On June 1st, my friends invited me out to go strawberry picking Yoichi! I have been dying to go strawberry picking since I went in Tokyo last year, and the Hokkaido strawberry season typically starts in June. Quite a few places in the Shiribeshi area do cherries (Niki!) and grapes (Niki and Yoichi!), but I didn’t know any that did strawberries here, and thought that the closest one would be this farm I found in Sapporo. Pleasantly surprised, I immediately said yes!
Now you may be wondering, why the title isn’t Yoichi Diaries. and we’ll get there. My friends were renting a car for the day, and I was supposed to meet them at Yoichi station at 8:45. Luckily, the bus I usually take to Sapporo gets to Yoichi around then, so once I arrived, my friends were able to pick me up immediately. We drove over to the fruit orchard, but when we asked about parking directions, the lady thought we were there to buy fruit, and not pick fruit. It turns out, that day, they were reservation only, even though their website says no reservations are needed (and my friend was able to go last year without one). We waited for our other friends to pull up to reconvene, and one went, “For now, people are probably hungry, so wanna grab gelato in Niseko?”
For those unaware, she easily suggested an hour drive down to Niseko. No one really minded the distance, and everyone was down for ice cream, and we arrived at Ruhiel, a cute and quaint gelato shop kind of not near much other civilization, around 10. They had a variety of flavors, but I went for chocolate and houjicha on a cone.
Unfortunately, the chocolate was a fast melter, but it was super smooth and luscious and chocolatey! The houjicha was also very yum, a bit thicker than the chocolate, and rich in houjicha flavor without being bitter at all. Us cone people were quite a bit dissapointed that the gelato didn’t fill into the cone and we were left with empty air, but I wonder what the actual difference between cup and cone is. Definitely recommend this cute gelato shop and the vibes!
We all finished our ice cream around 10:30, and it was a bit early to start thinking about lunch plans, so in the meantime, we decided to go to Takahashi Farm, a local one in the Niseko area. The farm is made up of various buildings, including a chocolate specialty shop, a pastry shop, a pizza restaurant, a souvenir goods shop, and a shed dedicated to selling local produce. We checked out the produce shack first, and I bought some potatoes for my boyfriend, who’s been looking for big potatoes.
Next we went to the pastry shop, Milk Factory. They had a whole ton of goods there, and it smelled amazing. After much agonizing, I gave in and bought a cream puff since it looked just too good. Everyone in our group also ended up getting something, whether it was also the cream puff, the cheese tart, or a souffle. One friend even bought a cheese tart and a cream puff, and then also more ice cream.
We then headed over to the chocolate shop, Cacao Crown, and though they had a cafe space with many tempting chocolate products, we all settled on buying some individual portioned goods. I got the Craft Chocolate cookie (400 yen), since chocolate chip or chunk cookies like this are quite rare in Japan, and one of their milk chocolate bars. They had 3 milks, 2 darks, and 1 white, but the darks seemed a bit too dark, and I went with this milk since the taste profile leaned less towards spice and more towards fruity (1200 yen). I figured, it’s hard to get to this area without a car, so I might as well get what I want while I’m here!
The views were really pretty, but unfortunately Mt. Yotei was covered by a bunch of clouds that day. For those who are willing to come up to Hokkaido, there’s a Lawson Mt Fuji dupe photo spot in the area too!
The cream puff was particularly intriguing because of the large size, and the weird light speckled bits on top. Overall, it was an ok cream puff, and though it was still flaky and a bit crispy, I think it would have been much better being kept warm or getting one fresh, and having it even crispier. The concept is really similar the one bakery in Kutchan, which does it better I think.The cream was really good though, thick, and very vanilla-y. The light bits on top turned out to be particularly crunchy bits.
I had the cookie the next day, and without heating it up, I ate it straight with some tea on the side. It’s a rather sweet cookie, but really satisfies my American taste buds. The cookie is a bit stiff, not crunchy hard, and I loved the giant chocolate chunks. The chocolate itself was interestingly not that sweet, which helped balance it all out. It was pretty rich though.
Although the chocolate bar was lableed as milk chocolate, it’s actually not that sweet at all. It’s more a semi-sweet leaning a bit more on the bitter side. Probably not completely dark chocolate, but a just right chocolate bar for my taste buds.
With a lunch-appropriate time coming up, my friend suggested a nearby udon restaurant that seems to be popular and garners a line, so we headed over to check it out. It was in this little house type building, and truly felt like we were eating udon in the middle of nowhere. After waiting a bit, we were able to go again, and we all ordered some version of their chicken tempura udon. I wanted a cold one, and chicken tempura is right up my alley. This one is apparently their number 1 most popular, and uses their housemade sauce and 3 Hokkaido chicken tempura with 2 vegetable tempura (which ended up being a carrot, and a green pepper). It also came with a side of marinated mushrooms, and topped with green onion, a lemon wedge, grated radish, and some ginger. I ditched the ginger and lemon.
It came in a large bowl, and I really liked it! The udon was very chewy, the sauce was just the right amount of savoriness and al the tempura was super fresh and crispy! Unlike the chicken tempura I had in Sapporo which was all white meat, this one seemed to be chunks of thigh meat, almost like if a piece of karaage was batterd and fried with just tempura batter. Don’t get me wrong, the chicken tempura was still amazing and juicy, but I’ve still been searching for an equally tender white meat chicken tempura to this day…The bowl was well worth it!
My friend’s two Japanese friends needed to head back at this point, and the rest of us drove over to Hangetsukohan Nature Park because we saw there was a lake on Google Maps. There was a clear trail that led into the mountain, and with the help of the map that was located in the bathroom and the signs along the way, we managed to find the lake in the midst of all the trees. The bathroom was quite a cute aesthetic too.
Turns out, the only people willing to go all the way in were foreigners, as there was a group of 4 fishing when we got there, and a couple hiking in when we left.
At this point, we were thinking about a cafe to go hang out in, and after browsing some options in the area and seeing one of my friends look up shaved ice, I suggested Cafe 909, the really cute shaved ice place I went in Kutchan a while back. After looking at the menu, three of us stayed while my friend went to get some groceries. I split the strawberry one with a friend, and the other one got the milk caramel nuts. After noticing they had a mango on the rack, the owner told us that although not on the menu, they were offering Taiwan mango ice as well.
The shaved ice was really good, and almost better than I remember it! Although shaved in thin sheets, it seemed almost fluffier than last time, and the guy pureed fresh strawberries right there and layered the sauce in the middle and on top, and added some freshly cut ones at the bottom.
We were all tired, so we ended the day there. Big thanks to the friend that drove the car all day!
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