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)
How much for your bowl of Ikura, uni and kani donburi? :)
ReplyDeleteHi anonymous, well, if I have it right now in front of me, I prolly wouldn't give it to you if you paid me $100 bucks... hahaha but anyway I think it was somewhere around 3500-4500 yen. Not cheap, but hey I was in Sappporo.
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