is open from 8am to 9pm daily. 

For more information, visit their website HERE.

So after a satisfying #cheatdayworthy breakfast, we hopped onto the Tozai Line and headed over to the Sunpiazza Aquarium located at Shin Sapporo Station. 

The Sunpiazza Aquarium is a compact city-type aquarium located next to a large-scale shopping center and is an easy access from both the JR and subway stations. Visitors can enjoy going to the aquarium as well as shopping and having a meal. There are saltwater fishes and crustaceans brought from a wide area which includes the neighboring seas and southern oceans, a habitat for coral reefs, and rare freshwater fishes. Other attractions include the harbor seals and rockhopper penguins who are loved for their adorable movements , the Asian small-clawed otter, and the clione, which is characterized as “ floating ice angels”. 

“The Fish Circus Show” takes place everyday and on Sundays and holiday, the staffs puts on a feeding show in the water tank that accommodates approximately 1,500 fishes. Visitors can touch crabs and starfish in the “Touching Pool”. 

-www.sapporo.travel-

The aquarium is located at the Sunpiazza Shopping Mall and is barely a 3 minutes walk from the subway station. Entrance fee is priced at 900 yen for adult, and even thought aquarium isn't that big, you can still spend at least 1.5 to 2 hours here. 

And here are some spoilers for you. :)

There's this "doctor fish" tank, which the BF had a great time entertaining himself over. Personally not a fan, too itchy!

There's this cute looking seal/sea lion (?) with a very attention-seeking pair of nostrils. 

Watch my instagram video HERE

I LOLed at this candid shot the BF took for us (Mr. Stingry and I). Love how it seems like we're staring at each other. 

And this, is the biggest attraction point of the squarium for me! You get to "shake hands" with an otter! Believe it or not, I've waited almost 1 hour, right at the otters' exhibition tank for this. 

Watch my instagram video of the otter's handshake HERE

And we're also lucky enough to bump into the timing of their penguin-walk the very minute we reached the aquarium at 11 plus am. 

Watch the cute little penguin's walk to the elevator HERE

The Sunpiazza Aquarium is open from 10am to 6pm daily. 

For more information, visit their website HERE

So after bidding all the sea creatures goodbye, we hopped back onto the Tozai Line and headed to Maruyama Koen Station, where the Hokkaido Shrine is located at, 15 minutes walk away. 

The Hokkaido Shrine was built in 1869 after the Meiji Emperor decreed that the “three pioneering gods” be enshrined to uplift the spirit of the pioneers. Judge Yoshitake Shima, who had undertaken the design of downtown Sapporo at the time, selected Maruyama, which was surrounded by mountains on three sides and open to a plain on one side, as the site of the new shrine. The existence of a shine dedicated to the Shinto deities not only offered spiritual support to the pioneers, who faced difficulties in clearing through the virgin forest, but also served as a gathering place for the people to meet and talk. In 1964, the Showa Emperor approved the additional enshrinement of the Meiji Emperor, thus Hokkaido Shrine now enshrines four gods. The protective deities, who have overseen the development of Hokkaido and the happiness of its people, continue to play an important part in Hokkaido citizens’ lives — particularly on New Year’s Day, the day before the start of spring, and during exorcisms and weddings. The nature-rich shrine, where visitors are likely to see wild squirrels, draws many visitors in the spring when cherry and plum blossoms bloom simultaneously.

-www.sapporo.travel-

The shrine is basically located within Maruyama Koen, and house up to 1400 Sakura trees and 250 Ume trees. I can only imagine how stunning the place will look like during Spring/Sakura seasons. But as we chose to visit during end of May/early June, which is the super off-peak and absolutely-nothing-is-blooming season, it did look like of miserable. 

We specially dropped by the convenience store to pick up a pack of nuts, hoping to feed the squirrels (supposed to have a lot of resident squirrels at the park), but I guess the rain forced them all into hiding. :(

And so, feeling damn disappointed, we hopped back onto the Tozai Line and headed back to Odori/Susukino area for more random (daiso) shopping, dinner, and pachinko. 

Did I mention that the BF was OBSESSED with pachinko? =.="

Anyway, the plan was to look for the popular Garuku Soup Curry, but we just chanced upon Curry's Tribe located near the Tanukikoji Shopping Street and decided to give this a try.

Love, love love these so much! 

Even though not as insanely popular as Garuku, this is still so much better than the Hokkaido Soup Curry that has landed in Singapore a while ago. I guess that's how it is, everything in Japan just taste way better. 

