My college friend is visiting Hokkaido for a week with a couple friends! I met up with him in Sapporo to give him a basic tour, and the day after was an Otaru day! It also happens there’s a ton of festivals happening in Sapporo this week, so it was a good time to come!
May 18th: I took my usual bus to Sapporo, so I was there around 10:30. My friends wouldn’t arrive until 2, so in the meantime, I headed to Afternoon Tea to try out one of their new cakes. It’s a sponge cake layered with guava jelly, raspberry yogurt mousse, and topped with mango sauce, mango, and raspberries.
Overall it was yummy, though I had problems with some of the individual parts. The mango sauce was good, although the actual mangos on top looked ripe, but actually weren’t. The cake was decently fluffy, and I liked the guava jelly the best.
Like last year, there was also a Korea festival happening!
My local friend was coming to check out the Lilac Festival, so before meeting up, I grabbed Lindt’s current seasonal chocolate drink: the Tenku no Matcha. Like Godiva, there are Lindt cafes, that also serve blended chocolate drinks. Lindt has seasonal flavors, and this time it’s matcha! It came with white chocolate blended with matcha, matcha jelly, and crispy roasted rice bits. The employee even encouraged me to take my picture before putting on the lid!
Like the Godiva drink, this was much smaller than I was expecting. It was a good drink though, very matcha-y, and I liked the roasted rice bits.
At 11:30, I met up with my friend at the station, and we headed to Odori Park! The lilacs were super pretty, and we spent a good amount of time at the antique market, and I found a couple of card decks!
Another friend joined us about an hour in, and we took a look around the food booths. They all looked very yummy, but I was saving my stomach for lunch with my friends coming later.
As 2 was approaching, we headed over to meet my friends at their hotel! We were all quite hungry at that point, and they wanted miso ramen, so I chose a relatively nearby spot that has a good reputation: Ichiryuan! We did have to wait a bit when we arrived, but it wasn’t too long. I got the regular sized portion of their specialty bowl.
I actually don’t eat miso ramen too much, but this was really good. The soup was rich and thick with miso and garlic flavor. The unique egg topping on top was soft and fluffy, and the chashu was thick and not too fatty. The noodles were thick and nicely chewy!
And then we commenced the Sapporo tour! We went to see the Clock Tower, the TV Tower, and we walked all of Odori Park from one end to the other, seeing both the Lilac Festival and the Sapporo Ramen Show. At this point, my friends wanted to check in to their hotel, so after stopping by a Seicomart on the way back, I left them to freshen up while I checked in to my hostel.
Around 6:30 we met up around Odori and did the Susukino leg of the tour. Before heading into Susukino proper, we stopped by Marui Imai to check out their Kyoto Fair to see if they had some matcha for sale (they were sold out). We took a bit of a look around the Animate building, and then passed by Nijo Market and Sosei River Park, where the Yakitori Terrace Festival was happening.
We walked the first few blocks of Tanukikoji, and then went to see the giant Nikka sign at Susukino crossing. We checked out the vibes at Ganso Ramen Alley, and then headed to our dinner reservation at 7:30. My friend wanted to try out this seafood izakaya which seemed good.
They didn’t explicitly say one-drink policy, but it seemed kind of implied with the way they asked us to choose a drink, and it came with the appetizer. To start round 1 (pictured), my friends ordered a mini ikura bowl, a shashimi platter, and grilled abalone. I got the grilled scallops. Round 2 (no picture), consisted of scallop porridge, edamame, another abalone, and miso soup. It’s pretty foreigner friendly, as reservations can be done in English, and you order through a tablet with translation options.
The appetizer was some kind of sticky salty seaweed situation; I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. The sashimi was really good quality, and came with nishin, scallop, whelk, octopus, salmon, and 2 other white fish I forgot the name of.
For dessert, we went to KLIM just around the corner! It was my first time eating in the cafe space, and I opted for the seasonal strawberry parfait and added boba as my topping. Read about my ice cream here!
My friends were all feeling tired (after a long travel day!), so they went back to their hotel to retire early. On the other hand, I went to join my boyfriend at the bar he was at. I had the bartenders make me a custom mocktail again, and this time it contained peach syrup, calpis, and lemon! Yummy and quite sweet.
During our chats with the bartenders, they told us about this new late-night cold noodle specialty place in Sapporo that opened up recently. My boyfriend was going to go to Ichi as usual, but I got super excited about the idea of cold noodles, so we decided to go after the bar closed.
