Day 13: Sapporo Day 2: Ishiya Chocolate Factory + Sapporo Beer Museum

Today was a totally food-orientated day (yeah... very different from our other days, we know). We woke up to snow pouring down from the sky outside (not in our hotel room, that would be too disturbing). Neither of us expected it this early in December & thus were unfortunately, not fully dressed appropriately for the situation... crap...

its snowingggg!! *insert funny dance*

Breakfast: At local Lawson's convenience store

Rah: Pork onigiri, that the lady nicely heated up for me in the microwave. Very yummy.
Dee: Chicken instant noodles. The egg starts off at this inch-wide 1cm high block of yellow, sitting on top of noodles. It suddenly reconstitutes to strings of egg. I don't know how the japanese do it, but this proves they are leaders in innovation.

Stop 1: Ishiya Chocolate Factory, aka Shiroi Koibito Factory.

Probably the producer of Hokkaido's most famous non-natural-growing export - the Shiroi Koibito chocolate biscuit. Shiroi Koibito, for those of you who don't speak japanese, translates to "White Lovers" & was apparently the term used by the creator of the factory to describe the snow (since Hokkaido is snow country after all).
They were, (sorry if you like them) sickeningly sweet (but then, i don't have much of a sweet tooth).

Luckily (& also randomly), this place also housed a gramophone & vintage toy museum.

Another attraction is the host of mini houses they had scattered around the park. Dee insisted on going into nearly all of them. Even tho they were made for children & the doors were half her size...

Lunch:



Location: Goodies from exploring a local supermarket.
Food:
1. Fried Chicken in yellow sauce
2. Fried Chicken cutlet in sweet brown sauce with ?potato salad on top

After 13 days in Japan, we still don't know what we are eating. I'm not even going to try.
Thankfully, dessert had a name. We've been meaning to try this one since when we first spotted it in on Day 1...

3. Haagen Das "Salty Butter Biscuit" flavour.
ie. Like those butter cookies you had in the blue round tin as a kid. YUM. The icecream itself is slightly salty vanilla goodness, as creamy as you would expect from this brand. In the centre, as you dig, there is biscuit!! miraculously, you can dig through the "biscuit" easily with the plastic spade and it seems one with the icecream. It tastes a little of undercooked dough, but the majority of the taste is "biscuity" not "doughy". There seemed to be multiple bits of biscuit <1cm.>
Stop 2: Sapporo Beer Museum


Sapporo is, interestingly, where Sapporo Beer is produced (well, duh). Sapporo beer is also the only beer that Clara had liked the taste of. We learned about how beer was produced & the history of beer in japan. Basically beer is made from hops and barley which is roasted into diff gradings giving us our different ales. Fermentation happens. It is pasturised. This is beer.
Then we got to taste 3 types of beer that they produce:


1. Black Label - Rah's Fav, very transparent looking and tasting. Not much of a foamy head.
2. Classic - Dee's Fav. It's been produced exclusively in Hokkaido since 1985, and is a favourite of the region. Its more bitter and astringent than the first.
3. Kaitakushi - It was ok. Don't remember it much... :)

Needless to say, we were both a bit giggly afterwards.
Highly recommended for both educational and historical value, and the fresh beer on tap to taste. I must commend the museum on the high quality of exhibition, loads of little models, along with English translations. Free entry to museum, beer tasting was reasonably priced. Top notch. They also sold "Beer Jelly" in the gift shop. Can't tell you what it tastes like- its not mine!

Dinner: Donburi

Location: Apia underground shopping centre
Food:
Dee: Gyudon (ie beef) + mini udon (Y430). I can't believe what value this is. Taste was passable, but it was what I paid for - a big bowl of hot rice with beef and vermicilli noodles on top. I thought the Gyudon was a little dry, I added chilli spice for extra taste. Udon was simple but good, even the stock was good. 7/10
Clara: Oyakodon + mini udon (Okayo = "mother & child" ie chicken + egg... name is possibly a bit disturbing). Very yummy, egg was still a bit runny (the best!) Udon was quite nice. 8/10

Day 12: Sapporo 1: Sightseeing and Ramen Alley

(Yay, photos are uploading again)

Struggle to Sapporo

• We woke up early and got out of room early, having been all prepared and packed last night.
• We lived in Shinjuku washington, which has 25 floors with 6 elevators
• Apparently this is not sufficient for large exodus at 8:15AM.
• After waiting for 10 minutes where 2 choc-a-block lifts passed, Clara & I had a bright plan...
• We got on the next lift going UP, and travelled from 7 -->25 down to lobby.
• The flight took longer than expected secondary to turbulence and adverse weather conditions at Sapporo, so difficult to land.

