On August 3, I took my new neighbor out to Sapporo to show him around. It’s his first time in Hokkaido, and he hadn’t been to Sapporo before, so I thought I’d take him around and show him the basics around Sapporo station.
We arrived around 11, which made for good timing to get lunch. Since our bus stops at Akarenga Terrace, I figured the food court on the third floor would be a good place to get a variety of options. After checking everything out, my friend wanted the zangi from Hotei, so we each got an A Lunch Set.
It’s a whole bunch of food, and though last time I managed to finish everything and scarf down all the piping hot chicken, this time neither of us could finish all of it. The good thing is that we get leftovers to take home! The bad thing is that each takeout box costs 50 yen. Boo.
After we finished our lunch, I commenced the tour! First, I took him down the underground pathway all the way to Susukino station, and then we popped out above ground to take a look around. Then we headed over to the Norbesa building, and since my friend likes anime stuff, we took a look around the Mandarake and the Suguraya stores (I might have found something…oops.).
We headed over to Tanukikoji, and since it’s mostly the same vibe, we saw all the summer festival decorations, and walked over the east side to see the Tanuki Festival briefly, look around Nijo Market, and then headed to the Animate/Book-Off corner, and browsed the stores there.
Then we headed to Odori Park to see the TV Tower, and also while we were at it, the Summer Beer Festival happening all the way until Block 12. We ended up walking the whole way, and each block was a different beer company serving giant jugs of beer and food (the last block was an international beer block though). When I say jugs, I mean jugs. Each table had this giant container of beer on tap, the shape of the container depending on the company. I wish I got a picture, but it would hav been weird taking a picture of people just enjoying their beer.
We had been walking the whole day (walking off that zangi!), and on a hot and humid day, nothing beats ice cream. I decided to take us to to the Ishiya shop, the parent company of the Shiroi Koibito cookies, only the most famous Hokkaido souvenir. The main shop only sells treats, but the cafe downstairs sells ice cream, and other fresh treats. I went for a normal size white, and although the chocolate was tempting, I wanted the plain classic soft serve.
Even a regular is pretty tall, and it was plenty of nice, soothing, refreshing ice cream. The soft serve was fluffy, not too thick or creamy, and there was a light milk flavor too.
After our ice cream break, we went to go see the Clock Tower, which is a must-see for first timers in Sapporo, for various reasons. With some time to kill, we headed in the Sapporo Station direction, and checked out the Pokemon Center. There’s actually a Pokemon Festival happening, where you can dance with Pikachu, fill out a Daimary stamp rally, and win a headband, At one point while we were shopping, the staff all stopped to do a collective dance for a few minutes. There was a photo spot, and it was one of those “use your flash and a hidden image appears!” type cool ones.
Daimaru had a cute Rilakkuma pop-up shop, so I went to go see that. Everything was so cute, there were some Hokkaido exclusives, but I didn’t need
Finished with the tour for the day, we went back to Akarenga Terrace, where our bus stop is. Of course, I had to pick up boba for the ride home, and I went with Gong Cha, which was the most convenient. Read about my boba here!
And then we got on the bus at 5 to go home!
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