Wawa's Ramblings

There were many shops selling the Hokkaido king crabs along the streets of Otaru, either live or cooked.

Lunch was at a restaurant above the seafood market, where we had seafood hotplate and an extra order of one king crab for 12,000 yen ($154/-). The flesh was very sweet and meaty, and the shell was thin and can be easily cut open with a pair of scissors.

After lunch , it was a long 21/2 hours drive to Lake Toya, with a rest stop at Niseko, a popular ski village. We visited the Mount Showa Bear Ranch to see the Hokkaido brown bears and Mount Showa Shin Zan , a new volcano which first emerged in 1944.

We had a photo stop at the picturesque Lake Toya, a 180 m deep caldera lake in Shikotsu-Toya National Park, just before sunset. Lake Toya is the venue for the G8 summit next year and shops have already jumped on the bandwagon by selling souvenirs for this event.

We checked into our onsen hotel, Toya Kanko Hotel and were delighted to see our large Japanese style room, with a separate sleeping area. This was a 10 bed tatami room with a nice view of Lake Toya.

Went down in our yukata (except Co) for our traditional Japanese dinner. The food was delicious and we were all so stuffed at the end of the meal.

We also booked a private hot spring bath and it was really an experience after hearing so much about the hot springs in Japan.

Labels: hokkaido, japan, travel

The buffet breakfast at Keio Plaza Sapporo had a good spread of Japanese and Western dishes, including a big platter of fresh salmon roe.



Our first stop today was the Moerenuma Park, in place of the Ishiya Chocolate Factory which had its operations suspended temporarily by the Japanese Government. The park was a vast area with lots of sculptures designed by Isomu Noguchi. Most of the tour members rented bicyles (200 yen per person) but we chose to walk as they did not have any tandem bicycles.

Hokkaido Shrine is located in Maruyama Park and we were lucky to be there on a Sunday, which happenend to be the day when parents bring their children aged 3, 5 and 7 to the temple to pray for good health. The little kids were all dressed in their traditional costumes and some shyly posed for photographs.

We were amazed that our room at the Gateaux Kingdom Onsen resort had a huge marble bathroom complete with a personal TV.

Labels: hokkaido, japan, travel

Haven't been blogging for the last 3 weeks as we were away on an 8 day trip to Hokkaido and Tokyo with SingXpress. Our first meal in Sapporo was a seafood hotpot lunch at a local restaurant. The hotpot consisted of hokae, Sapporo's famous fish and hotate. All of us tucked in hungrily as this was our first hot meal since leaving Singapore the night before.

The first stop on the itinerary was Sapporo Beer Museum. The tour included a fascinating glimpse at the tools used for making lager and ale and the evolution of the many bottles and campaigns used over the years. We also had a glass of freshly brewed lager for 200 yen ($2.60).

The Hokudai Shokubutsuen Botanic Gardens at Hokkaido University was next. We were lucky to catch the last opening day of the Gardens which will then be closed till Apr 28 next year. The beautiful autumn colours covered the park grounds and I was delighted to see my favourite maple leaves.

The Sapporo Clock tower was a nondescript building, and could have been skipped altogether.

Odori Park, where the annual Sapporo Snow Festival is held, has the landmark TV tower at the end of the park. We tried to capture a good shot of the tower on the SLR using our new flash, but just could not get the flash to work properly as the batteries must have somehow depleted during the journey.

The highlight of the evening was dinner at Raumen Yokocho, which consists of a narrow alley filled with small ramen shops.

As we were there early, we managed to get a shop which could accomodate our tour group. We were totally fascinated with the chef who proceeded to prepare 19 bowls of ramen alone, unfazed by the attention of curious onlookers. All 19 bowls were served within 20 minutes.

Both Co and I had the miso ramen (700 yen). The noodles were springy and we finished every last drop of the soup.

After checking into Keio Plaza Hotel, we headed straight to Daimaru down the street to check out the food hall. As it was after 8 pm, stall holders were enthusiastically promoting their marked down bento sets. We had a taste of a super lovely cheese cake and decided to buy the last box at 1,300 yen ($16.60), much to the delight of the young man who thanked us profusely. The cheesecake was light and creamy and tasted more like an ice cream cheesecake. One of the most scrumptious cheese cake we ever had.

Labels: hokkaido, japan, travel

Made mango sticky rice, one of our favourite Thai desserts, after watching a programme on TV about glutinous rice. The programme also mentioned that Thai people believe that eating glutinous rice would help one fall asleep easily, so decided to try if it will work with Co, who suffers from insomnia.



Tried out a savoury recipe as well, steamed glutionous rice, which turned out quite well.


Both recipes were relatively fuss free to make and I only had to remember to soak the rice overnight. And no, Co still could not fall asleep easily last night despite all the glutinous rice!

Labels: home cooking