June 25th was Pride in Otaru! Sapporo has a pride parade later in the year, and I thought that would be the closest pride event to me, but a bit ago my friend actually mentioned that Otaru has one in June. I looked it up, and sure enough, there was one scheduled for Sunday, the 25th. I usually don’t go on Sunday outings, mainly because I don’t want to have to come back late to go to work the next day, and I like watching Sunday morning TV, but this is a special event, and Otaru isn’t as far as Sapporo is, which is a refreshing change of transportation time.
I got on the 8:30 bus after my boyfriend saw me off at the station. Funnily enough, we had some time before my bus would leave, so we stopped by the Seicomart next door for potential morning snacks and eggs. When we got there, there was a mini line already forming waiting for the egg stock to come in, and we supposed it was for eggs so we joined. The delivery man came in soon after, and they started handing out eggs…only to run out some people right before us. Seicomart only stocks like 5 packs of eggs at a time? I think they were supposed to do a restock later in the afternoon, but still, that was crazy…
Anyway, when I got off the bus, I had a cafe in mind I wanted to go to, Cafe Ironai Shokudo. It’s a really cool old-school style cafe thats supposed to be run by a really elderly couple, and I wanted to go because the dango they serve here is supposed to be really cheap! They’re supposed to open at 9, and I think I got there a little before 10. The first floor is pretty cool, with a whole bunch of different old coffee making machines I think. When I went up the stairs to the actual cafe, the old man behind the counter said it’d be like a 30 minute wait, despite the chill atmosphere in the cafe and tons of empty tables. I was a little confused, because there seemed to be a ton of seating (no way they would all be reservations right?). I was willing to wait, seeing as I had a bunch of time to kill (the parade was supposed to start at 12, and if food came out late, I would just rush it), and I said I was, but the guy said “Are you sure? It might end up being 40 minutes. If you have plans then you shouldn’t stick around.” and that made me second-guess myself, so I left.
Maybe I could have stuck around (was the wait for coffee, or a table? I didn’t want coffee, and I’m just a single person…) in retrospect, but I didn’t want to be late for anything despite having two hours. Luckily, there was another cafe-esque place I’ve been meaning to try that opens at 9 (cafes open this early are pretty rare in Japan!), Cotaru! Their food selection is mainly curries, but what I’ve really been meaning to try from them is their ice cream (being an adult means you get to have ice cream for breakfast, ok)! They have a variety of different soft serve flavors as well as floats and parfaits, but today I’m going for the Potato Parfait, which really is their milk soft serve, a slim piece of sweet poato, and some corn flakes at the bottom.
The ice cream was super smooth, rich, and the perfect creamy texture! It also didn’t just taste like generic soft serve, but rather had an obvious milk flavor to it which was pretty nice. The potato was like a cold, baked potato texture: soft, somewhat creamy but not mushy, and slid easily out of the skin and went well flavor-wise with the ice cream. The corn flakes that came with the parfait, I’m sure were normal corn flakes, but had less roasty and lighter flavor than other ones I’ve had, ha! My only complaint was I wish the flakes were on top rather than the bottom, but otherwise, it was nice ice cream, especially because the weather is only getting warmer here!
At this point, when I finsihed my ice cream, it was still kind of early (the reception for the parade was supposed to start at 11). I wasn’t super full either, but no “real” food places of interest/close by are really open at 10:30 in the morning, with most opening 11 at the earliest, so I kind of just wandered around, entered a few bakeries here and there, but didn’t end up getting anything, until I made my way to the meet-up location/reception at Sunmall Street. It was barely past 11, but there was already quite a few people there kind of talking, sitting, and hanging out, so I just went up to the desk where they handed me a whole bunch of free goodies.
I really had nothing much else do to, so I was just killing sometime in the area, until I spotted a friend with a couple people. I didn’t know she was coming, but it was cool that I actually saw someone I knew, so I went up her small group and joined them. Turns out it was a co-worker of hers who was also volunteering, and her childhood friend. We all casually chatted and got to know each other unti they started ushering us into lines, where we made friends with a Chinese international student from Hokkaido University behind us. Around 12, they started the opening ceremony, which had speeches from three people: the city mayor, an American guy (I forget which organization he’s from, an embassy or something?), and the comittee head and their partner. What I found the most cool was there was a sign language interpreter at the front, probably signing to someone around there.
Soon afterward we started walking, and the parade was on! We walked out of Sunmall, and towards the canal until we were on the other side of Sakaimachi Street. At the halfpoint, there was a rest stop, I think in front of the Hello Kitty Cafe, and they stopped to give people a chance to take pictures in front of the banner, give out water, and stand in the shade for a bit.
We eventually made our way back to Sunmall, and one of the event planners made a quick speech, then everyone squeezed behind the banner to take a group photo (it exists online, but everyone except the coordinators in front got blurred out).
Our new Chinese friend had some fellow friends from University come to ask us opinions for a survey, and then a whole bunch of us were super hot, and could go for ice cream. My friend recommended Misono Ice Cream, a retro ice cream parlor that I’ve actually been meaning to try for a while, because there’s indoor seating so we could take a break from walking. Even though we had a big party, we managed to easily sit at a table space, and I ordered their matcha parfait. Oh, a unique thing about Misono is that their entire menu is in kanji to fit the katakana name of the actual item. It’s pretty interesting.