For more information on Curry's Tribe, visit the website HERE

And this basically concludes our time in Sapporo! Read about our day 8 in Asahikawa right HERE!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Hokkaido Travelogue: Day 5 - Sapporo

This Hokkaido travelogue is taking forever, I know. Just bear with me, yeah? And if you haven't read up about my day 4 (1st full day in Sapporo), do check it out first HERE.

Day 5 started pretty late in the morning as we didn't have that much attractions planned for the day (for they are located pretty far away from each other). 

The Historical Village of Hokkaido!

The Historic Village of Hokkaido (開拓の村, Kaitaku no Mura) is an open air museum in the suburbs of Sapporo. It exhibits about 60 typical buildings from all over Hokkaido, dating from the Meiji and Taisho Periods (1868 to 1926), the era when Hokkaido's development was carried out on a large scale. There are four different sections: a town, fishing village, farm village and a mountain village.

Take the subway to Shin Sapporo Station and locate the bus stop at the roundabout right in front of the station. Do double check the stop's name, as there are more than 1 bus service available at this stop (if i'm not wrong). 

Anyway, here's the bus schedule for your information. I doubt they'll change up the schedule frequently, so you can safely take this as a good gauge.

(click in for full view)

Entrance fee into the village is 1200 Yen per pax, and I would say it's either money well spent or washed down the drain depending on what you're looking for. If you're someone who's really interested in not only the history and culture of Japan, but also their architectures, this is your jam. Otherwise, there may be absolutely nothing here that can spike your interest. 

This will be basically how the entire "themed park" will be like. Set in the olden days of Japan, very big, spacious and... deserted. Throughout the whole of the 3 hours (plus, minus?) we were there, we only bumped into TWO families along the way, and yeah... I think we're probably the only 3 groups of visitors during that time in this pretty vast park. 

I quite liked this place, even though there's actually nothing exceptionally exciting or fun, but there's just this sense of tranquility and peacefulness that we can't seem to find back at home (anymore). 

The park also seems to be properly segregated into aisles/areas, whereby you get a whole street of residential buildings, then the next street of "marketplaces", then schools and so on. 

Most of those shops and eateries over at the marketplace are actually fake, with the exception of just ONE shop located right at the end (if my memory didn't fail me) that's manned by an elderly couple, selling old school Japanese sweet treats. 

I've read of horse-pulled carriages for rides available here at the park, but the sight that greeted me was kind of appalling (HERE). Not sure if this is really available for a ride and at what kind of fees because I really didn't want to get on that carriage.... tram? 

Poor horse. :(

 And now, just a little more of what to expect over at this park...

 And of course, some mandatory #ootd poser shots. >.<

And off we went for our next destination! 

Do note that there's no restaurants located in the vicinity of the historial village, so do plan your time properly if you do not wish to end up starving at the end of the day. 

And here's the bus schedule over at the historial village towards Shin Sapporo Station, for your information. 

The Historial Village of Hokkaido is opened daily from 9am to 5pm. 
For more information, visit www.sapporo.travel

And next up on our itinerary is something that's of a since-it's-on-the-way-then-let's-go-and-see nature, the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

To get to this shrine, get over to Soen Station (on the Hakodate Line) and take bus 11 at Soeneki Bus Stop to Keimei Terminal Bus Stop (15 stops away, if you're counting). The shrine will be about 15 minutes walk UP THE HILL.

The main attraction of the shrine has to be these bright red torii gates lined up from the entrance along the main road all the way up to the shrine itself. 

Nestled among a quiet residential area, this Fushimi Inari Shrine is not to be confused with Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, which is much bigger and way more majestic, and definitely way more crowded. But to be fair, we reached right at closing time of 5pm, hence there was absolutely nobody around, except for a local who came in briefly to offer a quick prayer while passing by. 

In my own humble opinion, as long as you do not compare this to the one in Kyoto, the line-up of bright red torii gates will still be able to wow you. :) 

And of course, it's always a good thing for us to be be able to offer some prayers while overseas on a trip, yes? 

Fushimi Inari Shrine (Sapporo) is opened daily from 6am - 5pm.

Our next destination for the day was the last attraction to cover for the day before dinner, and by right, it should be the most highly anticipated one for the day.
But, damn the weather. T.T

First up, let me give you the expectation.

-credit to www.sapporo.travel-

Mount Moiwa (藻岩山, Moiwa-yama) is one of several small, forested mountains southwest of central Sapporo. The mountain is a popular sightseeing spot that is known for the spectacular view out over the city from an observation deck at its summit. The view is especially beautiful after sunset.

