Otaru, Hokkaido Trip (Day 13)

23th May 2019, Thursday

Today, we woke up early and got ready to drive ourselves to Otaru which is quite nearby to Sapporo. We ate maki and strawberries which we bought yesterday before we headed out. It  was about 1 hour drive and we had driven onto route 5 expressway. We stopped at a games store (didn't see any game stores throughout our holidays) and had a toilet break. And, of course to shop around the games stores to see if there are any console games which i could buy back. There are plenty of games for different consoles, anime and movies VCDs/DVDs plus music soundtracks. There are some recent games selling at quite cheap prices as compared to buying in Singapore. I spent quite a long time trying to pick the games to buy and buying for my brother some ps4 games.

PS4 Games

Nintendo Switch Games

After buying the games, we finally left the game store and looked for our lunch. My friend googled a popular seafood restaurant named Aotsuka Shokudo which was located near to the Otaru Aquarium. So we decided to drive there to have some seafood as Otaru is located near the sea too (Seafood must be fresh and good.. ^_^). The restaurant was quite towards the end of the town but it was accessible by car. We parked the car at some empty lot beside the restaurant and went to the restaurant. There was another seafood restaurant beside the one we wanted to go and we got a bit confused as the restaurant's name was in Japanese. We were guessing if which one was the one we were looking. So my friend went and asked some guys standing in front of the second restaurant to confirm the restaurant's name.

Correct Restaurant

There wasn't much customers dining there as it was already 3 plus in the afternoon. Luckily the menu had English translation on it, so we were able to order. Of course, we also asked for recommendation from the staff. She was able to understand slightly and able to recommend us some of their popular dishes. We ordered raw salmon, seafood don, grilled fish and grilled scallops. The seafood was really fresh and yummy and while we were eating, it suddenly to rain heavily. So we took our time to enjoy our yummy lunch. There were a few customers who came to have their lunch too, an elderly couple came and ordered their giant crabs. It looked so great. We were lucky that the rain stopped by the time we had finished our lunch. So we thanked and paid for our lunch and went out for a walk.

Raw Salmon

Seafood Don

Grilled Fish

Grilled Scallops

We walked up a hill behind to see the Hiyoriyama lighthouse above but it was not operational. But from the height we climbed up to, we could see the coast of Otaru port and the sea animals in Otaru Aquarium. There was a house located up the hill when we climbed up but we didn't went in the house to visit as it looked closed and required some entrance fee to enter. However, there were some antique equipment outside the yard.

Antique House

Otaru Aquarium

Coast of Otaru

Hiyoriyama lighthouse

After that, we drove down to the town centre and walked past Otaru Canal. And of course, we walked around the area which passed by some of their historic buildings in Otaru Historic Scenic District. Some of the shops were still in operational since they were built in the 1900s. There were many shops along the street and a lot of goodies to buy, be it snacks, anime stuffs, gifts, chocolate. The famous LeTao shop was also located there and with a mini cafe in it. A lot of people were packed inside the shop to grab their famous cookies to bring home. We are not any exception too, my friend had been thinking to grab their cookies on the whole trip and she was already busy grabbing what she had already planned to buy. For me, i don't know about this brand but still, i bought a box back for sharing too (not cheap leh)...hehee...then we went and kaypo what desserts they are selling in their cafe. I saw they were selling their milk pudding as their limited item and wanted to get one to try. So my friend went and bought an ice-cream and pudding. Their pudding was really smooth and yummy!! i finished it in no time before my friend even knew it (She only managed to have one bite to try...i ate the whole pudding while she was busy talking...hahahaa! We should have bought more back). However, we did bought a slide of their cheesecake and tart back. There was a chocolate shop owned by LeTao opposite the main shop.

Otaru Canal

The Former Takasaburo Natori Store

The Former Motosaburo Kaneko Store

Desserts available in LeTao

Ice-cream & Pudding

Otaru Beer

After that, we walked a bit longer on the alley but we could see there were some shops preparing to close as it was already past 5 pm and their closing hours was at 6 pm. As it was also getting dark soon, we made our way slower to our car. But it was a pity we can't stay long in Otaru, there are still so many food to try and places to see. Next time, we will definitely come back again. With that, we drove back to Sapporo and went back to the hotel to put our goodies. We went back to Meshiba Ookami to take away some chicken wings but this time, the staffs told us they do not allow for take-aways which was so weird. But we did not bother to pursue further, so we just left.

