On November 30th, I went to my first concert in Japan! A group I really like, NiziU, announced their 2024 tour a few months ago, and they’re coming back to Hokkaido! I’ll spare you the details, but long story short, I managed to snag a ticket! Because the concert would end late, I stayed the weekend in Sapporo. It’s been a busy November for me!
November 30: It’s the day of the concert, so I’m heading in to Sapporo!
I took my normal bus to Sapporo, and right after I got off, I immediately headed to my lunch spot of choice. Hachibousei seems to be a relatively well-known tsukemen spot, which for some reason is also known for their lu rou fan. My friend previousy recommended it, and said it was one of the best lu rou fan she ever had.
They open at 11, and I thought I would get there a bit early, so I popped into a few shops to briefly window shop along the way. I arrived a few minutes before 11, and there was already a line waiting outside the small shop. Even though it was snowing a bit, I had severely underestimated Japanese people’s dedication to lining up for good food.
I was able to enter as soon as 11 hit, but although I was able to buy a food ticket, I was literally the first person to not get a table. Oops. I went with their lunch set, which comes with a soup of choice, and a mini rice bowl of choice. The soup options were Oudou, spicy, shrimp, rich, miso, medicinal, chicken salt, and back fat. I went with the Oudou, since that’s their basic soup. It’s made with shellfish, chicken bones, pork bones, and soy sauce. The rice bowl options were lu rou fan, chicken and raw egg over rice, or a chicken beef tartare-style bowl. Of course, I had to get the lu rou fan.
The meal was amazing! The broth itself wasn’t too thick or salty like tsukemen broths tend to be. This broth did lean on the fishy side (as opposed to the chicken or pork bones in it), and did have some surprise pieces of meat in it. The noodles were thick and chewy, but did need a bit of soaking in the broth first. The braised pork was super flavorful, a bit on the sweet side, and the meat chunks were very tender. I wouldn’t say it’s the most authentic braised pork rice, but it was yummy. They have sauces you can add, and seemingly unlimited seaweed sheets. Towards the end of the meal, they give you hot broth to dilute the soup.
After lunch, I made a brief stop at Norbesa to spin some gacha, and then I went to Cocono for their Zoff store. Zoff is a domestic glasses store chain that’s known as having affordable glasses and can help you get your prescription in 30 minutes. Just the day before, Zoff announced their collaboration with Sanrio, and released a bunch of frames themed around Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, and My Melody. I just happened to need to go frame shopping and lost my sunglasses recently (rip, and still a mystery), so I couldn’t pass up My Melody glasses.
Cocono is celebrating its 1st anniversary, so there’s a bunch of campaigns at the moment. Right next to the Zoff store, there was this giant gacha machine, which you could potentially win prizes like a stay at the connected hotel. To qualitfy, you would need to spend at least 1000 yen at anywhere in Cocono. As a participation prize, everyone in line gets a special Cocono phone stand, a ticket for a free crane game chance, and a 100 yen coupon for the new Lemonade shop.
After winning nothing (even with 5 tries…), I headed to the nearby Uniqlo to do some Heattech shopping. I heard some good things about their leggings, so I wanted to invest in something new this winter. Then I stopped by Tokumitsu Coffee to get my dad’s favorite coffee to bring home over the holidays.
Since I’d be heading to the concert in the evening, the only time to get boba was as an afternoon snack. I went to Gong Cha, because they recently rereleased their gingerbread man bottles for the holiday season. Read about my boba here!
It was almost 4pm, so I could finally check in to my hostel. I put down my things, and thought about what to do about dinner. The concert starts at 6, but doors open at 5. According to what I read online, the average NizU Live lasts about 3 hours. To account for foot traffic, I made a reservation for a parfait place I wanted to go at 10.
I ended up stopping by the takeout stand of Cocono’s Espresso D Works and grabbing a sandwich in case I got hungry at any point. I didn’t end up eating it that day, but I saved it for breakfast the next morning.
I took the subway to Hokkaido Kitayell around 4:30. It seems like every year NiziU holds the Hokkaido leg of their tour in this stadium. Outside the main entrance, there were booths for people to enter lotteries for special priviledges, sign up for a membership, and buy merchandise. I didn’t want to bother with the line, and I didn’t feel a need for merch, so I joined the line when they opened the doors.
Unfortunately, they didn’t allow pictures inside the seating area, but the stage set up was very pretty. They started right at 6, and up until 8:30, all of the NiziU members continuously sang and danced live with the exception of a few talk breaks and costume changes. This included an encore, which I estimate their unofficial end time at 8, and then they came back out.
