To replenish a bit we grabbed a bite to eat at the airport. Upon seeing Sakura Frappucinos at Starbuck's, we felt the need to give it a try.
It was pretty good. Sakura is and impossible flavor to describe. The sakura macaroon was nice as well. Also in the vicinity were the delicious baumkuchen of Nenrinya; although this time around we decided to try something a little different: baumkuchen sandwiches!
These little delicacies were a nice balance between sweet and savory. A little pricey, but worth the little airport splurge. Well, our splurges today didn't end there. Our Air-Do flight was pleasant enough, and I passed out the whole way. One interesting aspect about flying domestically in Japan is that we used my credit card to check-in at the self check-in and never actually showed anyone our passports. If someone had my credit card, they literally could have pretended to be me, taken our tickets, and never been properly id-ed. Sure it was convenient, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. We took an express train into Sapporo, and all of a sudden we were standing outside in Hokkaido!
“Durrr.” We proceeded to navigate downtown Sapporo for a bit, until we made it to our hotel: Cross Hotel. More on Cross later.
Sapporo wasn’t really as cold as we had expected; or rather, it wasn’t anything we weren’t used to. The weather and the snow was no problem as we got some day train passes and headed out to our first stop, 麺屋彩未 - Menya Saimi.
The recurring theme of this post is that our friend and Sapporo resident, Akira, knows what he’s talking about. We needed recommendations on ramen, crab, and sushi and Akira nailed it on all three accounts. I’m not exactly sure what the back story on Menya Saimi is, but the chef apparently comes from another famous joint. Either way, it has obscenely high scores on Tabelog and is known for the Hokkaido specialty, miso ramen.
We got there just before 2 PM and still had to wait in a line out the door. The line went pretty quickly as everyone ate and was served quite efficiently. Of course there was little variation in what was being ordered and the kitchen just pumped out miso ramen after miso ramen. Actually, I’m convinced that the one girl who ordered shoyu slowed everything down a bit.
Baby was too busy to care.
Saimi’s ramen is indescribable. It’s such a sublime blend of flavors that angels sing and customers shed tears with every bite. Anybody who has the time to visit Sapporo also needs to take the pilgrimage to Misono to try the glorious miso ramen symphony that is Menya Saimi.
Our stomachs and souls full, we headed back into downtown Sapporo where we tried to check out Oodori Park. Unfortunately, I think that we literally came at the ugliest time of year when it was basically closed and full of construction materials as they tore down the remains of the snow festival.
Undaunted, our next stop was where we would spend most of the day, 白い恋人パークShiroi Koibito Park.
Lots of pictures of me (all ridiculous) when V is the cameraman. The Shiroi Koibito Park is literally like a factory, museum and theme park, all in one. It has a bit of a confusing entrance and we ended up walking into a separate gift store where V was completely suckered into buying Detective Conan stamps before we even made it to the main entrance. Outside of the park entrance, they had also built a tube slide which we rode a couple of times as a line formed behind us…
We entered the museum part of the park which we admittedly zipped through (ahead of a giant group of Chinese tourists). There was stuff like teacup and gramophone collections, an exhibit detailing the process for making chocolate, as well as the rough history of the European chocolate industry. We weren’t especially engaged in anything at the Shiroi Koibito Park until we got to the factory look-in.
Pretty fascinating stuff. We were trying to figure out if this is the only place they makes Shiroi Koibito since it’s not that big of a plant. I guess if they keep those lines running, this factory could be the source for all of those delicious cookies. I mean we were witnessing literally thousands of cookies a minute. Didn’t matter I suppose, since this factory was going to make OUR cookies…other than the ones we made ourselves.
It cost just over 1000 Yen to take an hour or so to make your own cookies, but given how much the cookies cost in the first place, that’s not really a bad deal. At first, I wasn’t too excited about making these cookies, but I won’t lie, I had a decent time. If you have a little extra time, I recommend anyone to go back in the Shiroi Koibito lab and do your shiroi mad scientist impression.
We ended our visit by checking out their café and gift shop. I also indulged myself in a couple of gift boxes.
Outside of the building, we played around in their winter wonderland. Unfortunately, the train that tours the outskirts of the facility was closed. Either way, Shiroi Koibito Park was a pretty good time.
I was tired by this time, but V was exhausted. She passed out on our way back but pulled herself together to complete the end of our first day. We got off the train at Oodori Park and checked out the lackluster view from atop the TV tower. It really is too bad that we just totally missed the snow festival.
We stopped by the Tanuki Koji shopping alley which was pretty similar to its counterpart in Osaka. A couple of blocks away, Susukino showed up looking a lot like the entrance to Kabukicho.
There’s even a Mister Donut on the corner. If there hadn’t been a giant Sapporo Beer sign as well as a loud speaker blaring, “Oii~ Hokkaido~ I’m a Hokkaido mannn~”, I might have been confused as to where I was. We weren’t terribly interested by any of this, so instead we made our way to かに家 kaniya where they graciously seated us before our 8 PM reservation. Kaniya’s menu was intimidating with all its options, but we eventually decided on two different kani kaiseki courses and settled down for the vigorous battle that would be our dinner.
Kaniya was suggested to us by Akira as well and was pretty amazing. V didn’t think we needed a 10 course meal, but I insisted that if we were going to do our only crab meal in Hokkaido, we should do it right! V’s meal started with the hairy crab above, complete with a heavy dose of kani miso (crab brain). Neither of us had really tried it before and Kaniya made us fall in love with it.
I had never tried kani sashimi either, but the delicate and translucent pieces of crab were surprisingly sweet and remarkably tasty. The courses came and went with one preparation of crab after another. We had some crab tempura, a baked crab gratin, and stuffed crab.
Our table on the third floor had a private setting including a fake stream running through the room. The tables were far apart, and everyone enjoyed the solitude as the courses flowed like the running water next to us. Unfortunately, V was absolutely right about the size of our meal. Around course six, we were pretty full, and by the time the last course with V’s ikura-don rolled around, I just about wanted to die.
Food coma-ing and just plain retardedly tired, we paid for our delicious crab bonanza and made our way back to our hotel (where we hadn’t even checked in yet). Cross Hotel is easily the best hotel we’ve ever been to in Japan and maybe also the best hotel value we have ever experienced. It has a trendy and unique feel and offers a variety of complimentary services including a rooftop public bath as well as an in-room laptop.
What hotel actually gives you a laptop? All this for 9000 Yen! No way you can find that deal in Tokyo. Anyone staying in Sapporo, definitely needs to stay at Cross Hotel. There isn’t even another option. The bed was comfy enough that V was face-down, in a coma as I tried to stay awake until Akira finished work.
Akira showed up and we headed out at around 11:30 PM to find an izakaya in the neighborhood. I asked V if she wanted to come, but she just mumbled something. She has no recollection of any of this of course. We went for some light nomihodai and Akira ordered a ramen salad, another Hokkaido specialty.
Ninety minutes and a couple of drinks later, we headed back and called it a night.
So far we were off to an exhausting start to our "relaxing" trip. It's nice having a reliable guide though...we were lacking that in the coming days.
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