Happy Birthday to the Emperor! February 23 was a national holiday, which meant I get the day off work. It’s a little awkward, because it’s kind of a random Thursday off (so not a three-day weekend…), and I have to go into work the next day, only for it to turn into the weekend, ha! Anyway, I was mulling about whether I should go out or not for a bit, but I ultimately decided to go because a movie I recently got interested in is currently playing in theaters, and the theater in Sapporo does discounted tickets on Thursdays, so better take advantage of it while I can, I guess. It’s also my first solo trip in a while, since my boyfriend has to work (because he works on American time, and Thursday is not a holiday over there. Though the Monday prior was an American holiday).
Yes, I could have slept in since it’s a holiday, but I have my alarm set to 6:30 everyday on weekdays, so out of a bit of laziness, I was glad I didn’t have to turn it off and turn it back on again. It works out nicely because to catch the 7:40 bus I would have woken up around then anyway. I can always sleep in on the weekend, since I didn’t plan on going out that following Saturday!
After getting off the bus around 10:20, I headed for Milk & Parfait Yotsuba White Cozy as my “breakfast” stop of the day, praying it wouldn’t be busy. I’ve been meaning to try this place out, as they seem to be known for their parfaits, and in the afternoons, usually have an insane wait for some reason. They also serve pancakes and lunch food (the girl who was to my left at my counter seat had pasta and a latte), but I was here for a parfait. Being an adult means you can have ice cream for breakfast…
There were quite a few options, including a current seasonal chocolate and orange one, but I went with the matcha one. There was ice cream, whip cream, matcha syrup, matcha powder, cake, mini cerealflakes, mochi, and what I think is chestnut? I checked the menu, but I couldn’t find a confirmation or clarification of what the yellow thing on top was. They also serve a small size of most of their parfaits, but I went with the regular for the full experience, and it was well worth! When I first arrived, there was no wait, and when I was leaving, it turned into a 20 minute wait at the entrance. Great timing! For anyone that wants to go, try to go early near opening, I guess.
As a side note, from my counter seat, I could see the entrance to Daimaru across from me, and there was this serious line outside The Alley, but not for it. That really peaked my interest, so I took a peek at it when I finished my parfait. Apprently there was a booth in the Daimaru basement selling this cookie called a Snow Cheese. I have no idea what it was so popular or why the line was super long, but even by then (around 11am?) quite a few of the advertised items were marked as sold out already. Sounds crazy.
After that, I had a bit of a mini window shopping tour of the surrounding underground area to kill some time before lunch. One of the places on my to-go list though, was Natural Kitchen, because the last time I passed by it looked like they had some pink Sakura themed stuff for Sakura season. I thought I saw more, but the actual pink selection was pretty limited when I went. I did end up buying a few things, since my boyfriend a couple of things he wanted…
After that, I went up and stopped by Paul, a French bakery, which also supposedly imports a lot of their ingredients from France. The pastries all looked super appealing, but because I had other sweets for the day (and really did not need to spend more on sweets…), I resisted the urge to get anything and walked to the ticket gate at Sapporo station. I wanted to see if I could purchase Shinkansen tickets for Tokyo in Sapporo in preparation for my upcoming Tokyo trip. Turns out, you can!
My lunch for the day was at a Chinese food chain specializing in zangi called Hotei, at the Akarenga Terrace food court. Usually, my philosophy with picking a place to eat is to get something that I can’t get in my small town, but this time one of my goals was to basically stay indoors (aka use the underground path to get places and not go outside), and stick near the main Sapporo station area close to Stellar Place, where the theater is. I was browsing my bookmarks on Google Maps around the area, and nothing super appealed to me besides this zangi set. Plus, it’s located in a food court, and I didn’t want to have to worry about long lines or waiting for a dine in place nearing my movie time. Other food I wanted to get potentially would have been a wait, be more of a walk away or need to go above ground, and when I was making a plan for today, the price seemed pretty well worth). I also think this chain is supposed to be popular around here too.
Actually, I say all that, but of all the places in the food court (it was essentially peak lunch time too, a little past 12:30), Hotei was the only place with a significant line. Does that mean I chose a good place, or was I just unlucky? The A set is huge, and comes with 6 pieces of their famous, giant, and super crispy zangi. Honestly since I wasn’t on an empty stomach, I almost couldn’t finish (and I wanted some time to get back to the theater so I did kind of rush), but the sauce they provided really helped, to give it a different flavor and acidity. That, and I did skip on eating some of the crispy skin and fatty bits. It was still very satisfying though.
The movie I’m seeing is called Egoist, and is about a gay couple navigating their relationship and their own personal troubles. The only showing that day was from 2-4:10, so I headed back to the theater around 1:30.
I was still determined to get a Starbucks drink before my movie, since their current limited sakura frappucino came out a week or so ago, and I couldn’t pass this one up after missing the last couple. I’m not a huge fan of having the Starbucks logo on anything I own, but the Sakura merch lineup was just too tempting, and I gave in and got a cold drink tumbler. It did come with a free drink coupon, which was cool. I also got a root vegetable chicken salad wrap in case I was hungry later, since I wasn’t planning on getting a dinner in Sapporo. Interestingly enough, when I checked the app when I got home, apparently starting 3/1 (barely 2 weeks after the 2/15 Sakura release?!), the next line is coming out, with a Sakura Matcha frappucino and another sakura merch line. That was fast.
It tasted like candy, but not in a super sweet or artificial kind of way. The drink is composed of milk (I asked for non-fat), sakura strawberry sauce, sakura flavored pearl sugar, strawberry flavored macaron bits on top, and sakura jelly on the bottom. I tasted a little strawberry, and also the floral notes, which was probably the sakura. The jelly actually added a pretty good texture, and I occasionally got some crunchy bits in my drink.
The end of the movie was a bit of a close call to the next bus, and though I could have made it, I wanted to get boba…so I decided to take my time until the 5:00 bus to just to do some casual browsing in the area and also have time for boba. I always get boba, and originally I wanted to get The Tea, but they’re closed on Thursdays (I checked beforehand just in case!)…so I decided on The Alley instead, since it’s close by, and I didn’t want to go to Gong Cha.
Before heading to The Alley, when I asked my boyfriend if he wanted anything, he said fried food like zangi, so I picked up some yangnyeom zangi from the Hotei booth at the Shiki Marche. Ironic since I went to the shop earlier, but the yangnyeom flavor is exclusive to the Marche booth, and was on my way out.
Read my boba story here! As a side note, both my starbucks and my boba came with paper straws. Has it always been like this, or is this a new movement from plastic to paper? I did see empty cups at The Alley with plastic straws in them though.
Oh, and I’m a Kamen Rider fan. There was supposed to be a Kamen Rider show today, and that was highly tempting, but I decided not to give in because tickets are 4,000 yen. A bit steep, but oh well. My movie ticket was almost a quarter of that.
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