After that, we went to have some sushi at a restaurant (Sai Kaku) instead as recommended by the hotel staff. We ordered a sushi platter with 11 different kinds of sushi as my friend wasn't hungry. The sushi chief saw us trying to cut the sushi into half so that we each can have a bite on the different sushi. He took our plate and helped us to cut each of the sushi into half and passed it back to us. We were taken by surprise that he actually helped us to cut...hahaha. However, the sushi were nice and we thanked the chief for the food. Then, we went to a nearby shopping building mall to see what shops do they have. I was happy when i saw the shops were all selling anime toys, game cards and video games but the shops were closing as it was late. So we decided to come back again tomorrow and headed back to the hotel to rest for the day.

Sai Kaku

Sushi Platter

Places visited:
Aotsuka Shokudo (Address: 3 Chome-210 Shukutsu, Otaru, Hokkaido 047-0047, Japan)
Hiyoriyama Lighthouse
Otaru Canal
Otaru Historic Scenic District
Sai Kaku (Address: Japan, 〒060-0063 Hokkaido, Sapporo, Chuo Ward, 南3条西4丁目 ＴＯＳＨＯ３．４ Ｂ．Ｌ．Ｄ)

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Vista Sapporo Odori

Cijin Island 旗津島, Taiwan Trip (Day 2)

18th November 2014, Tuesday

Today, we are going to Cijin Island (旗津島), an island away from Kaohsiung. But we woke up late and by the time we left the hotel was already 10 plus in the morning....So nice to zzz there...no alarm to wake us too...Anyway we were not in any hurry too. We walked to the metro station and i bought a poh pian outside the station. There were 2 stalls there selling poh piah, bazhang and braised pork rice and noodles. Everytime we passed by, there will be full of people eating there or buying back home. Anyway the noodles stall wasn't ready open for business yet and the other stall was selling poh pians only as it was still early. Tried the poh piah, it was quite nice but my friend don't like it as there was chinese parsley inside (she don't like the taste of it), so i had to finish the whole poh pian and it was a big roll...by the time i finished, i am full already...hahaha....

代天宫

Then we went down to the metro station get our tickets to Siziwan station to catch our ferry to the island. Once we came out of Siziwan station, there was a bicycle rental shop there. The rental of the normal bicycles was damn cheap..only NT$100 and is for the whole day. And they also have motor bicycles which cost slightly more expensive...around NT$200 plus every 2 or 3 hours and the battery can last about 6 to 7 hours. And just need to call them up for change of battery if it run out, they will come and change it for free. And plus can also push the bicycles up to the ferry to cycle on the island too. Anyway we gave it a pass to rent there, as the time to return the bikes may be too tight for us. And the lady told there are bicycle rental shops to on the island. So we went ahead to walk to Gushan Ferry Terminal. It was around 10 to 15 mins (roughly) from the metro station to the ferry terminal. We walked kind of slow too...hahaha...along the way, we went to a noodle shop and got a bowl of ma jiang noodle as my friend haven't had her breakfast and plus she needs to eat her meds too. The noodles was not so bad, quite nice. After eating, we thanked the uncle and auntie and continued walking. We passed by a Mazu Temple (代天宫), passed by a water top-up for motorbikes and an auntie putting alot of salt on big big fishes on the roadside....My friend was saying the fishes will be very very salty....hohoho.....