The Mt Moiwa Ropeway first climbs from the base of the mountain to 3/4 up the mountain to a transfer station, whereby we were transferred to a mini cablecar that travels the rest of the way up to the upper station at the summit. A return ticket for both rides will set you back by 1700 Yen per pax.

Later on I found out that these bunnies printed in the cable car is the mascot figure of Mt. Moiwa.

Kawaii desu!

Anyway, for us it was 1700 Yen washed down the drain because of super super bad weather while we were there. Right at the base of the mountain (ticket booth) we were told that we won't be able to see anything at the summit with the rainy weather and the surveillance camera up there just showed a full screen of white mist, no joke.
But we were thinking, since we've already walked all the way here, might as well just head up for a look. And so we did!

And before you scroll further, go back up and take another look at the expectation picture.
... ...

And then you see this.

HAHAHA!

If I'm not wrong, it's somewhat like a romantic gesture for couples to get under that pyramid-thingy and ring the bell together. But seriously, with such rainy & foggy weather with nearly 0 degree Celsius temperature strong wind blowing unforgivingly at you in every angle possible up on the mountain, you probably won't even want to step out (into the open) and go ring that bell even if someone were to tell you you will marry Song Joongki or Kim Tae Hee just by ringing it.

And apparently Sapporo is now newly listed as Japan's top 3 night view, along with Kobe (been there, but in the day!) and Nagasaki. So effectively, I've visited 2 of the 3 places on the list, but seen none of the stunning night view. T.T

There's also a restaurant with nice views out over the city, and a small food kiosk selling items like sandwiches and ice cream. 

 And we were quite amused by their labeling of the sandwiches. In case you're wondering what the Katakana means, it literally means what the English words says.
'Bread Sand Ham'.

Despite the horribly cold weather, we grabbed a strawberry ice cream. :)

There's also a planetarium and a theater, showing a show about planets and such. Everything will be in Japanese with no subtitles, and you need to pay an additional fee to watch it. So my advice to you will be, skip it. 

Mount Moiwa (Ropeway) is opened from 1030 am to 10pm (or 11pm on Dec - Mar) daily.

So after bidding the cold and foggy Mt. Moiwa goodbye, we retraced our steps down the road and headed back for Susukino Area (our hotel area).

After coming downhill, turn towards your right and walk further down to the road junction and you should be able to see two tram (they call it streetcar) stations on either side of the junction. Both stations has different service routes, so make sure to check out the map carefully before jumping onto one. Lucky enough for us, the route here brings us directly back to Susukino area.

And guess what's for dinner? By right, on the itinerary, we are supposed to be searching for Garaku's Soup Curry (and expect a long queue too) but due to poor food-planning (I didn't know there's gonna be no food for us at the historial village), the bf and I were simply starving and I suggested trying out Tokyo Sundubu, which was conveniently located at the underpass-walkway near Sapporo Station.
Yes, it's the Tokyo Sundubu that you can find here in Singapore, at Suntec City and Raffles City too.

But the SG ones doesn't do cute hand-drawn doodles on your bibs. 

Plus, I have to admit that I REALLY LOVE KOREAN FOOD.

Day 6 in Otaru is already up right HERE, do check it out!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Hokkaido Travelogue: Day 4 - Sapporo

And of course, my 4th day in Hokkaido started with....

Coffee.

Though nowhere as good as those Mt. Rainer's ones, but still something you can't find in Singapore. The taste is typical of a Starbucks coffee though. Just sweet.

Anyway, we had 3 major attractions packed for the day with no convenience of the car (it's all on the metro/bus at sapporo) and so we headed out early at around 8 plus in the morning for Moerenuma Koen. Getting to the park from the hotel was easy enough. Just hop onto the Toho subway line towards Fukuzumi and alight at Kanjo-Dori Higashi Station and change to bus #69 or #79 Chuo Bus at the bus terminal and get off right at the park's entrance.

There will be a bike rental shop right at the entrance, and you may rent a bike if you wish. The park is HUGE! 

 

Not sure if this park will be colourful during the "right" season, but it was rather quiet, peaceful and filled with greens while we're there during the "off-peak" season of late May/early June. 

And of course, the chilly weather calls for yet another milk soft serve!

And you can't leave the park without snapping a shot on THIS pathway in the park. 

Moerenuma Park is opened daily from 7am to 10pm. For more information, visit their website HERE.

