Day 2 cont'd: Flowers of the Sapporo Botanic Garden

As promised from the last Japan post, here are more pictures on the flowers! Sorry if it's too much, like my friend was saying, I went banana on these flowers.

Ginko chan wandering with her not-so-backpackers handbag ;)

Ajisai! Or Hydrangea in English. It was in season and I will have more pictures later from Taki, Mie Ken. I fell in love with this flower.

I really wanted to take this home for my flat... Although I don't think I could smuggle it from the Aussie custom... and I certainly don't want to be featured on Borders Patrol!

Insect eating plant, I love the little sacks. They have such pretty forms.

The green house

Humongous roses on the Rose Garden

Check out the butterfly on the middle rose

A walkway with roses surrounding it

My favorite find, well one of them anyway: dropping onion blossoms!

Dandelions ready to fly away, so cute and fluffy, so glad my allergies didn't flare up tho ;)

Ginko chan sheltering under the rhubarb plant, did you find any koroppoku?

Hokkaido University Botanic Garden

Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi

Day 2 cont'd: Mont Blanc and Morimoto cakes

Mont Blanc!

By the time we got back to Sapporo station, we were wiped out and our feet were crying for mercy. So we decided to hunt for a delicious looking cafe to sit and get some sugar boost. We found a cute delicious looking cafe in Apia, one of the shopping arcade in Sapporo Station.

Ginko chan ordered a roll cake and I being in Japan of course must maximize the opportunity to order Mont Blanc! Mont Blanc is originally Italian meringue based cake that is lavished with pureed chestnut. Japanese, however, perfected the art of any form of chestnut cream cakes. More on this on my Tokyo posts on later days. Anyway, back to this Mont Blanc, it was so good I could cry. So soft and sweet, yet not too sweet. Just perfect. Can someone please open a Japanese pastry and bakery in Sydney???

The cream inside wasn't too sweet at all, I could happily eat 2 back to back.

After that, we went to Daimaru department store to hunt for food for our take out dinner that we would be eating on the train ride to Bibaushi where we would be staying that night. It was food heaven! I wish I hadn't been too wow-ed out and remembered to take pictures, but sorry to say I was really distracted. Don't hate me yet, I did manage to take these pictures on this Hokkaido milk and strawberry daifuku that Ginko chan got for dessert.

Display of the Morimoto cakes on the Daimaru's basement, I regret not eating as much as I could...

Well, do you feel the urge to move to Japan now?

BBQ Baby Octopus at home

Grilled Mediterranean style Baby Octopus

Inspired or rather haunted by the memories of the yummy BBQ baby octopus from Capitan Torres last Monday, I made a trip to Sydney Fish Market yesterday to get some fresh baby octopus. Imagine this, 500 grams (approx. 12 pieces) of baby octopus cost me a mere A$5 compared to the 8-10 pieces for A$16 ish at the restaurant.

However, because there is nothing more I hate than cleaning I improvised a few things so that I have minimal dirt in the kitchen. I lined up the pyrex with baking paper so that I don't have to scrub the dried crusty olive oil later as you can see below.

Pre-grilled marinated baby octopus

Here's the recipe. Let's call it Mediterranean style BBQ Baby Octopus.

500 grams of baby octopus (cleaned)

Marinade:

4 cloves of garlic (chopped finely/pressed)

5-6 tablespoon of olive oil

1/2 a lemon

salt (to taste)

black pepper (to taste)

2 small/medium sized tomatoes (not baby tomatoes - if using this you might need 8-9)

1/2 bunch of corriander (chopped)

1 medium spanish onions (sliced finely)

5 tablespoon of apple vinegar

1. Get a small bowl and mix sliced spanish onions with apple vinegar. Make sure that the onions are submerged and leave it be till step

2. Put finely chopped garlic in a small bowl with olive oil and salt. Mixed together and press the garlic so that the olive oil is infused. Add lemon juice, taste and add salt or olive oil or lemon accordingly.

3. Mix the spanish onions some more, then take it out while squeezing out any excess vinegar in it. In other words, take out the vinegar.

4. Get a container and put baby octopus, diced tomatoes, garlic infused olive oil, spanish onions and black pepper all inside and mix thoroughly.

