On April 19th and 20th, my boyfriend and I stayed the night in Sapporo! Mostly because I had a live show on Sunday, so I needed to stay the night. There also happened to be a Lupicia Tea event over the weekend, so I reserved to go on Saturday.
April 19th: Time to head to Sapporo! The main event of the day was the Lupicia Grand Marche where you can taste test a bunch of teas for free.
We got on our usual bus to Sapporo, and after getting off the bus, I headed straight for Godiva. I had always seen the shop around and know they sell drinks, but recently I saw them come out with a strawberry shortcake flavor to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their choclixer series. It sounded good, and a good breakfast opportunuity. Did Godiva have stores and cafes in the US?
This guy is one expensive drink. It’s tiny (regular size only), and is almost 1000 yen! I have a feeling doing dine-in made it slightly more expensive than if I did take-out. The drink itself was pretty good, but tasted like your everyday blended strawberry milk drink. There were some white chocolate chunks at the bottom, along with some shortcake crumbs to give it a textural contrast. The drink also came with a cup ring thing to make it look like a cake from the top…
I didn’t really have any major cravings for lunch, so my boyfriend suggested revolving sushi at his go-to place in Sapporo station. [I forgot to take a picture of the hirame engawa (390 yen) I got, oops!]
Everything was pretty good, and I was happy with the quality. I will say the aburi salmon felt a little different (wider? not as grilled?) than what I was used to. The engawa was supposedly a limited item, so I decided to try it out. I didn’t expect the chewy, slightly crunchiness of it. As a first time, it’s not my favorite, but apparently it’s a prized cut, so maybe in due time I’ll learn to appreciate it…
I will say, this is a good “revolving sushi” place. There’s nothing actually revolving except pictures of items, and it’s old school only-write-orders kind of place. The menu is a bit smaller compared to other ones, but it does have the basics, and unique seasonal specials.
After lunch, we went to the Tokyu building for more gacha hunting (huzzah, I finally found what I wanted!), and import goods shopping at Jupiter. I didn’t really have too much else to do, so I headed to Oyachi station early around 1:30. It’s the closest station to the venue, and they were doing a free shuttle bus from the station to the venue throughout the day. The soonest shuttle was at 2:30, so I explored the nextdoor mall, Capo Oyachi. I think mall is really for true locals, with a few restaurants, a supermarket, drugstore, and other small shops. Not much to actually do there, unless you actually have business there.
I rode the bus to Axes Sapporo, the event venue! It was pretty cool, showcasing Lupicia products from all over Japan and Hawaii, samples of so much tea, a taste test experience, and a little food corner selling items from the Lupicia restaurant in Niseko. I sampled every sample available, and some were very interesting experiences, like the cream soda and melon bread teas! I completely failed the test, but if you go it right, I think you win a pin or something. There’s actually another photo spot right next to the exit, but of course when I was leaving I completely forgot…All products at the Lupicia event were 10% off their usual price!
Something in me had to get their food, so I opted for the matcha udon in cold, and the peach oolong ice cream (as opposed to hojicha and royal milk tea). The matcha udon was nice and chewy, but there wasn’t much of a matcha flavor, other than a bitter aftertaste. I was lowkey expecting the ice cream to taste mostly like peach, but it actually had a pleasant tea aroma! It was a peachy, creamy ice cream, with a bit of tea aftertaste.
I spent a good 2 hours surrounded by Lupicia, and just managed to get on the 4:45 shuttle bus back to the station! After arriving back in Sapporo, I checked in to our hostel for the night. Since my boyfriend was doing his own thing, I figured I’d attempt Kirin, the one popular Chinese restauraant in Tanukikoji that’s always filled with reservations. I’d heard that they’d open a an annex building, and that it was easier to get in solo…unofortunately, a little past 6, they told me the first opening they would have would be at 9pm.
Instead I went from one Chinese gyoza place with a line to another: Kashuu. Kashuu has been open in Sapporo for a long time, and I think it’s one of the first Chinese places in Sapporo. There was a bit of a line when I got there, so I happily joined the line…good thing a staff member came out and reminded everyone to write their name down before getting in line. To be fair, there are signs in front and next to the restaurant (In English, Chinese, and Korean too), but the place I joined the line wasn’t close to the sign. I ended up waiting around 30 minutes total.
Besides being a popular Chinese spot with gyoza in town, one big reason I was drawn here was because they offer zhajiangmian! It’s very unusual for any place to have it here, and I was pretty excited. I kind of like how their menu besides the Chinese is essentially just a description of the dish. They only take cash!
My noodles came in a huge bowl, and the picture doesn’t really do it justice, but the gyoza was also huge. Interestingly, along with the usual cucumber, the dish came with lettuce, and then the meat sauce on top. It smelled a little sweet, but the sauce itself didn’t have too much flavor. It did have a bit of a kick to it, otherwise it was mostly mellow and subtle. Maybe it could have used some salt. Overall though, there was plenty of sauce that coated the springy noodles, and I’d get it again if I was craving it. The gyoza was thick, plump, huge, and very juicy.
I can’t let the day end without getting a parfait, so I went to Noymond! Their April seasonal is a sakura parfait, and I’m all for sakura. Arriving around 7:30, I waited about an hour, which is what I expected…The parfait contains sakura gelato, milk gelato, white chocolate gelato, sakura bean paste, sakura cookies, and sakura kuzumochi.
I really liked this parfait! The sakura gelato had a subtle sakura flavor to it, and good to actually taste it. The cookie didn’t have too much taste, but it was still a good shortbread cookie. Bean paste was good, and the mochi had a bit of filling inside too. There was a bit of syrup at the bottom, which was very much artificial tasting. And a bonus shiratama!