And to get to our next attraction on our itinerary (for lunch), we headed to the park's west entrance and took bus #61 from Okadama Koukou stop straight to Sapporo Beer Museum (Hakubutsukan). There's two different bus routes stopping at the SAME stop, so do take note of the direction and the bus's corresponding arrival time. They will be RIGHT ON THE DOT, so you won't need to worry about boarding the wrong bus because you cannot decide if the bus that turns into the stop is serving the route you wish to go. 

The main point of this attraction is actually NOT the hakubutsukan, but the Bier Garten that is located right beside the museum. At the Bier Garten, you can find about 4 or 5 different buildings that each house a different restaurant/cafe providing different kind of food. But since the BF and I were both starving by the time we reached, it's definitely gonna be Genkis Khan (BBQ)!

The interior of the restaurant can get pretty smokey, so you might want to prepare for yourself some hair mist or body mist to get rid of the BBQ smell after you're done with lunch. 

And of course, you can't do without beer at the Bier Garten, right? Nobody cares it's mid-afternoon. Everyone gets a pint. Well, almost. 

Ittadakimasu! 

Although not the most pocket-friendly meal (but not exorbitant either, don't worry), you definitely have to give this a try when you're at the bier garten. DO NOT TRY TO SAVE ON THIS MEAL. Go save on other stuff, but not these meats!

Looking very gleeful with a tummy full of meat!

Well, to make our trip a little more "worthwhile", we did check out the museum, and also grabbed a drink and "cheese testing platter" but I have to say, if you have other attractions to rush to, just skip the museum altogether. 

The next attraction to check off on our itinerary was probably the highlight of the day, Shiroi Koibito Park! The initial plan was to take a 25 minutes walk from the kakubutsukan back to Bus Center Mae Station and take the Tozai Line to Miyanosawa Station, and the park should be a 10 minutes walk away. But since the bus stop right at the hakubutsukan looked way too tempting, and there's chuo bus service that brings us to another subway station (albeit not on Tozai Line I think, but still we can always switch the lines midway), we decided to take the less calorie-spending way of getting to the park. 

And it's just so that there's a direct bus service from the bus terminal beside the subway station, that brings you directly to the theme park! 

I believe most of us will try to first map out the route to take using googlemap while planning the itinerary and I strongly suggest you do another quick check on googlemap while you're out and about in Japan as chances are you'll get a much quicker, more convenient route via their very extensive and reliable bus service instead of wholly on the subway and foot. 

Although I have no idea what's the direct link to cats, but it seems like the theme of cats also makes up a vital part of the park. You're supposed to follow the cat paw prints on the floor to to complete your self-tour of the park. 

You can also sign yourself up for a cookie-making workshop and bring back the cookies you've baked. But the staff here aren't very fluent in English (they do have Mandarin speaking service staff though) so do take that into consideration.

There's a cafe on the 1st floor (if I've remembered it accurately) selling cooked food like curry rice, and also another cafe at the top floor selling very yummy looking sweet treats!

While you're here, I'll highly recommending trying their dark cocoa drink. Do remember to add in a few drops of the orange liquor for a more yummilicious flavour. 

And of course before you leave the park, head over to the store at 1st floor and spend all your money away! Haha, just kidding! But seriously, every single edible product that's for sale is just so damn delicious.

Shiroi Koibito Park is open daily from 9am to 6pm.
For more information, visit their website HERE.

And while walking around in the park, I spot this hamburger shop on the opposite side of the road and we decided to pop by for a quick meal. 

And when you see hamburger in Japan, do not expect to get meat patties sandwiched in between two buns. Usually, their hamburgers are just the meat (beef & pork combined) patty. And since I couldn't eat beef, I went for some yummy chicken! 

And after filling our tummies with some flavourful and tender meat, we retraced our footsteps (with a lot of help from googlemap, of course) back to Odori/Tanukikoji Shopping Street area.

Couldn't help but took a photo of their safety barrier. It's Chopper! There's Hello Kitty, and many other cute animals as well! If only we get such cute safety barriers in Singapore too. 

And because the 10 degree Celsius rainy weather was just too cold for us, we jumped into a random ramen shop located beside the shopping street for our 2nd dinner meal of the nice.
Though not the best ever ramen you can get, and with noodles a little too hard for my liking, at about half the price you'll usually pay for a bowl of ramen in Singapore, this is almost twice as good!

So this basically marked the end of our Day 4 in Sapporo! Recount of my Day 5 in Sapporo is up HERE!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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