Annie's Excursions

On December 14th, I went out to Sapporo for a last casual outing this year. Scouring the theaters for merchandise for the new Cells at Work live action movie that came out the day prior. Some last minute shopping. I’m hoping the movie is still playing on a discount day when I get back from the holiday break…

I got on my usual bus to Sapporo, and immediately headed to Cocono. A new freshly-made musubi shop opened in Cocono a few days prior, and I was excited to try it. Musubi may not be the most revolutionary thing in the world, but I love a good fresh rice ball. They have a variety of toppings, optional avocado, and other sides, but I went with the basic, namesake of raw salmon. It seems that all of the musubis come with a thick slice of egg.

The musubi came out really warm, and it’s pretty decently sized. Inside was the giant slab of egg, and a thin layer of salmon. The egg was soft, and just a bit sweet, but the salmon didn’t really come through. Maybe because there wasn’t much compared to the egg, or the salmon flavor is a lot more subtle than the egg. The seared salmon one sounds good though.

I went upstairs to the Cocono theater to check out the Cells at Work merchandise offerings. Everything was super cute, and some of them were quite amusing, but luckily for my wallet, nothing really called out to me.

I was going to wait until 11 for Lemonade to open, but then I saw a sign. Apparently, due to the snow, their stock shipment has been delayed, so the menu was condensed into the most basic items. I really wanted to try the matcha lemonade with my remaining coupon, so I guess that will have to wait until the next time I can go before January 31.

As 11 rolled around, I went to Animate. For a few weeks, Animate is doing a campaign: every 1100 yen spent on Cells at Work products, earns a free reversible movie poster. The merchandise selection was mostly the same as the theater, so getting somthing at Animate would at least get you a freebie. I went with a platelet fibrin pouch, which earned me two posters. One I didn’t care for, and one had a character I kind of care for. I didn’t get the character I wanted (aka, my favorite actor who’s in this movie).

Before hitting up my lunch spot, I popped into the other shops in the Animate building. I made a quick stop at the Marui building to pick up another pair of Uniqlo Heattech leggings, and then off to eat some beef! Along the way, I spotted this year’s Snow Miku street car.

I’ve been meaning to try Kurobekoya for a while, especially their lunch time meals. However, trying their really hard-to-chew steak bowl this year at the Autumn Fest left me a little traumatized. However, I’ve decided to chalk it up to it being prepared at a food stand, and giving their actual restaurant a chance.

They’re a beef place, and seem to pride themselves on their roast beef. I went with the half beef tongue, and upgraded it to the oni size, which adds 200 grams of meat. I think no matter what you order though, the lunch deals are extremely worth it. It comes with a drink, a soup, and an unlimited customizable salad buffet. They even asked me at ordering if I was alright with the egg, fish roe, and shiso on top. I’m not huge on shiso, but the picture just had a little on top, so I went with the everything default. For my drink, I went with oolong tea.

The service was very fast, and before I knew it, my meal came out. The salad bar had potato salad, shredded cabbage, okura, and defrosted cauliflower. The available toppings were bonito flakes, sesame seeds, and egg miso. You could choose between caesar, ume, or sesame dressing. The sesame dressing was the best, and the caesar was, interesting…not as ranch-y as America, but does scratch the craving. The soup was a really nice, light, beef broth with some veggies and thin beef slices in it.

As for the main bowl, it was really good! The tongue was a bit tough for some pieces, but I also imagine it was because I took my time eating the meal. The roast beef was thin, in between a tender and a slight chew texture. The egg yolk was fine, and I didn’t really notice the fish roe, but it did make the whole experience fancy. I didn’t mind the shiso as much, and made for a refreshing change in taste! The rice underneath the whole thing was seasoned with sauce and garlic, and very good quality rice.

After lunch, I headed to Stellar Place to check out the Cells at Work merchandise there, in case it was any different. It was, in fact, the same as the other theater, and Animate. Go figure.

I went next door to the Daimaru building to the Pokemon store. Unfortunately, I had something to purchase, which meant waiting in the longest line I’ve ever had to at the Pokemon store. I waited almost in hour to buy a tiny keychain and a set of Pokemon cards.

For a mid-day snack, I waited another 20 minutes in line for Afternoon Tea. For about a month, they released a Christmas menu, including this year’s parfait. There’s also this crab pasta and snow dome strawberry cake, but I ultimately chose to just get the parfait during this seasonal period. It’s actually different from last year’s, with a rose aroma strawberry confiture, cream cheese whipped cream, apple tea jelly, pistachio ice cream, and a cinnamon crumble. There were also fresh strawberries and blackberries.

This parfait was really yummy, and I liked all parts of it. The jelly had a light refreshing flavor, the pistachio ice cream was rich and pistachio-forward, and the sweet components went nicely with the tart strawberry jam at the bottom. The description says cinnamon crumble, but it really tasted like crushed up biscoff (which probably has cinnamon). Not a huge cream cheese person, but otherwise wa a fan of everything else.

I’m learning that although the super fancy parfaits are nice to have and try out, ultimately, I’m a slightly elevated parfait person that needs to like everything in the parfait, like at Afternoon Tea or Cafe Noymond. I can’t help but want to try out other luxurious seasonal ones though…

After my parfait, I bought a couple seasonal cakes from Daimaru’s LeTao location. One is an apple tart with apples from Aomori, and the other is a pistachio chocolate ball. The tart is made with house-made original whipped cream, apricot sauce, Aomori Tsugaru apple, custard cream, almond sable cookie, and an almond mound crust. The pitstachio one has a pistachio brulee, franboise jam, pistachio crunch, pistachio buttercream, mousse chocolat vanille, genooise chocolat, almond chocolat feuillantine.

These were both very good, so good that I think these are in my all-time top picks from LeTao. LeTao is always good, but these really impressed me. For the tart, the apricot sauce actually came in a baby bottle to squeeze out to your liking. The sauce was sour, but went well with the sweet, cooked apple on top. The base was flaky, and paired well with the toppings. As for the pistachio ball, the pistachio flavor is really apparent, with the outer crunch and inside cream. The chocolate cookie and cake layer inside were moist, and overall, I thoroughly enjoyed both treats.

I stopped by The Alley to hopefully use my coupon…but they ran out of boba, so I wasn’t giving them business. Instead, I got boba from Gong Cha. As a side note, both shops were sold out of their Christmas specials, and the Gong Cha gingerbread man bottle had sold out a week before. I knew getting them early was the right call! Read about my boba here!

I got on the bus at 5 to go home! The illumination outside of Akarenga Terrace is super pretty. Every few minutes or so there’s a mini show with the lights!

As a side note, for the first time in the 2.5 years I’ve been here, they raised the overall bus prices. The Sapporo-Otaru bus ride increased a little a few months ago, but now my entire bus ride has significantly gone up. Very sad, and my wallet is going to take a hit.