The restaurant is located in the same building as the evening bakery Shigepan! It’s a small establishment with bar vibes, and there’s a one dish one drink policy. Their menu consists of only cold noodle mains, topping choices, and a few side dishes. You can order champagne and tequila here for some reason…? I wasn’t super hungry, so I appreciated the inclusion of a plain noodles, and ordered a Jasmine tea. You can choose between medium noodles and their signature flat (hira-uchi) noodles.
The dish was yummy, but tasted completely different than what I was expecting. I really like the light, refreshing broth of a usual cold noodle, but it seemed like the similarities stopped there. The broth was very concentrated, and was fruity, but also very acidic. Personally, it could have used a bit of diluting. The noodles were amazing though, super chewy and bouncy. The Jasmine tea was also really good. I noticed them refilling their kimchi box with the kimchi that I buy from the grocery store…
May 19th: Time for our Otaru tour!
My friends wanted to meet up around 10, so for breakfast, I stopped by the mini Truffle Bakery inside of Stellar Place. The white truffle salt bread is a Hokkaido exclusive, and it’s always looked good when I pass. I also picked up an unusual cacao nib bread.
For a bakery that opens at 10am, my goods were quite lukewarm when I got them. The salt bread as pretty good, soft on the inside, with a salty exterior. It would have been much better if it was warm or toasted. I have no idea what truffle actually tastes like, but the bread had some specks inside that could be the truffle.
After meeting up at my friends’ hotel, we headed to the station to take the 10:30 train to Otaru! I wanted to show off the Vulpix taiyaki, but it seems like as of April 2025, they stopped selling it…rip the Vulpix taiyaki.
Once in Otaru, we took a stroll through Sankaku Ichiba, the seafood market, and walked around the local shopping streets. You can’t miss the Vulpix manhole! Nearing noon, we headed to our lunch spot of the day for some soba! Yabuhan is a traditional soba house offering a variety of soba (and udon) dishes. They even have two types of soba: Jimono-ko, which is 100% pure soba grown in Rankoshi next door, and Nami-ko, a blend of Rankoshi and American soba. I opted for their ten zaru soba with jimono-ko. The tempura assortment comes with shrimp, white fish, scallop, squid, eggpant, pumpkin, and shishito pepper.
The soba was really good, and the tempura was crispy and fluffy. I really liked the inclusion of seafood in it too! They served us soba water at the end to dilute our dipping sauce and drink as broth, and it was a super thick creamy water consistency. My friend also ordered the soba ice cream, which tasted like sesame according to him.
And then on to see the rest of Otaru! We headed down to the canal, and walked along it, taking pictures until we reached Denukikoji. On the way to Sakaimachi, we stopped by my favorite panjuu shop. It seems like their seasonal flavor is sakura bean paste, which sounded really good. My friend got their hot tea set, with comes with a choice of 3 panjuu, and let me have one. He opted for matcha and cream.
Because the sakura didn’t have any additional powder on top, they heated it up in the grill before serving. It came warm, with a slightly crispy outside, and sakura bean paste inside.
Then we moved on to Sakaimachi street! We walked along it, popping into various souvenir shops along the way. We hit up all the LeTaos, and ended the shopping at the music box stores. The last thing around the area was to hit up the main Kamaei factoy store, and we ended up chilling there for a bit.
My friend wanted to go back to the Robataya Tsurukichi for some grilled seafood. As a prior customer, I knew it might take a while, and so I left the group early so I could make it back to the station.
I had a bit of time, so I first stopped by Mister Donut to grab the new matcha and houjicha campaign donuts. I got a Uji Houjicha Houjicha Choco Azuki (270 yen) and a Pon De Ring Double Uji Matcha (216 yen). The houjicha one was in an interesting shape, with a layer of red bean pate and houjicha flake chocolate. The most hojicha flavor came from the aftertaste of the chocolate. I really liked the pon de ring! The chewiness of the donut, and the matcha icing on top paired perfectly together.
I also wanted a more proper dinner, so I headed to the bakery inside Otaru station. I got a Naruto zangi bread and the mini pizza. No discount this time…maybe I should have waited past 6 to buy the bread.
And I got on the 6 bus to go home! I ate my breads on the bus because I was hungry, and while they were both good, I wish they were both at least warm…
This time, we stayed at Plat Hostel Keikyu Sky. Kind of my go-to on Agoda. I stayed in a twin bunk bed room again with my boyfriend, which came with a private sink and shower! Nice perk of traveling with someone.
Leave a Reply