On March 8th, I went out to Sapporo to get a haircut! I was originally debating whether or not to go out during mid-March, but was leaning towards not because of a bunch of plans lining up at the end, and no real plans in Sapporo besides eating. I’ve been meaning to get a haircut, and my friend managed to get me an appointment on the 8th! Now there’s my excuse to go out.
After getting off my bus, I headed to the Susukino area, since I made a lunch reservation for 11. On the way, I made a pit stop at Moyuk, since I heard the Loft there was selling Spy Family collab merchandise. I didn’t get anything, but the goods were cute! Also, apparently the ice cream place on the first floor (that replaced the original Maruyama gelato, RIP), is celebrating their one year anniversary on March 9th. To celebrate, they were giving out tickets that weekend for extra soft serve valid unlimited times for a month after. I considered getting an ice cream for the ticket, but I probably wouldn’t use it anyway, so I passed.
I also walked by a 3 Coins, which was doing a Wicked merch collab! Wicked just came out in theaters in Japan, and it seems like the marketing is huge here. There’s even a Wicked kuji!
When 11 rolled around, it was time for my lunch reservation! Lunch for the day was at Kumachan Onsen, a fairly viral hot pot chain that started in Hokkaido! The soup base comes in the form of bear, so it looks like a bear is sitting in an onsen bath. Simultaneously cute and morbid, it’s definitely a must-go tourist spot for pictures. I’ve been meaning to eventually go, but was kind of putting it off because I heard it was a little expensive for the quality that you get. Though, you really are paying a premium for the vibes. They even have bear ears for customers to wear!
However, recently I saw that they came out with a pink bear as their monthly seasonal soup base for March! Specifically, the soup is a sakura paitan (white) soup, and includes big mochi dango on a skewer, sakura mochi, and flower petals. According to their Instagram, the pink bear itself is made of collagen and fiber. Each seasonal soup will add 500 yen to the base price.
After choosing a soup, you can then select a meat set (all come with the same veggie platter). I went for the Hokkaido Menkoi set, which comes with a chicken meatball, chicken, pork, and beef. You can also customize your meal by choosing between noodles, rice, or boiled dumplings for the finisher. I went for the dumplings. They also have a separate sides menu, and an all-you-can-drink menu with alcohol and soft drinks. The sauce bar is quite comprehensive, with unique sauces! There’s a honey lemon, mayo, and cheese basil, along with the usual spices, ponzu, and sesame.
You also do have to turn on the stove yourself, as they let you take all the pictures you want before you say goodbye to the bear. It’s pretty tourist friendly though, with English translations every step of the way.
After taking my pictures, I turned on the stove, and set it to 6-7 most of the time, as I was instructed. I wasn’t sure what to do about the mochi though. Was I supposed to let it sit? Heat up? Cook a bit? Eventually, I retrieved the dango skewer and ate it during my meal, as a sweet palette cleanser between savory bites. Unfortunately, the sakura mochi originally on the bear’s head had disintegrated in the broth. I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to take it out, if at all.
The hot pot itself was yummy! Meats all cooked very fast, and were decently high quality. There was a wide variety of veggies, and the dumplings were pretty good. As for the broth, it was kind of milky, with a subtle but strong sakura flavor. If it was let to cool, the broth turned super starchy and thick. I wasn’t sure if it was beause of the sakura mochi I let sit, the effects of letting the skewer stew in there for a bit, or the collagen from the bear. Overall, it was an interesting flavor, but I wouldn’t personally choose this broth if given the chance again. Definitely 100/100 on the cute scale.
I considered getting a parfait that day, but for various reasons decided against one. Instead, for my sweet treat of the day, I opted for Kurtos Bee! I’ve been meaning to try this place for a long time now, and it works out perfectly because there’s ice cream and it’s in the area. A kurtos is apparently a traditional Hungarian pastry thats made by wrapping a yeasted dough around a pipe, and baking it in that shape. They have various sweet and savory toppings here, and you can add ice cream to make it a mini sundae!
I was going to order the chocolate…and then I saw at the register the monthly flavor was sakura! Of course there’s a montly flavor…I had to get the sakura to keep up with the theme obviously. It comes with ruby chocolate pieces, sakura sauce, and sakura mochi. Like the other sundaes, there’s a nuts danish on the soft serve, and in the cone, is a custard cream and mini marshmallows.
Supposedly they make the kurtos fresh, so I didn’t mind the wait. I was just killing time until my haircut after all. As a first impression, it’s a pretty cool looking dessert. The sice cream was a pretty standard soft serve. A bit of a muted milk flavor, but I think it’s hard to do bad ice cream. The sakura sauce was very aritificial, tasting like syrup, and kind of in the medicinal family, while still being able to place the sakura flavor. The chocolate pieces were ok, with not too much flavor to them. There weren’t too many nuts on top, which I appreciated. The mochi was good though!
For the kurtos itself, it had a bit of a sugary coating like a churro, and had flaky layers reminiscent of a croissant. It wasn’t warm though, so either it was made and cooled down, or it wasn’t super fresh. There were mini rainbow marshmallows at the very bottom, and a bit of a custard cream for textural and flavor contrast. I’d definitely recommend this spot as a unique-treat, though I’d like to try a plain one sometime.
I had a couple hours to kill until my appointment, so I returned to Wego after a couple weeks because I kept thinking about this one sweater. And I bought it. Oops.
After some window shopping in Cocono, I swung by Penguin Bakery in Pole Town to pick up some breakfast for the day after. Penguin Bakery is a chain, and they somewhat recenty opened up this location. I’ve been meaning to get something, and since I wasn’t planning on buying cake or anything, bread sounded like a good idea. I got the 3 ensemble chocolate (320 yen) and a stick apple (280 yen), their take on an apple pie. I need to get a baguette sometime, and maybe their chocolate melon bread…
I ate my chocolate bread the next morning after heating it up in the microwave. It had chocolate mixed throughout, with a bitter chocolate cream inside, and topped with chocolate chips. It wasn’t overly chocolate-y, and not too sweet, not too bitter. I feel like I could have gotten more chocolate with how much they put in there. For the stick apple, I toasted that in my baby oven a few days later. It came out crispy, super flaky, with a bit of a sugary glaze on the crust. The inside was warm, a bit of jammy custard, and small cubed apple chunks.
After walking around a bit and buying my return bus ticket, I headed over for my hair appointment. I just wanted to chop off my long hair, so after an initial consultation, we got to shampooing, snipping, and styling. They’re likely not English friendly, but I recommend Acro.ao for hair needs in Sapporo! When in doubt, gestures and pictures work with hair salons here.
The haircut took a little over an hour, and gave me just enough time to go grab boba before getting on the next bus. I went to The Alley, and grabbed a new seasonal sakura drink. Read about my boba here!
On the way from boba to the bus stop, I stopped by McDonald’s. They had released a new version of their one-bite churro series, this time in chocolate with strawberry filling. This sounded good, so I bought it try out, and eat on the bus on the way home. It took less than a minute for my order to ready. Wild. The box smelled like McDonald’s. Go figure.
This might have been a user error, but I should have eaten them fresh instead of waiting until I actually got hungry. The outside was still a bit crunchy, but the inside felt a bit dry. The strawberry filling on the inside was pretty basic, and tasted like the coating on a strawberry pocky or the filling in those Asian panda and koala snacks. Not bad, but could have been better.
I rode the bus at 6 to go home!
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