5. Add chopped coriander on top, close the lid and let it marinade in the fridge for 4-5 hours, half a day or even better a night.

6. Heat your oven to 220C.

7. Lined your pyrex with baking paper (or you don't have to if you don't want to), put everything inside and popped the dish in the oven.

8. Let it grill for about 20-30 minutes and check them once in a while.

And now you should have a fresh off the grilled Mediterranean style baby octopus. I love the freshness of the lemon, tomatoes and olive oil.

Remember: always buy fresh seafood and not store them in the fridge for too long. Try to use it within 2-3 days.

Sydney Fish Market

Pyrmont Bridge Rd.

Pyrmont, NSW 2009

Day 2: Sapporo Sapporo! Sashimi Sashimi!

The legendary Hokkaido Hairy Crab

The Hokutosei arrived in Sapporo station at 11.15 am exactly. If it so happens that your watch is off, you can set it back right on time by comparing it to the departure or arrival time of a train. It's that on time.

After storing our luggages at the locker at the station, we left in search of sushi, sashimi, Hokkaido milk ice cream and ramen. Sightseeing was our second objective, because really, we are in Sapporo to munch! Hence, we head out to Nijo Ichiba Fish Market by taking the subway to Susukino subway station and walking from there. It was a hot day and we were sweating like we were in a sauna. We got a little lost, but a nice lady from Lawson convenient store helped us.

Various shellfishes. Yummilicious....

Dried cuttle fish. For dashi maybe?

Wandering inside Nijo Ichiba

Cuttlefish! So cute, but I still wouldn't not eat it... Sorry for the double negative...

A shop inside. Can you see the melon on the left? Thats another delicacy here in Japan. One melon could cost approx. US$ 50!

7 minutes later we were at the fish market and were impressed by the fresh seafood on display. There were such a wide variety and sizes. There were small sushiya (sushi restaurants) throughout the market, but we were looking for a particular one. I forgot the name, but if you find yourself at Nijo Ichiba, you really can't go wrong even if entering random shops. Regardless, I ordered the uni (sea urchin), kani (crab), and ikura (salmon roe) donburi while Ginko chan ordered the uni, salmon and ikura donburi. The rice was warm which made my day. Everything was so fresh we barely need the soy sauce. The uni just burst in your mouth with velvety buttery taste, complimented with the salty ikura. I was in uni heaven. Ship me back to Hokkaido, right now please.

At the sushiya recommended by the tourism information at Sapporo station.

The menu and Ginko chan's Japanese phrasebook. Not that she used it a lot if I may say...

She just made me a walking phrase book...

Ta-dah! My kani, uni and ikura donburi! Argh, my mouth waters at the memories!

Ginko chan's order of salmon, uni and ikura donburi

Across the shop, there was a Hokkaido milk soft cream stall. Unfortunately for us, it was close at the time. So I had to wait for my Hokkaido milk ice cream. After satisfying our taste buds and stomach, we made our way to the Hokkaido University Botanic Garden. We made stops at a cute coffee shop and at the TV Tower on Odori park.

TV Tower at Odori park

Local scene along the Odori park

The biggest horse I have ever seen in my life... almost as big as a mini bus!

An entrace fee of JPY 400 applied but it is so worth it. Inside they displayed the different kinds of plants and their different habitats ranging from grassland to herbaceous to alpine. Many of the flowers were in bloom and according to IEatSweet, I went gaga taking pictures of the flowers, especially the small ones. In my defense, I really can't help myself. It was all so beautiful. If only I can transform my balcony to something even a quarter of what it was there.

Cute purple flowers, but please don't ask me what it's called

And some kind of lilies.

Around 4.30pm we went back to the station to get food and get ready for our train ride to Bibaushi where we would stay for the next three nights. Stories on the cakes that I have that afternoon, more photos from the Botanic garden and our train ride to Bibaushi will be on the next post. Patience is a virtue. One that I don't have much of to be honest but maybe you are blessed with more.

Nijo Ichiba Fish Market (Sapporo)

South 3-jo, East 1-2 chome,

Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi, Japan

Open daily 7am-6pm (varies by shop)

Curing Monday Blues with Sangria at Capitan Torres

Chorizo La Plancha, Garlic Mushrooms, and Gambas alla Sevillana

Still reeling from the fact that my Japanese vacation ended, I suggested Spanish tapas for my catch up session with IEatSweet and possible liquid of happiness moment. Thinking of sangria here. So, Monday night after my night class I ended up in Capitan Torres.

