My dad’s in Taiwan for work, and since I had a holiday on November 23 (Labor Appreciation Day), we took the opportunity to meet up in Sapporo for a day or so since I had the day off. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen any of my family, and I get to hand off any of the stuff I’ve been buying for my sister to him, as well as get some American goods I’ve been missing that I either can’t get or are overpriced here!
November 22: Like the time I went to se my boyfriend, I immediately left work after I got off, and met my boyfriend (who was coming) on the way to the bus station. We got on the soonest bus, were on our way to Sapporo, and arrived around 7:30.
My dad wanted to drink and eat some good food, so I picked out a local Sapporo crab chain to eat a fancy dinner (with his enthusiastic approval) and made a reservation for 8pm. I also believe Sapporo/Hokkaido is known for King Crab too. The service and ambiance was all so cool, and they were very nice and hospitable. We all ordered kaiseki courses, my dad the Ginpa hot pot course, and my boyfriend and I the Zuiho normal kaiseki.
The food was real good, and big thanks to my dad for the treat and great dinner! All the items in the course that I got were tasty, and overall had a good amount of crab, in a variety of forms. Actually, one of my favorites of the night was the broiled fish, which suprisingly had no crab, but was so tender and flavorfulthat I melted like it did in my mouth on first bite. I also had a taste of my dad’s hot pot, and I think if I were to go here again, I’d like to get a hot pot course for myself, since that broth was so good and comforting. Also as a side note, this restaurant had the first toilet seat cover in the bathroom that I’ve seen since I got to Japan, I think. Everywhere else uses a spray disinfectant along with toilet paper to sit on a “clean” toilet seat. Wild.
Afterwards we were all feeling relatively full after getting low-key kicked out around 10pm, but the two guys were feeling like getting more drinks (despite having three beers at the restaurant), so I found an Izakaya near the hotel that seemed to have good reviews. We initially went in one, but it seemed tiny and full, so we checked out Saburo next door which seemed more open, decided to go in, and were sat immediately. Their last food oder was at 11, and drinks at 11:30, but that wasn’t a problem for us.
I just had a water since I don’t drink, but the other two ordered a few high balls, and we collectively ordered a few small eats off the menu to go along with their drinks. Again, food was great. The hokke, a type of mackerel, was tender, with a nice crispy outside. I accidentally misinterpreted the corn on the menu to be a fish, so I was surprised when I took a bite it was corn, but it was pleasant and the tempura corn was sweet and a new tempura experience. This was my first oyster too, and since I generally enjoy shellfish, I liked it a lot. I could have done with less lemon, which my dad encouraged, but it was still good. Entirely different scale and atmosphere, but I liked the intimate izakaya vibe that I always envisioned izakayas to be, and everything was hot and fresh and perfect. Then we crashed at the hotel for the night.
November 23: My dad was going to be staying another night and flying out Thursday, but my boyfriend and I needed to check out of our rooms by 10. For breakfast that day, my dad requested pancakes, so I picked out a pancake place I had my eye on in Stellar Place for a while, and we arrived around 10:20, and it was relatively empty. Unfortunately, their seasonal Muscat Pancakes were no longer on their menu, but we did order a couple items from the current limited menu.
I really liked everything that we got! Although not one of the drink options for the pancake lunch set, the grape lemonade on the menu really intrigued me, so I wanted to try it. It came with a bottom layer of honey, which tasted nice on its own, and the grape lemonade part of it was a not sweet at all, slightly flavored carbonated drink. I’m not sure how grapey it actually tasted, but mixing it al together was really refreshing and unique. I wish it came in a bigger glass! My dad got a hot coffee, and my boyfriend ordered a Strawberry Banana Juice, which really was just a strawberry banana smoothie.
For pancakes, my boyfriend went with the Strawberry Custard Ricotta Pancakes, my dad the seasonal Sweet Potato Marron Pancakes (after changing his mind from the normal Fruits one), and I chose the chocolate one, because I like chocolate. I’m generally not a huge banana person, but it comes with the item, and it looked like they caramelize it, so it looked good as a whole anyway. It’s decadent, yes, but I was a huge fan of everything on the plate. The chocolate whipped cream was so good, and the pancakes were everything that I want in a traditional pancake: fluffy, and a bit of a crusty flavor. My boyfriend prior to getting our food also wanted to try a parfait or ice cream item, so we also ordered the seasonal parfait as a brunch dessert, which had a sweet potato cream on a cracker, hojicha jelly, hojicha ice cream, vanila ice cream, and whipped cream. That was also really good. I particularly liked the Hojicha ice cream, which had flecks of tea leaves in it and a strong emphasis on the hojicha flavor.
