Sapporo, Hokkaido Trip (Day 14)

24th May 2019, Friday

Today, we woke up slightly late but my friend did not want to get off the bed. So i went out on my own and headed to Nijio Market which was walking distance from our hotel. The market was quieter as compared to the one we went in Hokodate and there were not many visitors it seems. There were seafood stalls selling giant crabs and scallops and there were also many seafood restaurants in the alleys. I just walked around to see what interesting seafood they offer and find my breakfast there. I came across a seafood restaurant which had their seafood dishes on display which looked yummy. The restaurant name was Donburi Chaya and there was not much diners in the place. So i got a bar table seat and ordered a salmon rice bowl. I was so happy when the rice bowl came full with raw salmon. The salmon were so fresh and sweet.

Donburi Chaya Shop Entrance

Salmon Rice Bowl

One of the stalls

Crabs

More crabs..lol

After eating, i walked around the market for some time until my friend messaged me to meet up for lunch later. So i bought a box of honey dew for 400/500 yen and walked through Tanukikoji Shopping Street back to the hotel to meet up with my friend. But i still went to check out some of the shops while walking back to the hotel as my friend told me to take my time to walk back. When i reached back the hotel, my friend was still getting ready so i ate the honey dew and left some for her. After she was ready, we went out shopping again but before we headed out, we told the hotel staff to help us make a reservation at the popular shabu shabu restaurant, Onyasai Shabu Shabu. But she told us the restaurant was closed after lunch and there was no one picking up the call. So she told us to come back to her again at 5pm so that she can help us to make the reservation again. But we did not want to as we will be out on the streets. We shopped in the building where there were toys shops inside and spent a very long time there...lol...After that, we went looking for lunch and went to a small eating place for a quick lunch. We ordered a rice set to share as i was quite full from my salmon rice bowl earlier.

Bowling Alleys

Lunch

After lunch, we decided to take the tram to visit the Nakajima Park. When we alighted and walked towards the park, we were drawn by the coffee smell coming out from a cafe named Marumi Coffee Stand located opposite the park. It was a cozy cafe with not many customers in it and we ordered waffles, hot chocolate and coffee for our snacks. The waffles looked yummy and were quite crispy. After that, we visited Nakajima Park and walked towards a shrine inside but it looked closed. So we just walked around the area and we saw some big stones which looked they were some memorials for some honourable people. After that, we walked further away from the park and came upon a huge pedestrians bridge. It was a bridge built in commemoration of Sapporo-Poland country relationship. We were blown away by the big river behind it and stayed around to take some photos. There were some kids doing bbqs and we could smell the nice bbq seafood from it.

Tram

Tea break

Memorial Stone

More Memorial Stones

Shrine

Sapporo-Poland Commemoration Bridge

River behind the bridge

After spending some relax time there, we decided to head down to Mount Moiwa to see the sunset up there. So we went to the nearest tram stop and took the tram to the Mount Moiwa shuttle bus stop. We had to catch the shuttle bus up to the ropeway station, where we bought the tickets to the ropeway and cable car to go up to the peak. First, we had to take the ropeway up to the half way point and then transferred to the cable car which brought us up to the peak. There were many people going up too and the view was beautiful. Interestingly, there was a bell in the middle called satellite of lover's sanctuary. It was a blessing for all lovers to have the joy and start their families happily. We spent some time taking photos of the view but it was still early for sunset. So we went walking around in the cafe and other areas and waited till it was sunset time. The sunset was quite late, almost to 7 pm and the crowd was like double of the people in the afternoon. Everyone was trying to get a nice view of the city with the lights.

