Sapporo, Hokkaido Trip (Day 11)

21st May 2019, Tuesday

Today, we are leaving Lake Toya and heading to Sapporo. However, it was raining in the morning and we got lazy to wake up. So we dragged ourselves up only past 9 am and packed our luggage to check-out the hotel. We drove down to Lake Hill Farm for breakfast and bought the cheese and puddings before we leave. We bought a pizza to share, orange juice and a coffee. We took our time to have our breakfast and bought the cheese we wanted. Then we hit the road to go to Sapporo, it was a 3 hours drive. We drove down on route 230 on the highway and took me some confusing time to drive to the correct hotel as there was another hotel with the same name. But the hotel staff told us we had went to the wrong hotel, so we drove around the city to find the correct one. Not very easy to drive in the city as there was so many signs and cars. Eventually, we managed to find the hotel along a road and it was like a small building in between bigger buildings. My friend went in to do the check-in and asked for the parking space. But the hotel don't provide free parking, instead we had to park in the public car park opposite the hotel. We had to pay $1200 yen per night for the parking too and the staff gave us 5 parking tickets which he told us to exchange in the parking office to full day tickets.

Our Breakfast

Pit Stop

Our bedroom

Bathroom

Basin Area

After we settled the car, we brought our luggage and went up to our room. The room was soooo small (standard size as in Tokyo) and the sink was facing our bed. But they still managed to have a bathtub inside the bathroom even though it was small. Anyway, i was having worry that i might have forget to lock the car so i went back the car for a check. And, i really forget to wind up the car window after winding down to take the car park ticket. After winding the window, i went back to the hotel lobby to meet up with my friend. After that, we walked down the street to explore the city. We walked to Orini park and saw it was having some food event. So we turned in to check it out and there were booths selling bbq meats, seafood and wines. Since we did not have lunch yet, so we bought some of the bbq food to try and there were quite a lot of crows fighting for the food placed unattended on the tables too.

BBQ Food Stalls

Food Stalls

BBQ Seafood Stalls

BBQ Giant Crab Legs

BBQ Meat Skewers

BBQ Corn

The park was quite big and long too, it was covering almost 3 streets and as we walked further in, we saw there was a ramen competition. There were a few ramen stalls representing from different regions in Japan and you have to buy a ticket and order the ramen you want to try from the ramen stalls. So we bought a ticket and checked out the ramen stalls in line.  We decided the ramen from Kyoto and queued to buy a bowl of ramen to try. You also top up some cash to add on eggs, ramen and the pork pieces.  After that, we continued to walk on the street and we walked to the Pokemon Centre which was inside Daimaru building. We went to check out the supermarket level and there were fruits, sashimi, cheese and seafood available. After that, we went to the upper level and to the pokemon centre. It was smaller compared to the one in Tokyo but best thing was there was not many customers there to squeeze with you and fight for photo-taking of the pokemon statues.  We bought some pokemon socks and there were new version of pokemon tetra machines at the back of the shop. So we played on the machine for some time (100 yen per game). The tetra cartridge was longer and the game was totally different from the current ones played in Singapore.

Ramen Show Entrance

Rules for the ramen voting

Speciality ramen from Kyoto Seabura Shoya

Pokemon Centre

Pokemon Tetra Machines

After playing, we walked back to find a popular bar in the city named Meshiba Ookami. It took us some time to find the place as the GPS was not able to direct us in the correct direction. Finally we managed to find the place and it was a small place which allowed guests to drink and eat plus smoking inside. So we tried to ask if we can take away their speciality, chicken wings. Well, one lady told us it was possible so we ordered some honey and salted chicken wings to go. We waited for some time before the wings were ready. Then we headed back to the hotel to have our chicken wings with coke (it was just a few minutes walk to our hotel)....hohoho...The salted chicken wings were quite salty, not to our liking and the honey chicken wings were sweet but still not so bad. After that, we took to shower and rested for the day.

Meshiba Ookami Entrance

Interior

Speciality Chicken Wings

Places visited:
Lake Hill Farm (Address: 127 Hanawa, Toyako, Abuta District, Hokkaido 049-5724, Japan)
Orini Park
Meshiba Ookami (Address: Japan, 064-0804 Hokkaido, Sapporo, Chūō-ku, Minami 4 Jōnishi, 6-chōme−8-3)


--> Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Vista Sapporo Odori

Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 2)

5th March 2017, Sunday

Shibuya

Today, we woke up @ 8 am and met up at the hotel lobby. My friends were bringing me to Shibuya to try Ichiran Ramen for breakfast. So we took the JR Line down to Shibuya, most of the shops were not opened yet. When we reached Ichiran ramen resturant, we were greeted with a self-ordering machine where we ordered 3 bowls of ramen from it. After which, we went in to find our seats. The interior was partitioned to cater for individual seating, however, the wooden partition can be folded away. And the staff will serve the ramen through the front window, you can also see the opposite row of table. When the ramen was served, the staff drew down the curtain so that the diners can enjoy the ramen with no disturbance.