After breakfast, we took the underground passage to Bisse so I could buy my Christmas gifts for my parents for my dad to take home. I got something at YuiQ for my mom, and took my dad to Tokumitsu Coffee so he could pick out the beans he wanted. My dad wanted to try their coffee, so we ended up eating (drinking?) in the store.
I ordered an apple juice since we were sat at a table, I love apple juice, and I don’t drink coffee. Plus, the menu said that their juice was made of 100% apples, and I’ve been meaning to try some 100% apple juice since I saw the big bottles a while back. It was pretty good and refreshing, definitely had the pure apple taste that I was looking for, but I felt for a 100% apple juice it could have used a little more apple flavor? Maybe I’m hyping the whole hundred percent thing a bit too much in my head though.
The German Christmas Market had just opened the day before, and since it’s a seasonal event and my dad wanted to go somewhere special, that was the next spot on my itinerary for the day. It was really cute, and not too crowded, and since we were there, we got some drinks and small eats after exploring a bit.
I can’t remember the hot alcoholic drink the guys got at the start (my dad ended with a hot sangria and my boyfriend a hot whiskey), but I really liked the hot chocolate that I got. Creamy and chocolatey, perfect for a cold day. The Frankfurters were smaller than we thought, but they did taste like good sausages, I guess. It was also my first time having sauerkraut, so I can’t speak for the authenticity, but it was good too. I ordered the pretzel, but didn’t read carefully and realized after the fact it had butter inside, but it was good as long as it was warm. I’m pretty sure the long fries aren’t a German thing but a Japanese thing as I’ve seen them other places, but my dad wanted to get some to show off to my sister. They were good, well, super crispy and salty long fries. I also got this meat roll that looked appetizing despite being on a realtively full stomach, and it was covered in a sauce with rice inside. Unfortunately, my dad dropped the remaining portion that I gave him. Big oof.
After taking some pictures and buying a few souvenirs, my boyfriend wanted to hit up the Book Off after thinking about a Gundam he had his eye on for a few weeks. At this point I wanted to try boba from Shin An Ju in the area, but I would have rather preferred to have my boba for on the bus, and we were going to eat an early dinner after that, so I held off on that for a different time.
Since it was nearing 4, which was our projected early-dinner time because I was aiming for the 6:00 bus home, we went to my last stop on our itinerary for the day: Suage4 for soup curry. My dad figured since he was in Hokkaido he wanted to try soup curry, and both my dad and my boyfriend really like curry. I’m okay with curry, but recently I’ve been more open to trying and eating it. There’s a whole bunch of places around Sapporo and my boyfriend and I might eventually go to a few more places, but we went to Suage4 today because my friend recommended it as a soup curry place I should try. Specifically their Lavender Pork, which I ordered.
It was…curry. Tasted like curry but just soupy, and even though I got the lowest spice level, I still felt a little bit, but that was probably the flavor spices. The pork though! Thanks to my friend for the recommendation; the pork was nicely charred and flavorful, and also super tender and melt-in-your-mouth. I also think the portion size was nicely balanced with all the vegetables and size of the serving, though a bit more meat would have been nice.
We picked up our stuff from my dad’s hotel room, and we had a bit of leeway time to kill before the bus, so I went to go find the new Nana’s Green Tea in Apia and also show my dad their selection since he likes black sesame. Because we did have time, I didn’t get a drink from there (though I should use that free topping campaign with their app sometime!), and my boyfriend and I got a drink from The Alley to get some boba on this trip. Read about that here.
And we hopped on the 6:00 bus home, saying farewell to my dad for now.
Oh, and today was also another Starbucks fail day 😦 The strawberry velvet brownie frappucino is nowhere to be seen, and I think they recently introduced the new one, which I’m kinda eh about Oh well.
Japan Excursions 
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