Mine was actually the last item to come out, and it looked pretty good. There was just a bit of canned fruit on top, with some whipped cream, soft serve, matcha ice cream, a few red beans in the middle. It was pretty good, though most of the actual matcha came from the matcha ice cream. My complaint with this one (and I’m not sure if it was supposed to come this way), was that when I got it, half of it was melted away/liquidy already, and on top of it being hot, I had to eat it fast to still eat it as ice cream. It disappeared before I knew it…
When we all finished, we split up into two groups, as my friend’s friend had to go to Wing Bay to pick up new glasses. I went with a couple friends to check out the first after party, happening at a local gay bar from 2-5. When we arrived, there weren’t too many people, but also it was a small bar. My friends ordered drinks, but I didn’t, just because I wanted to get a feel for the atmosphere before I decided to stay or not. I’m not a very social person anyway, and the mood wasn’t my thing, plus I wanted to eat some real food, so I left to go check out a Chinese restaurant I was pretty excited to try. Unfortunately, though I would have made it by closing time, they were actually temporarily closed for the day specifically that day, though I believe they’re usually open on Sundays. This is the kind of thing Google doesn’t tell you…
I was pretty bummed about it, but no use dwelling on it, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to eat now. Any other place I was interested in trying either wasn’t open or one place wasn’t doing lunch food that late in the day, so I was a bit lost for a moment. I finally decided to just head to Sakaimachi street to potentially eat some street food or find something there, since that’s the main street and probably has business going all day. Though street food was tempting, ideally I wanted a proper meal, so I just kind of started walking down until I found something that looked good. I stumbled upon Donburi Chaya, a pretty famous kaisen don place in Otaru, which was still open, and took a look at the fake food menu outside. Like a lot of kaisen don places, some of the prices were a little high for me, but the single seafood bowls looked not too bad, and my friend is always telling me that when in Otaru you have to eat kaisen don (don’t get me wrong, I love sashimi, but they always look on the expensive side). I just figured why not, and went in.
The restaurant itself was pretty empty, but then again, it was like 3:30pm. At first, I contemplated doing the DIY bowl option, in which you choose your rice size, and select what toppings you want as opposed to ordering a pre-set menu item. Seemed a bit cost effective, but I didn’t feel like doing the math and just decided to order a normal item. There were a few I was interested in, but I ended up going for the salmon scallop minced tuna bowl, and omitted the wasabi. My favorites are salmon and scallop (I debated getting either an entire salmon or scallop), but this one had both, plus price wise wasn’t too bad.
To be honest, the bowl itself is a bit small, but they do kind of pack it aesthetically. Small portion (if it was a normal lunch I definitely would want a snack after), but since I just wanted a savory meal-ish thing, it was just right for my stomach at a time. A bit pricy for the size, but I supposed you’re paying tourist area prices and for fresh raw seafood, so there’s that. As for the food quality itself, I quite liked it, and everything was very good and tasted fresh. I’m not a fan of sushi rice, but that’s just a me thing. Plain white rice is best in my book, and I know I’m weird, so there’s that.
I had about an hour until the bus I wanted to take home, which left me perfect time to go check out Gyomu Supermarket, a local grocery store in Otaru. Why am I doing groceries in Otaru you may ask? Well, my friend told me that groceries are cheaper here, plus, the big bonus and draw is that they have a ton of more international items and goods that are nowhere to be seen at my local one in the countryside. I’ve been missing some international goods, and figured since I’m not in Otaru too often, best to actually check it out for myself.
After a brief moment of confusion on where the entrance was, I made it in, and man, I’m not exaggerating to say that it’s pretty magical, compared to the local one I go to every week. Some grocery items are indeed cheaper, and the dry foods, seasonings, and frozen food sections were stocked with so much variety of international-esque items. I took a ton of pictures, for personal research purposes, but since I didn’t want to carry too many items, spend that much money, and not have enough room in my freezer, I only got a couple of more “useful” things and held back…
With about 30 minutes left, I headed to my last stop of the day, Mister Donut! Honestly, I like myself a good donut, and I know their donuts are good, but my main goal at Mister Donut is to boba, since Otaru has a boba shortage (there were some frozen boba packs at Gyomu though!)…Read about the boba here.
I also figured I’d actually get donuts while I’m at it, so I also got 2 pon de rings, their signature item. Not pictured below are the Pon de Angel (chocolate dipped with whipped cream in the inside, 162 yen), and the Pon de Matcha Whip (matcha donut with whipped cream in the inside, 183 yen). I had the matcha one when I got home, and it was pretty good; chewy, with a strawberry chocolate dipped coating, and fluffy cream in the middle. The matcha was baked into the donut, so I didn’t get that much of the flavor…I had the chocolate one the day after as my after-school snack, and that was pretty good too. Texture was pretty similar, chewy and light, with a chocolate dip this time, along with more fluffy cream on the inside.
And then I got ont the 5 bus home!
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