For various reasons, I stayed the night in Sapporo from December 1st to the 2nd. This was my last forseeable time I would be in Sapporo before leaving to go home for the holidays, so I thought I’d make the most of it while I was there.
December 1st: I got on the soonest bus to Sapporo right after work, and ended up arriving around 7:20. My first stop after getting off the bus was actually Shin An Ju, to get boba. The shop is supposed to close at 9, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go after I check into my hotel and then get dinner, and it would be on the way to the hotel anyway. I had a coupon I needed to use and other drinks to get over the weekend, so I needed to get a drink that day. I ended up drinking about half before dinner, and the rest afterward. Read about my boba here!
I tried reserving a restaurant in the area, but apparently they were full instead of being open like my reservation site said, so I ended up going to an oden izakaya next to my hotel. It was basically 8 after I put down my stuff, and I didn’t want to venture out much further because I wanted to eat. Luckily, they had seats open, and I was seated at the bar. The service was really nice, and they even took my jacket, hung it on the rack, and handed it back to me when I was leaving. I ordered a bunch of stuff that sounded good at the moment…
Everything was good! The sole skewer might look lonely, but I always order gizzard now thanks to my friend…All the oden stuff was great, soaked up the broth well, and the broth had the perfect amount of flavor. I also ordered the wappe meshi because I was curious, and it turns out it’s a Niigata or Fukushima specialty rice dish cooked in the wappa round container. Here, they put veggies and salmon. That was also great, well seasoned, and though I’m not usually a soggy rice person. the diy chazuke was really good.
I considered going to an evening parfait place, but I decided that I was full and just wanted to get back to the hotel early, finish my boba, and chill for the night.
December 2nd: My projected breakfast of the day was the seasonal parfait and tea at Afternoon Tea, a national cafe chain. I recently learned their current seasonal parfait is this Christmas Tree parfait, and of the seasonal teas was a sparkling apple one. I wanted to try them before the season is over, so I headed over for when they open at 10. As an aside, Japanese people really like lining up and waiting for places to open (I’m sure they have goals in mind like I do). The parfait comes with pistachio whipped cream, strawberry gelato, earl grey chocolate pudding, green grape jelly, and is topped with 3 types of berries and sprinkles, and some kind of crunchy topping. The seasonal tea I got uses their Double Apple sparkling tea base with apple, raspberry and apple flavored jelly, with apple sauce to pour in on the side. You can actually buy the tea base at the storeThe drink is originally 980, but because I ordered it as a set, there was a discount (though more than a normal drink set, like a coffee or a plain tea).
I actually quite liked the parfait overall. The berries added a nice slight sourness to the pretty sweet parfait, and the chocolate pudding and the strawberry gelato was very good. The whipped cream tasted mostly like whipped cream, and the only thing I’d complain about would be that it was so stacked that the crunchy bits kept falling off.
I love apple flavored things, so I really wanted to like the tea. The sauce by itself was good, but once mixed into the drink, it was just a bit too fizzy with little actual drink flavor despite having slices of apple, raspberries, and some herb. The jelly was fine.
I went to check out Fuwamochitei while I was in the Mitsukoshi basement for their bagel selection. and ended up walking away with 5 (oops!): dark chocolate, chocolate chip, matcha white chocolate chip, whole wheat, and a seasonal filled apple custard. They are indeed fluffy like their name suggests.
On my way to the main station area, I stopped by Don Quihote for a gacha for a series I like that just came out, and I got my favorite from among the bunch! Surely that meant it was supposed to be a good day.
After doing some casual window shopping, I headed to my lunch spot of the day for some casual yakiniku for lunch! I highly considered the Shiromi set which is also what they have in-house from their farm, but I’m a big tongue fan, so the tongue one won me over. You get to choose a drink, a salad dresing, and a dessert, so I went with oolong tea, Chinese-style sesame dressing, and their ice cream of the day, cookies and cream. They offered me gochujang paste, nanban miso, and togarashi, but I don’t do spice, so I declined. The best part about K-place and the reason they’ve been on my list for so long? At lunchtime, rice refills are free! As a rice girlie, I had to take advantage of that…
The salad was mostly leaves and onions and some crunchy thing aside from the dressing, which was ok, as I like sesame dressing anyway. I liked all the sides included on the plate: a slice of caramalized sweet potato, kimchi, very lightly spiced bean sprouts, and tofu with a miso-esque sauce. There were also two dipping sauces, a more sweet, sesame soy one and a lighter oily one (couldn’t tell exactly). The soup was nice and reminiscent of a Korean seaweed soup. As for the meat, I guess I should have expected this for lunch portions, but my plate had three slices of medium thickness tongue, and four slices of the skirt steak. I know I picked this set for the tongue, but I preferred the skirt cut out of the two more. It was juicy, meaty, and the perfect thickness and chewiness. I think if the tongue was a thinner or thicker cut, it would have been better, but it was just in between that I wanted to cook it through, but it ended up being pretty chewy. Maybe it was a user error. Their rice was actually really good quality, and I got a second, smaller bowl for the refill, but I did my best in holding back getting more…The ice cream was pretty good too.