The Wine and Bread, biblical enough? Even God wants us to be happy...

The question was whether or not to get half a litter or a full jug of sangria. Checking over to the table over confirmed that we could do well with a full jug. It was fruity and happiness. Not too sweet, most importantly for me.

Garlic Mushrooms

BBQ Baby Octopus with Lemon Wedge

We ended up ordering Chorizo La Plancha (grilled chorizo sausage), Tasmanian Scallops, Gambas alla Sevillana (prawn in onion, tomato and garlic), Garlic Mushrooms and BBQ Baby Octopus. We probably ordered too much, but I was famished so I dug in the seafood. My favorites were the chorizo, mushrooms and baby octopus. The prawn was good and so was the scallops but somehow I imagined the scallops to be bigger. I'd come back for the baby octopus though. So delicious.

Tasmanian Scallops with olive and garlic

Gambas alla Sevillana

Overall, we paid around $50 each and the plain bread was free of charge. Which wasn't too bad in my opinion. Or perhaps I just had too much sangria.

Capitan Torres

73 Liverpool St.

Sydney, NSW 2000

+ 61 2 9264 5574

click here for website

Still the first day in Japan: Hokutosei Night Train from Tokyo to Sapporo

The train man and Hokutosei

Ever since I left Japan last week's Sunday, I have been so tired and exhausted. I realized now that I have been going on adrenaline the whole time I was there. After reading this post you'll know why.

The view from the moving train, Somewhere in Hokkaido

After my little outing at Narita city, I came back to Narita airport to collect my travel buddy, Ginko chan. It wasn't hard to spot her. Her red giant backpack gave her away. Together, we picked up her railpass, get reserved seats for our train to Tokyo station, and then we took a shower. FYI, it was JPY 500 for 3o minutes shower at the airport. Once we were in Tokyo station, we had to take the local JR train to Ueno station where we get on board Hokutosei, the night train to Sapporo. We were lucky to get tickets considering we couldn't book overseas and had to get it once we got to Japan. This is another reason why I arrived early that day. We got a double cabin which was really cute. The bed were already made and it come with a JR motived yukata. I was so tempted to take it as a souvenir, but I resisted.

Our carriage

Our compartment for the journey. Thank God we're quite small people

otherwise we don't know how we would have fit!

The view from our table at the dining carriage

I love trains. Night train is also super cool. I love sleeping on it, it was like being gently rocked while you were sleeping.

Our table where we were served orange juice, water and food

The next morning, we decided to venture out to the dining carriage to have our breakfast. While we waited for our table, we waited at the lobby. I felt like I was in one of those old movies and the world's color turned to sepia. Exhausted as I was, functioning on adrenaline, I was glad to have taken the night train to Sapporo.

The Morning Menu

There were only 2 options: Japanese or Western set. We opted for the Japanese which turned out to be the same thing with the Western but we were given rice and miso soup instead of bread and corn soup. There is nothing much more relaxing than eating on the train and see the scenery passes by. Absolutely love it.

Fruits and Yoghurt were served first to prepare our stomach

The main dish: salad, sausages and potato salad, soft scrambled eggs with ketchup

and grilled fish with tsukemono (Japanese pickles)

View of our table after everything came out

The miso soup with flower shaped fish cakes

After, we got to choose between coffee or tea. I chose milk tea.

As the train moved toward Sapporo and the trees running passed by us, I could just feel that the zen that I was looking for was coming towards me. Surrounded by the greens, the lulling sound of Japanese language, their mannerism and politeness, I couldn't help but to smile. I felt slowly at peace again. Gone were the hectic life that I've led for the past five years, it's just me, Ginko chan and the wilderness of Hokkaido. So to speak anyway.

Hokutosei - is a limited express train operated by Japan Railways that runs through Ueno Station (Tokyo) to Sapporo. The duration is approximately 16.5 hours. Passengers are accommodated with rooms where they can sleep. The train also have a dining carriage for dinner and breakfast.