Anyway.
We got there in one piece.
As opposed to last time, when they lost our luggage.

And of course, just as we were about to go onto the plane... a whole bunch of school kids filed in & lined up to... go onto the plane, it seems we can't escape them. Just in case we had forgotten to ever mention them, we have had school kids going to pretty much EVERY attraction we were at (a different bunch each time), including:
the aquarium, aqualiner, nissin museum, universal studios, ghibli museum, and now hokkaido.
so lucky to be a japanese school kid (... well, actually, no, they work too hard).

Lunch: Some food for sustanence

At 3pm, we were Too hungry. No food on plane as journey = 1.5 hours.
Being hungry usually leads to us getting grumpy at each other.
We headed to the nearest 7-11, got out some cash, and stuffed our stomachs and oesophaguses with warm food:
1. Dee's Oden
its like a pre-cooked hot pot/ingredients stewed in a clear broth, and you choose the individual bits you want. I chose

1. Big chunk of daikon (white radish)
   
2. Translucent gelatinous noodles tied up in a bunch
3. Sausage wrapped in fishcake
4. Fish cake (+ bits of shitake mushroom, lotus etc)
5. Miso paste + Mustard on the side

It was yum and mighty hot. Like 90 degrees hot. So hot i felt it burn a path thru my thorax as i swallowed, and had to stand outside in the bitter cold to eat the oden. For Y365 very good value. And it was SO good. Came with soup too! Ridiculously yum, maybe coz i was hungry. Oh well. It's a 9/10 in my books for the occasion.

2. Rah's Seafood Cup Noodle
Yeah, too hungry to taste it. Not as good as the Milk Seafood one, prob same as the seafood at home.

Sightseeing around Sapporo
Sapporo is the main city of Hokkaido, the upper island of Japan. Its cold, but thankfully we haven't arrived at the coldest time (Feb) when they have an ice sculpture festival!

(a) Clock tower

The tower is old. There is a clock on it. It is pretty.
Apparently it inspired lots of people in Hokkaido and is a symbol of the city's longevity and wisdom. Or something.

Used to be an agricultural school run by 3 caucasians, had about 100 pupils who when graduated had to serve and contribute to the city of Hokkaido. The history is immensely cool, a few of the teachers were Christian and as a result a lot of the pupils grew up with faith and went on to be devout Christians.

The school used to serve western meals to the boys, but after a few years they changed this to Japanese dinners in light of budget constraints, and reserved the western meals for the teachers.

(b) TV tower + Odori Park

This Nowhere near as tall as other towers that japan boasts, but it gave a nice night view of sapporo, & odori park (the main park of sapporo, & from which all the streets of sapporo are named - seriously, sapporo is a planned city, built grid-line & the streets are named north 1/2/3, south 1/2/3, east & west according to their coordinates from this park & TV tower).
Odori park currently boasts 1) German festival (recurring theme in japanese Christmas celebrations, it seems) 2) White Illumination - a display of lights, on a much smaller scale than Kobe Luminarie.

Snack: Icecream Location: under TV tower- in gift shop

We are crazy, eating ice cream in the coldest location we have visited in Japan
Yet, Hokkaido's specialty includes milk and its ice cream is renowned in Japan as the best.
(amongst these, Melon, bears, potatoes, seafood and especially scallops also seem to be specialties. OH and of course sapporo beer.)

The good things about eating icecream in freezing weather:
1. The ice cream does not seem so cold
2. The ice cream does not melt.
3. You cannot get an ice cream headache as you already had one before.

Clara opted for Soft Serve, with black soybean & rare caramel sauce (came with lumps of caramel). Yum, love soft serve.
4.5/5

I initially refused ice cream, until I saw "Lemon Pop" which was bright blue and had chunks of yellow. YUM. Oh, not to mention "Blueberry Cheesecake".
Pop Soda = icecream flavour of japanese lemonade / ramune soda. Its a really good tasting lemon sorbet which is unlike the Aussie one (cant describe how, its just less sticky, less sour and more tangy). Specks of icicles seem intentional. The yellow bits were HUGE chunks of Sherbet!!! AWESOME. its got to make it onto my top 3 fav icecreams EVER.
Blueberry Cheesecake = Tastes exactly like it. Quite a good flavour too, unique.
5/5

Dinner: Hokkaido Ramen Location: One of the individual stores in Ramen Alley

Food:
1. 2 bowls of Ramen with Huge Hokkaido Scallops

Now, let me tell you about Hokkaido scallops. They're bigger than anything you've seen- like 6cm diameter and 1.5cm thick. At least.
And its not like osyters, where the little tassie ones are packed full of punchy taste and big ones u get at chinese restaurants are tasteless and bland. These gigantic hokkaido scallops are have concentrated flavour too! They were butterflied and delicately grilled before being put into our ramen.
The noodles were a bit wrinkly and reminded me of chinese noodles- so me no like.
The stock was clear- so me also not like.
Clara says I should've asked for Miso stock though, fair call. Clara on the other hand, quite liked both the noodles (very al dente) & the stock, Denise is just being picky.