The ramen was niceeee!!....the soup was with so much flavor and it combined very well with fresh green onion. You can also choose to add more noodles, green or white spring onion and with chilli. We had a very nice breakfast, after that, we went separate ways as i needed to travel to another place to buy origami books for my brother while my friends went shopping on their own. However, we had arranged to meet up again in Sunshine City to go to Pokemon Centre during lunchtime. I reached Hakusan station at about 10 plus and saw a small shop selling coffee beans, but not able to make out the flavors of the coffee beans as the signs were writing in Japanese....kekee...
Managed to buy the books and proceeded to meet my friends for lunch. However, they needed more time to shop. So i headed first to Ikebukuro and went there to see see look look while waiting for them to arrive.

Fruits

Mini Cakes

More mini cakes....

There were many beautiful cakes and chocolates in one of the major shopping mall when i arrived at Ikebukuro station. It appeared they were selling to prepare for their white day, which was on 14th March. All the cakes and chocolates look so tasty from their displays, there were many people shopping too. It took me some time to figure out how to exit from the correct exit, plus, it was crowded too. Finally, i managed to exit out from the station and got up to the street level. I then made my way slowly to Sunshine City, bought my new jacket with Mickey Mouse design for $54 sgd at the biggest uniqlo store there. It was 6-storey high and with alot of varieties to choose from. Along the Sunshine City walking street, there were many shops such as cinema, gaming arcade, uniqlo, food restaurants and bowling centre. There were many youngsters shopping there too.

Largest Uniqlo Building

Shopped around the different shops there and was so hungry. By the time i met up with them, it was almost 2 pm. Then we walked around the shopping area nearest to the station and ended up in Coco Curry House. It was not so crowded, probably it was over lunch time. Don't find the curry rice nice to eat. After eating, we made our way to Pokemon Centre, which was located in Sunshine City. The store was quite big, but it was SUPER crowded. There were some statues of the different pokemons and many stuffs that you can buy (Warning: The toys are super cute and you will want to buy them all... :P ). There were gashapon machines located at the entrance of the shop too. I managed to buy two can badges as it was too crowded to be able to see the stuffs slowly too.

Charizard

Mew

After that, we headed down to Harajuku area. But when we arrived there, it was crowded too. We weren't sure which direction to walk, so we just choose Meji Shrine to visit as it looked like it was walkable distance away. However, after we started to walk in the direction, we saw a super busy street (Takeshita Street) on the opposite side. So we headed towards the busy street to explore and it was really crowded. The shops were mostly for younger generation and there were multiple of crepes shops around too. We saw some people buying a giant size candy floss with multiple colours, it was interesting. We wanted to buy one too, however, the queue was so long until a queue number was required and had to come back after like 1 or 2 hours later. So we walked further down the streets to explore other shops. We went in to Calbee snacks house, it was two-storey high and bought 2 different flavors (Spicy and Chocolate) to try. One was too sweet and the other was too salty...hahaha....

Entrance

Calbee Spicy & Chocolate Chips

Brown's room

Croquant Chou Zakuzaku

After which, we continued to walk to the end of the streets where the big brand buildings (like Nike, Line, Forever 21) were located.We went over to check the Line building opposite the street. There was a giant Brown statue where you can take photo with. There were snacks with Corny, Brown, the yellow duck printed and there was a small showroom for Brown's bedroom. After that, we made our way back to Akihabara for dinner. We tried a nutty cream biscuits along the way, it was coated with chocolate and nuts and long-shaped. It had milky cream as the fitting.

Sushi Set

Fried Ebi

We went to eat in Ginzo Restaurant for sushi when we arrived at Akihabara and ordered a sushi set for sharing. The dinner was not bad and we made our way back to the hotel as it was getting late. We also bought a baked sweet potato at the 7-11 shop near our hotel. It was hot and soft, nice to eat in cold weather. It was then sleeping time....

Tomorrow will be another adventure in kyoto.... "Soba Soba, here i come!"

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel Kodenmacho-Ekimae