My boyfriend was at one of his usual bars, and apparently the bartenders have similar interests as me. At 9:30, I joined him at the bar. Though I don’t drink, they happened to have a sparkling cider on hand. Apparently, it was for my boyfriend who’s a regular. Bar Estella is a movie/pop culture themed bar, where you can chat with the bar tenders about that kind of thing.
April 20th: It was finally the day of my sentai show! I bought my ticket a few months in advance, and I was exicted to attend my first Final Live Tour! I likely heard about last year’s but wasn’t interested, and now maybe that’s a small regret…but I was super excited since the Boonboonger show was good.
Before arriving at the venue, I stopped by a Starbucks to get the new seasonal frappucino as a sort of breakfast. It’s a strawberry frappucino, which sounds basic, but it doesn’t use a cream base, which I guess makes it unique. The drink contains strawberry fruit, jelly, seeds, sauce, and is topped with whipped cream.
I liked it a lot! The drink wasn’t icy, and it was very strawberry and refreshing. It didn’t feel too artificial, and I liked the occasional pulp and jelly that added some texture. Mixing the whip cream at the end made the remaining drink airy and a bit creamy.
I learned my lesson the last time with the rider show that doors open an hour before means that that’s when to line up for merch and potential meet-and-greet. I did arrive a little after 9:30, and there was already a huge line to get into the venue. This led into another massive line for the merchandise, which I barely made before the show. No pictures were allowed in the theater, but here’s the merchandise display.
Even though I won the first ticket lottery, somehow my seat was assigned the 3rd floor…It was actually a decent seat, except I got the edge seat, and in front of my view just happened to have raised bars. Other than that, the show was really fun, with the first half being an original story with the cast, and the second half comprised of a mini talk show segment, two character songs, and then the ending dance live.
Like I predicted, the show lasted about an hour and a half. I didn’t really have a lunch plan in mind, so after some emergency thinking, I decided on the tsukemen at Cocono. My boyfriend decided to buy from Arata, which I realized used to be where the Jinrui Minna Hokkaido booth used to be. Barely been a year, when did that get replaced? Likely within the last month or so, but I never got to try their scallop broth ramen…
This was pretty good tsukemen! The dipping broth was rich in miso and fishy flavor, thick, but not too oily. It came with grilled onions and bean sprouts, as well as two slices of super tender and fall-apart chashu. I opted for cold noodles as opposed to hot because I like my noodles chewy, and they went super well with the dipping broth. The noodles came with a pieces of bamboo that had been topped with yuzu shavings, which was an interesting choice.
As with most tsukemen, you can add some stock to the dipping broth to dilute it and drink it. The menu explains it pretty well in English, and the noodles actually come with some anchovy broth. On its own, there wasn’t too much flavor. I popped it in the microwave per instructions, and tried the now drinkable soup. It certainly did taste diluted, and though microwaving the stock helped, I think the original broth was a bit too cooled down at that point.
Since I was at Cocono, I might as well get boba and bread from Donguri while I was at it. I stopped by Donguri bakery first, and picked up a few things I’ve been meaning to try. The S’mores bread, giant ingredient-filled meat bun, and apple pie are all Susukino location exclusives!
The s’mores bread uses their salt bread as a base, and combines the saltiness of the bread with the sweetness of the chocolate and marshmallow to create an addicting treat. I toasted this in my grill the next morning for breakfast, and the outside came out a bit crispy, and quite like a real s’mores experience.
The meat bun is huge and pretty worth the serving. I also think it’s quite unique in terms of its filling. It’s packed with bamboo, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, vermicelli noodles, and pork, all covered in a savory sauce. The most surprising part though, was that the meat wasn’t ground meat, but actual thin slices of pork! My biggest complaint though was that the wood ear mushrooms were in one giant piece instead of being chopped up into smaller pieces.
Apple pie was good, and as usual, I heated it up in my fish grill. This guy is a thick apple pie, with a thin pie crust surrounding the insides, and filled with thin apple slices and cream. This one tastes like it has cinnamon in it, if you’re looking for a more authentic-tasting apple pie heavier on the fillings.
On my way out, I almost forgot about my boba…almost. I’m back at The Tea for another milk tea! Read about my boba here!
My last stop of the day was at Marui Imai, stopping by their Hawaii Fair. I recall last year my friends and I came, my friend really wanted Leonard’s, but didn’t want to wait in the abysmally long line. This year, it seems that before 2pm, they gave out tickets to come back at a certain time to try to curb the crowd. A little after 2pm, the line was substantial, but not super long visually. I had time, so I waited it out (it ended up being around 40 minutes). I bought a standard sugar (241 yen), and a puff custard (301 yen). The last time I had it was in Yokohama around 2 years ago, so safe to say it was a good time to have it again.
They came out freshly fried and hot! I ate the custard one while I was waiting for my bus. Slight regret that I didn’t eat it earlier, and I think it cooled down a little too much. However, the outside was still crispy, with that great fried taste, while being light and airy on the inside, along with the creamy rich vanilla cream.
And then I got on the bus at 4 to go home!
This time I stayed at Wise Owls Hostel in Sapporo! The location is pretty good, located in the heart of Susukino, and isn’t too far from any central area or station. The building is super chic and nice, and there’s a lounge area and bar on the reception floor. This time I stayed in a twin room with my boyfriend. My god was this the biggest private hostel room I’ve ever been in…It could even be bigger than most single business room hotels I’ve stayed in. According to some pictures, some twin rooms have a sink or shower, but ours didn’t. My only complaint was that outlets were a bit limited, either two by the entrance (far), or two under the side table (hard to notice).
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