2. Gyoza.
Super thin skins, crunchy base, good dipping sauce.
The filling was super funky with specks of red chili powder as well as chunks of green chili. YUM, but needed to be more meaty.

Overall: 7.5/10

After Dinner
We did some shopping at the massive underground shopping complex: which happens to be called...

Now we are chilling over a sapporo beer and having an early night (its only 10PM!).

Tomorrow: Sapporo Beer Museum- here we come!

Day 5: Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum + HepNavio

Breakfast:

Location: Bakery from yesterday and "KIOSK" at Umeda Station.
Food:
1. Rah: Weiner-pan + Kirin Royal Milk Tea (hot)
2. Dee: Inari-zushi (in triangle shape)+ canned creamed-corn soup
Weiner pan : like normal sausage in a bun, with mayonnaise. 3/5
Kirin Royal Milk Tea : as it always is, perfect.
Inari-zushi: I'm not sure why it was a triangle shape, but that meant there was more soy-bean skin, so super yum. It was made to stand up next to the onigiri's.
Canned creamed corn soup: yum. Crunchy corn kernels, not soggy, despite the soup being hot in the can and preserved. I don't know how they do it. Hit the right spot on chilly morning.

Activity 1: Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum
Location: Takarazuka (kind of half way between Osaka and Kobe)
Osamu Tezuka is the genius who drew Astro Boy. In light of that, no more really needs to be said.
Thankfully, manga illustrations can still be appreciated without language.
The best part was an interactive section where we could string together scenes of astroboy/other characters, as well as drawing our own characters with a lightbox and animating them. Oh & we got to colour-in characters (hopefully it wasn't just for kids), we both chose the really cute unicorn Unico.... now to find out who it actually is...


Lunch: Omu-rice
Clara and I were both craving Omu-rice, so we gave in.

Omurice is a contemporary Japanese dish most often found at Japanese family diners (such as IZUMI), and consists of an omelette made of fried tomato rice (often with onion, bacon, peas, etc). The rice is skillfully encased in omelette, then flipped onto the plate and topped with sauce, usually tomato, tomato-beef or curry. We opted for the tomato beef and mushroom.

"IZUMI - Coffee & Restaurant since 1963"
Location: Between manga museum and JR station.
The dish itself was above average in taste, and plentyful. Egg could've probably been slightly less runny. 7.5/10
Ambience: yellow lighting, typical japanese diner nothing flashy.
Service: the lady waiter followed me outside the restaurant (at her own will) and allowed me to order by pointing at the plastic food display :) GENIUS!

Activty 2: Hep Navio shopping
Contemplate going on Hep Five (Ferris wheel on top of Hep Navio) then decide against it, instead trying on sunnies, GAP jeans and eating...

Afternoon Tea: Parfait time!
Apparantly the French word for "perfect", it can refer to a frozen dessert made of sugar syrup, egg, and cream invented n 1984. In American (and Japanese) culinary lands, it usually means a layered dessert in a tall glass with cream, ice cream, fruit, cubes of heavy cake (eg pound), jelly, nuts. In japan, they like to add corn flakes for crunch.

This is a parfait.

Location: Parfait, icecream and frozen yogurt store at top of Hep Navio
(L) Minuet Green Tea Parfait: 4/5
(R) Green Tea Parfait: 4/5

Whilst eating parfait Clara's Compact Flash memory card corrupted, losing ALL our photos today from the museum! Shock horror!! After some more shopping at Hep Five we rush home in a desperate attempt at data recovery. Of course such geeky and difficult tasks need our brains to be performing optimally. Brain food = personalised cup noodles!

Dinner: Personalised Cup Noodles

Location: from Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, eating next to laptop
Food:
1. Rah's: Sio soup base, Egg + Shrimp + cartoon chicken (which is actually fishball-like-substance) + roast garlic
2. Dee's: Sio soup base, Egg + Shrimp + cartoon chicken + asparagus
Sao soup base is spicy in a peppery way.
5/5. We have good taste.

Drink: Melon Cream Soda, complete with pictures of penguins on cover that we got for 100yen at a vending machine - must love japanese vending machines!