Annie's Excursions

On July 27th, I went out to Sapporo to do some casual shopping, see what’s up locally, and to go get some good eats.

I left on my normal bus, and arrived around 10:20. Instead of waiting for 11 to roll around for an early lunch, I headed to JS Pancake Cafe for a pancake brunch. Around June, they started a collaboration with Hello Kitty, and not only did the pancakes look really delicious, but also, super cute. Plus, if you order a combination of items, you can get a free collaboration item too. I went for the peach pie pancake over the kiwi one, and because if you order a drink, you can get a random hand mirror, I went with the mango version of the banana juice. I’m not a huge banana person, but I figured the mango would pair well for a tropical vibe. Plus, the drink would come with a coaster too. The collab parfait also looked really good, but that really would have been a bit much…

The banana juice was, well, banana-y, but also creamy, and the mango syrup helped to make it less banana-y. I will say I avoided drinking the hello kitty on top until the very last second, and it ended up being this kind of weird clump that went up the straw at the end.

The pancakes came with a crispy pie later, fruit ice, fresh peach, a vanilla custard whip, and a peach berry sauce. They were super fluffy, and I liked the cripiness of the pie layer. The fruit ice was interesting, like an icy block of fruit, and I liked the juicy peach slices. The vanilla whip was really good, and the sauce was not too sweet, with a bit of tartness too. I kind of expected the size of the pancakes to be bigger, but this was actually a nice size now that I think about it.

I went to go browse the current selection at Wego a couple floors up, and right across the store, I saw that there was a stamp rally happening that weekend to promote the release of Inside Out 2, or in Japan, Inside Head. If you complete the rally, you get to enter a lottery for free prizes, and I had time, so why not? I ran up and down the JR tower, doing some personal window shopping along the way, and ended up winning the most basic participation prize. I don’t particularly care about Inside Out, so getting anything at all was pretty cool.

One of my main goals this day trip was to hunt for a swimsuit, specifically, a reasonably priced one. The last time I went looking around at dedicated swimsuit stores, they were all in the 20,000 yen range, and even though some were cute, I am not buying a $100 swimsuit. I did go back to those places, and sure enough, the prices drove me away…I did manage to find a new place, which is actually a general sportswear store which went under my radar the last time. Their stuff was still cute, and their prices this time more reasonable, with the average in the 10,000 range. They were also doing some sales, and I managed to get one under 10,000! Still a bit, but definitely more worth it.

I was in the Tanukikoji area heading to my lunch spot, and they had decorations up for the Tanuki Festival. I believe there was a “Bargain festival” happening starting 5pm that day, where a bunch of street food would be uber cheap, but I didn’t think was sticking around for that long.

After a sweet breakfast, a few hours later, I felt it was time for a savory lunch. For whatever reason, I really didn’t go to the Susukino area the past few times I was in Sapporo, so I hit up a Thai place I had been meaning to try (the reason I chose Siam over Manee the last time I had Thai was because Manee doesn’t offer Thai tea…). I am a pad see ew girlie, and I made sure it was on their menu before I went. It actually came out really fast, and piping hot.

The first thing I noticed was that this was the first time I had seen thin noodles used in pad see ew. Nevertheless, it had all the basic components, and it tasted pretty good. The sweet and savory sauce had caramelized and coated the noodles and ingredients really nicely, and everything was super hot and just covered in the sauce.

I had passed the Norbesa building, and out of sheer coincidence, I saw that there was a Hatsune Miku exhibition happening, so I went to check it out. I managed to catch some glimpses from outside of the white barriers, and it looked pretty cool. Unfortunately, it’s not a free exhibition, and I wasn’t feeling like paying to see it.

I also feel like it’s been a hot minute since I had a proper parfait in Sapporo, and there’s still quite a few places on my to-try list. I decided to go for Shiawase no Recipe Sweet, and their Susukino branch is open from 2pm on the weekends. Usually, they’re an evening only parfait place. They all looked good, but I went for the smaller, chocolate milk tea one, which came with chocola gelato, royal milk tea gelato, vanilla gelato, fresh milk gelato, white mochi balls, whip cream, banana, and a cookie.

What was interesting about this one is that this parfait was basically a glorified 4 scoops of gelato, but hey, they were all very good. The chocolate was deep and rich, the milk tea tasted like a ice cream version of a Japanese milk tea, the vanilla was rich and strong, and the milk was creamy, but light and actually milky. The milk one took up most of the glass, and the vanilla and milk tea were kind of flattened to make space for the proper scoop of chocolate on top.

I wanted a change of pace from my usual boba places, so I found a cafe that speciliazes in Chinese teas that offers boba, and I went to go try it. Bund Cafe is a really cute and tiny cafe, and I’ll definitely be back to try out their sweets. It was a little awkward walking in and immediately asking for a takeout drink, but I made it work. The lady was super nice and even gave me a glass of water while I waited. Read about my boba here!

On my way back to the bus stop, I passed by Odori park, and saw some banners for the current Sapporo Summer Festival. It’s a summer festival, but most of the main events were just promotions for different beer brands from mid-July to mid-August. There are supposed to be Bon Dances August 11-16 and a Susukino Festival August 1-3, but I’m not planning on going to Sapporo then, at least. I passed by this interesting cute little garden thing in Odori park. From what I could make out, this was the result of some contest or something. There was another flower decoration a bit away.

I had heard that you can get a card with the Miku Manhole on it from the Odori Park Tourist Information Center, and sure enough, when I asked, they gave me one. Cool!

It was a little past 3 when I arrived at Akarenga Terrace, and I remembered that Uni Donuts has tended to restock their inventory at 3pm. I hurried up, and there weren’t too many people, and they had a ton of donuts. I got a matcha one, and a plain one to compare.

I did eat the matcha one the next day, and though the outside wasn’t as perfect looking anymore, it was fluffy, and thin, because the inside was packed with rich, thick, fluffy, and airy matcha cream.

Right outside of Akarenga Terrace was the Sapporo August Festival. There was this giant cloth covering the ground, a live stage, this tall structure for dancing around, and food trucks offering gelato, craft coke, croquettes, and mazesoba. I think the actual bon dance would happen later in the evening.

This weekend was also the weekend of the Otaru Ushio Festival. I thought about making a stop in Otaru on the way home if I had time, but I did go last year, saw the parade, and I didn’t think there would be much for me to do other than see the stage again and check out the food stalls, so I just went home.

Then I got on the bus at 4 to go home!

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