Shuttle Bus Stop

Mount Moiwa Mascot

Cable Car

Ropeway Tunnel

View from the peak

Satellite of lover's sanctuary

Small Temple

We were no exception, trying to find a spot to take the beautiful view we saw as our memory. After that, we headed back to the cable car and ropeway to go down the mountain and back to the city. By the time we reached back to the city, it was almost to 9 pm and i didn't see the buildings' lights until today. We decided to find Onyasai Shabu Shabu which was the nearest to our hotel and we were hoping we could get a table for walk-in. However, we were disappointed when the staff told us they were fully packed and there was no table available for us. We could smell the soup  from the door and it smelled really good. So we kept asking the staff if she could find us a table (not sure how much she could understand us). But she did managed to tell us she will help us to book a table in another branch which was some distance away from their branch (we also forgot to confirm the location of the other branch with her before we headed off). So we were so happy and headed off to the other branch after we thanked her. We walked for around 15 mins to the other branch and took us a while to find the place as it was located in the basement of some building. We had made use of google map to help us navigate to the other branch.

Sunset view

Night view

Shopping street

Onyasai Shabu Shabu

When we reached there, we tried to explain to the staffs that we had made reservation through a staff from another branch. But they insisted there was no reservation made and we even double-confirmed if we were at the right restaurant. What so funny was, they insisted the restaurant name was correct but they had no connection with the other branch. It sounded like they were under the same restaurant but the people don't know each other from whichever branch (I will expect the managers would know each other). Anyway, we tried our very best to tell them our situation and they also tried their very best to explain to us there was no table for us. In the end, there was a guy who seemed to have higher authority came and explained to us through google translation that they had run out of veggies and left only with rice. So we had no choice but to leave the place disappointed.

After that, we walked back to the hotel area and see if we could get dinner around there but we saw most of the restaurants were closing or already closed. So we headed to Meshiba Ookami to have our dinner there. This time, we sat down and dined in. There was a young lady who spoke fluent English with us and even recommended their hamburg steak. However, their ordering system also so complicated. First, she told us we had to order one drink for both of us and so we ordered a coke each. Next, when my friend wanted to order the salmon buffet alone, she told us two of us have to order if we wanted this. But i wasn't into salmon so my friend was not able to order that. So i ordered a pork belly rice and she ordered the hamburg steak as recommended by the staff. And also, we ordered five pieces of their chicken wings and we waited for our food. It really took long time for the chicken wings to even reach our table. Plus besides us were two ladies going crazy with the smoking and the drinking and they were eating a mountain of cooked bean sprouts. I think we waited for another half or 45 mins before they served my pork belly rice bowl. Then 15 mins or so passed, we asked for the hamburg steak. The same lady who took our orders told us the kitchen was still preparing the food and said sorry to us for the delay. But she told us it would be ready in another 15 mins' time. So we waited, again 15 mins or so passed. So we asked for the steak again. This time, it was another lady to attend to us. She said the same thing to us that the kitchen was still preparing the steak and will be ready soon. But by then, my friend was quite pissed off so she was pressing her how long more we had to wait. But the lady was not able to tell us how long more we had to wait and kept saying it's coming out soon.

Coke

Appetiser

Pork Belly Rice Bowl

Chicken Wings

We let her off as she said she will check with the kitchen. However, she did not come back to us and we waited until past midnight, the steak was still not delivered to us. My friend got really angry and asked for a cancellation. But this time, a young lad came to us and did not know how to communicate with us in English. So my friend took her phone out and used google translation to show him her intentions. After some time, the guy went back to the other lady who attended us earlier and asked us what we want (guess the guy did not understand us at all). So my friend told her we wanted to cancel the steak order as it was taking too long. But she told us we can't cancel the order as the kitchen had already preparing the food. It was so ridiculous, they had prepare the food like 2 hours earlier and it didn't arrive to our table. Anyway, the lady went back to the back and started to talk to the other staffs behind like having discussion. She later came back to us and said we could cancel the steak (which was a relief to me). So we paid for the food we ate and went back to the hotel to rest for the day after the drama.

Places visited:
Nijio Market
Donburi Chaya (Address: Japan, 〒060-0053 Hokkaido, Sapporo, Chuo Ward, Minami 3 Johigashi, 1 Chome−7)
Marumi Coffee Stand (Address: KC Maple Court 1F, Minami 14-jo Nishi 6-chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 札幌市中央区南14条6丁目KC MAPLE COURT一楼)
Nakajima Park
Mount Moiwa

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Vista Sapporo Odori

Complete Photo Album: Click here