Surprisingly I wasn’t too full (is that good or bad?), which was perfect timing to go to Starbucks and get the new seasonal frappucino. Along the way, I passed through the underground again, and noticed quite a few Ainu displays and booths. Apparently, this weekend in particular they were showcasing Ainu artists. Very cool. I’d have gotten something if it was my aesthetic or if there was a deck of playing cards, but fortunately for my wallet, there was neither.
I exited the underground a bit early to come out at Odori Park, because it’s on the way to Parco, and I was hunting for the Hatsune Miku Manholes that were installed a few months ago. Hokkaido is home to Snow Miku, and I guess because of this they decided to install 5 Miku manholes around Sapporo in some of the touristy places. 3 are a bit further out of the central area, but the other 2 are within reasonable distance of the station. Earlier in the morning before breakfast I actually went and found the Susukino one.
While I was at Odori Park, I saw a bunch of Santas.
I saw the description on Facebook by coincidence later, but apparently this was “Sapporo Santa Fun”. From 1-3pm, “about 50 people dressed as Santa will walk downtown from City Hall”, with the entry fee donated to buy gifts for kids. It’s also their first event in 4 years.
There’s a ton of Starbucks around, but I went to the Parco one because I wanted to get a free water refill at Muji (Japan Travel Hack!), and it would be closest to where I wanted to go next. I was here for the frapp, but also was very tempted to get some of their sweets, like the new chocolate donut and the Uji matcha chiffon cake. I ended up with just the chiffon cake (455 yen), because last time I got the matcha donut it was just ok (though that might have been a user error because I saved it for a couple days later, and matcha doesn’t bake well). Perhaps the donut at a later time if it’s not too limited.
The frappucino comes with their Merry Cream (white chocolate flavored with marscapone cheese whipped cream), roasted pistachio, white chocolate, and I subbed with nonfat milk. Aside from being a seasonal, I was interested in this because pistachios are the only nut I eat, and though I like pistachios, I’ve never really tried to eat anything pistachio-flavored. Oddly enough, pistachio flavored things (chocolate, cookies, etc.) are pretty common here, and the green color makes it more appealing during the holidays (see parfait above!). The drink itself was ok, I guess, I didn’t taste much pistachio per se, but I did get some kind of herbal-y flavor aside from the creaminess, which was probably the pistachio. Do all pistachio things taste like this? It was an interesting try. As for the chiffon cake, I did fridge it and save it when I got home, but it was pretty fluffy and airy, along with plenty of whipped cream.
My next stop was to go to Hokkaido Sushi Roll, a recently opened sushi roll/burito takeout shop using Hokkaido ingredients. I wasn’t going to eat it right then, but I was thinking of getting it to go (takeout only anyway) and eating it later at home. There were various salmon, wagyu, and zangi options, but I went with the teriyaki wagyu cut after the guy recommended that or the cream cheese salmon one. I will say, this guy was also probably low key judging me. For one, he asked if it was just for myself, and when he heard it was just me, he recommended a burrito style, which was basically a half. I told him I was going to bring it home, so then he said a cut or a half-half burrito would be good. Then, he pointed at my frappucino cup and said, “Isn’t that a cold drink?” Anyway, after I ordered, they reheated the wagyu strips on a hot pan, and rolled it fresh, including an extra bottle of the teriyaki sauce.
I did carry it around for a bit before eating it at home, and this isn’t the type of thing you can really microwave . I’ll also say they say wagyu, but the A5 grade super marbled meat isn’t always wagyu, because wagyu just means Japanese beef. Anyway, the overall roll was pretty good, with lots of sauce, some cabbage, and of course, the beef. I did think the mayo to actual teriyaki ration was a bit heavy on the mayo, but I didn’t really use the extra bottle (and saved it for later). The teriyaki sauce on its own though, wasn’t super strong in any flavor department. The beef was very meaty, and a bit chewy, though maybe that was a result of letting it sit. I’d probably go back again to try the other flavors, and hopefully eat it sooner.
Before heading home, I needed to get boba, so I headed back to Daimaru. While I was there, I checked out the current Jujutsu Kaisen Exhibition (didn’t go in, but saw the decoration on the outside), and checked out the Pokemon Center for good measure.
Around 3:30, I headed to The Alley for their new seasonal drink and to use some coupons before my bus at 4. Read about my boba here!
This time around, I stayed in Tmark Hotel Sapporo, which we’ve actually stayed in before. The overall hotel is nice, though the rooms I’ve been in have been a little worn down in places, but as a place to stay, it does the job and no real complaints. It’s pretty inexpensive compared to other hotels for a hotel, and for just a bit more than a hostel, you can have a private space and the actual hotel experience. Not sure about their actual site, but I’ve been using Agoda to book.
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