Wawa's Ramblings

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