Surprisingly, I managed to leave with the first wave, and I was back in central Sapporo around 9. Luckily, my 10pm reservation let me in early, with the caveat that they might not get my food out right away. I was perfectly happy with that as long as I had somewhere indoors to chill. The cafe has a unique one parfait, one drink per person policy, so I ordered their newest apple parfait, along with a tea from Kumamoto. The parfait is made of apple jelly, apple compote, honey yuzu mousse, Betsukai butter danish, caramel apple saute, bancha jelly, fresh apple, yuzu sorbet, hazelnut and praline ice cream, chestnut mont blanc, pecans, kadaif, and a chocolate decoration. The tea is brewed to order, poured at your table, and includes two refills.
Now, if anyone knows me, this parfait seems full of things I’m not a huge fan of: yuzu, fresh apple, nuts, and mont blanc. So what the heck am I doing? I like apple flavored things, and I’ve been meaning to try out this cafe at some point, so it doesn’t hurt to try new things.
Overall, I had a good time. The tea was fragrant, and I’m glad I went with hot instead of iced as it contrasted the cold parfait and weather nicely. It tasted like a slightly roasted greent tea.
The parfait was not too bad either. The apple slices were thin, and I liked the apple puree parts at the bottom the best. The kadaif had a cinnamon essence to it, and the layers at the bottom especially gave apple pie vibes. The mont blanc part was a bit too concentrated in chesnut creaminess, but I probably should have mixed that with something else. Both the hazelnut ice cream and yuzu sorbet tasted strongly of their flavors, and surprisingly, I didn’t hate either. The yuzu was like a bright frozen lemonade-y treat.
December 1: The day after the NiziU concert, I was chilling in Sapporo and doing some miscellaneous shopping.
I used the toaster in the hostel kitchen to heat up my croissant sandwich from the day before. The croissant ended up flaky, and there was a decent amount of well seasoned pastrami. There were a couple slices of tomato, some lettuce leaves, and I believe some kind of sauce. Overall, very yummy.
I checked out of the hostel at 10, and went to do some shopping at the Tokyu building. Unsure about what to do for lunch, I headed back to Cocono, because there’s a ton of options there. I remebered as part of the 1st Anniversary campaign, Kitamaru was doing a discount on their Makanai Don for a couple of weeks. The normal price is 1408 yen, but they reduced it to 1100 in their campaign period.
I believe this rice bowl comes with egg, squid, salmon, tuna, seaweed, cucumber, pickled mackerel, scallop(?), and topped with wasabi and green onion. On the side, is a plate of soy sauce, miso soup, salad, and pickles. I really liked the salad dressing they used, bright, acidic, but not too strong. The pickles had a slight gingery taste to them, and the soup was very soothing. The rice bowl itself was an interesting experience. The choice of seafood on top was very interesting, and the most unusual part was the sticky seaweed. I normally like seaweed, but this had a slimy texture reminent of natto. I personally didn’t think it went well with the overall dish, but maybe that’s a personal problem.
Because I spent 1000 yen at a Cocono establishment, I was eligible to take another spin at the giant gacha. I didn’t get anything this time either, but I recieved a second phone stand, crane game coupon, and a Lemonade coupon. Armed with two lemonade coupons, I figured I should use one, and opted for the strawberry one.
Their lemonade is very yummy and refreshing! The Strawberry Crush comes with sparkling lemonde and strawberry puree. There were some tiny pulpy bits, which gave the drink an occasional textural change. The lemonade was just slightly carbonated, for the effect without a strong hit of fizziness in the mouth. It wasn’t too sweet or too sour. The drink ended pretty quickly, and I was left with much ice.
I stopped by Daiso for some homegoods, bought a baby Christmas hat from Wego, and did some shopping for my mom at the Pokemon Center. When I was ready to leave Sapporo, I went downstairs and bought The Alley’s newest holiday drink. This guy is small, but he ended up expensive, especially after I added boba…I did get a holiday coupon from this receipt to use on my next order, but I wish I knew so I could have saved this coupon for the holiday drink. Oh well. Read about my boba here!
I took the bus to Otaru, and waited for my friend at the station so we could go home together!
This time, I stayed at Plat Hostel Keikyu Sapporo Sky. I’ve stayed here before, but in a 8 person dorm. This time, my room was 6-person, but included a sink. According to my boyfriend, this is normal for his stays. The facilities are clean, and I like how they have an indoor slipper system. One floor’s worth of people share one shower, and two toilets, but I never had a problem with availability. Pretty good price for one stay on a weekend!
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