Our Rented Bicycles

Finally we reached the ferry terminal and just paid NT$15 for each person to board the ferry where motorists can also ride in with their motor bikes. It was just a 5 mins ride from Gushan Ferry Terminal to Cijin Island (like going to Sentosa). We saw a bicycle rental shop just outside the port (actually there are another 2 more bicycle shops on the other side of the road). Anyway we rented the normal bicycles for NT$100 each, to be returned by 6pm. So we started to cycle around the island, first stop is the Matsu Temple, which was near to the ferry terminal (won't missed it). Then i gave some introduction of Mazu's legend to my friend and even showed her the mazu's disciples. After this, we cycled to the Cihou Fort and Cihou Lighthouse. These 2 attractions were on top of the mountain, where we had to park our bicycles at the bottom and started to climb up the steep road to each of the attractions. And 1 is on the left side and the other 1 is on the right side. We went for the lighthouse first, quite tiring to climb up the road and still need to climb stairs to the entrance of the lighthouse. After the lighthouse, we walked back down the road and climbed on the road on the opposite side to the fort. Also steep road and we can see the cijin beach from the top. There is a small road down to the Star Tunnel too. The fort seems deserted, even the words on the map and the introduction information were all faded away. Can't really read what was being written on it and there were no more canons left. But we stood on the highest area of the fort and can see the Cijin island from above.

Surfing

After the fort, we walked back down the road again and picked up our bicycles. We cycled down to the star tunnel but we ended up on the beach instead...hohohoho....Something special on this beach was the sand was black in color, not the normal white or brown sand. And the sand was very fine too. It was nice just to stand on the beach, enjoying the sea breeze and the view. Saw a guy trying to surf on the big waves too, but he wasn't able to stay long on the waves. After spending some time on the beach, we continued cycling further down. We ended up at the cihou market, where there were a lot of stalls selling the same dried products. The stall owners will let you try their products first before buying, we tried the fish floss (similar like our pork floss, except theirs is made using fishes). They even added in seaweed. It was quite nice.....We walked to the end of the market and bought oyster pancakes to eat first. After eating, we asked the auntie where is the start tunnel, she pointed us to the same way we came by earlier. I was wondering how come we missed it earlier....-_-??....Then we walked down the road side because there were a lot of food stalls...yum yum....But it was getting further away from where we parked our bicycles. So we walked back to the market to get the fish floss and collected our bicycles, then we cycled back to the star tunnel. This time, we saw the written cardboard for the direction of the star tunnel.

Edge of the Ciff

The tunnel doesn't looked very fascinating and it wasn't that long but once you came out from the tunnel, it was like 'wow'. You can see the big waves splashing on the bottom of the cliff and it was big....it was like nice just standing there watching the waves come splashing on the rocks. After that, we cycled back to the food street and just keep cycling straight up. Saw Gong Cha along the way, bought mango smoothie for NT$50 and it was a big cup...Got ice cream on top too... :)....Not able to finish the smoothie, so i put on the water bottle holder on the bicycle but when i was cycling, the drink dropped on the road and got 'run over' by my bicycle... :(....So i had to throw the whole cup away....Then i just continued to cycle up and we saw a di shan wang mao, so we went in to take a look. After that, the sky turning dark soon and the road seemed like there is nothing more to go further, so we cycled back to the bicycle rental shop to return the bicycles. As we cycled back, we saw seafood, big big seafood. And cijin island is famous for seafood. After we returned our bicycles, we walked back to the food street where a lot of seafood can be seen but we were so full and doesn't really want to have our dinner there (just around 6 plus but sky was already dark). So after walking for a while and buying an orange cheesecake, we decided to take the ferry back to Kaohsiung. We walked back to the ferry terminal and went up to the wish tower. But it is not opened to public, only for customers in the cafe on the 2nd floor. Then we missed the ferry and so we waited for the next ferry, the trip back was also NT$15 each person. After we got back to Gushan Ferry Terminal, we walked back to the metro station.

My Yummy Bento!!

We bought a drumstick bento and a pork bento back to the hotel. We also passed back the place where we saw the auntie putting salt on the big fishes earlier this morning. Now all the fishes were hung up to dry with fans blowing them. My friend just dropped to the bed and dozed off and i ate my bento. It was very nice...the best chicken drumstick bento i had throughout the whole trip. Later my friend woke up and ate her pork bento. It was also nice to eat and so full....After dinner, it was shower time and sleeping time...Zzzz...Knee ended up pain, not able to bend properly for the next few days.

Hotel Stayed: Holiday Hotel

Places Visited:
Cijin Island