A day in Sapporo
Day 21 of Japan 2017 trip
City Hall of Sapporo
Our first day in Sapporo and it was time for Adrian and I to hit the streets!
We woke up a bit late (bad habit on holidays) and we went to go to Max Value supermarket to buy some stuff. Fortunately the weather today in Sapporo was good. There was no Hokkaido level blizzard or anything. At Max Value, we sighted a full selection of fried foods; particularly the fried chicken. It was there, after of course getting my 108 yen Kirin Milk tea that we had a cheap breakfast.
Fried Chicken on display at Max value
Afterwards we walked to the subway and took a train towards the centre of town.
The Sapporo Clock Tower
The number one tourist attraction in Sapporo and indeed the icon of the city is the Sapporo Clock Tower. The Sapporo clock tower is literally the oldest building in Sapporo and was built using parts from Boston, USA. The original clock dating from 1881 is still around and still works!
Sapporo Clock Tower
City Hall
Sapporo TV Tower
Lunch time we walked through the cold streets to Sapporo Tower where we visited the Ramen Republic, a collection of various different top ramen restaurants in the one place. The Ramen Republic is extremely similar to Kyoto Ramen Street in Kyoto except I think the ambience and the restaurant designs here in Ramen Republic are much more detailed.
Sapporo Misono
The place was super popular and packed full of people for the lunch time service. Me and Adrian ended up waiting in line for about 15minutes (not too bad) at Sapporo Misono. A place specialising in Miso Ramen. Throughout Japan, different regions specialise in different variations of Ramen with Sapporo and Hokkaido preferring Miso Ramen as their chosen specialty. This is most suitable for their cold winters.
Earlier in our trip I was discussing with Adrian about the potential ingredients of this Miso ramen. Back when we had Fire God Miso Ramen earlier in the trip, I said that they clearly used a tonne of butter in the soup. Adrian disagreed, thinking that would be far fetched/crazy.
After getting the special miso ramen I was greeted with biggest wad of butter sitting on top of my massive bowl of ramen.
Miso Ramen with a massive wad of butter on the side
Chocolate!
In the afternoon we took a long subway ride to the end of the line to Miyanosawa. We were to visit the Ishiya Chocolate Factory.
Ishiya Chocolate Factory
Good ole fashioned sexist propaganda about chocolate
Stages of Cocoa Making
We paid for a self-guided chocolate tour/museum where we got to tour the factory and gaze upon workers making/packing the Langue de Chat chocolate biscuits from behind a glass window higher up.
Factory workers making biscuits
Inside the museum we could see various historical posters and we could learn about chocolate. There were even some toy collections and drinking chocolate cups from pre-1900s.
After the tour we stocked up on a lot of chocolate biscuits (Shiroi Koibito) and I bought myself some ice cream with a nice hollow surprise inside.
Tasty ice cream...
...with a sweet surprise
Japanese BBQ
We travelled back into the city and we opted to go to a Japanese BBQ place that served deer.
Sapporo at night
Sapporo at night
Tiny entrance to the Yakiniku restaurant
Dinner was incredibly expensive already reaching the > 2500 yen each mark for a small place of meat and in the end we didn't end up geting that much meat anyway.
Lamb and Deer set
Dinner up close
We both ordered two sets of lamb and deer meat and we got some free veges to go with it.
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