We were going to go out this weekend to Sapporo mainly to do some winter-ish shopping, particularly for my boyfriend who needed to get some snow boots. He ended up getting boots locally in town, so it turned into more of a food day (which was already planned anyway), plus some spontaneous shopping, some needs, and some wants.
We arrived around 10 in Sapporo for our reservation for Japanese souffle pancakes at 11 pancake reservation, and got off at the closest stop. This was going to be our late breakfast/brunch situation, and also my boyfriend said he wanted to try fluffy pancakes. I luckily found one of my favorite chains here in Sapporo, and made a reservation just in case. Since we had a bit of time before our planned reservation, we did some shopping at the nearby GU because I had some stuff I wanted to try to get, particularly their version of Uniqlo’s Heat Tech. I got the stuff I was going for, so I didn’t need to go to Uniqlo (unless it’s not effective, then I’ll go I guess), and it was perfect timing since it was right nearing 11.
I ordered a grapefruit juice because I wanted to get a drink, and their milk tea pancakes, which come with a milk tea sauce and apple cinnamon granola. My boyfriend got a banana milk and a roll cake that came with manuka honey, since he doesn’t eat that much in the morning. The grapefruit juice was not very sweet, as expected of a 100% juice, and I felt it was ok. It was clearly as advertised, but I think I expected a naturally sweeter juice. The pancake super fluffy, soft, and eggy, and even though my family has tried many times to recreate it at home, nothing really beats restaurant quality (sorry dad!). I was originally deciding between this one and the hot chocolate panakes, but I went with this one because chocolate on pancakes seemed more common. However, the milk tea sauce was less traditional Japanse milk-tea-y, and more cinammony, which I didn’t dislike per se, but it was an interesting choice. I liked the granola though, and the whipped cream was really good.
To walk off breakfast before our planned “lunch” spot of the day, we went to the Animate/Book-Off area because my boyfriend is hunting for something for his friend. Even after trying mutiple shops, it was nowhere to be found…we were still not too hungry, so went to go see a cake vending machine that I found online in a friend’s Facebook post, mostly because my boyfriend is looking for vending machines with food in them, and I thought it’d be good content for his TikTok. Neither of us got anything though (the prices were a little high, likely for the novelty, and probably higher than the fresh cakes inside the patissiere!). We headed a little further down the street to Mandarake, a Book-Off style used goods chain with more retro goods, because I’ve been meaning to show him the place, and we ended up buying some things (oops), including his belated birthday gift for me!
We were finally hungry from breakfast, so around 2 we headed to Takohai for some takoyaki and highballs, since my boyfriend has been on a highball kick recently and likes takoyaki too. They also gave us some takoyaki-flavored snacks are freebies, which was cool!
Alongside the above, my boyfriend ordered a few highballs, and a scallion mayo 4 pc for himself. I don’t drink, so I just got a water. I’m not a huge takoyaki person; I think it’s just ok, but overall I enjoyed the ambiance. The place is tiny, with just barely enough room for some counter seats aside from a couple tables outside. The takoyaki came out piping hot and fresh, with the insided still mush, and the size of each ball was pretty decent. I liked the sauce the best, because the sauce just tastes good, but I got the salted one since my boyfriend was trying the other flavor for himself and this one came with seaweed, though I did not really appreciate there being mayo on it without sauce…I just am not a huge mayo person. My boyfriend, after contemplating for a bit, wanted more carbs (takoyaki is mostly carbs??), so he decided to get the yakisoba if we’d split it. Another customer next to us ordered it and it looked really good, which probably convinced both of us. And it was good! It was basically a takoyaki flavored yakisoba with some (what we believed to be) lamb and onions, and minus the mayo (yay!). The noodles were also relatively unique in my opinion.
To kill some time before our early-dinner reservation and to walk off the takoyaki, we went to Mont Bell to get some snow spikes for our boots. In Sapporo it was relatively fine (that day anyway), but after falling a few times on the road back home that morning I realized that snow spikes were probably a good idea to be better safe than sorry. I heard that convenience stores are supposed to sell them, but since I saw a Facebook post plugging Mont Bell and they’re a more outdoor specialty store, I figured we’d go since we were in the area. After checking out the selection and buying the most basic one, we went to Kinokuniya as a last resort for that friend, but they didn’t have what we were looking for either.
Our plan was to catch the 6:00 bus home, and since our lunch was going to be relatively late, I planned a yakitori spot as our dinner for the night, since yakitori is generally small eats and you can choose what you want. To ensure we wouldn’t have to wait, I made a reservation just in case. We did arrive early and were able to be seated right away, so that was also a plus.
Overall it was pretty good (they charge a 200 yen table fee though)! The place also gave a free kettle of soup on the side, and though it was good, was kind of on the salty side. I picked most of our menu items, and they all tasted great and tender (for the meats anyway, I’m more of a fry fan than a potato wedge fan, thats for the boyfriend). It did end up being a relatively salty meal, but that was kind of to be expected.
Now, if I didn’t have boba planned for the day, we actually might have been able to make the 5:00 bus home. However, since I’m in Sapporo, I have to get my boba fix, and I was finally planning on trying The Tea today too, so I definitely was not skipping that. Plus, I also planned our dinner spot since it was right next to The Tea, so even more reason I ain’t skipping it. I guess we were a little early in the schedule, but oh well. Read about my drink here!
We obviously didn’t end up making the 5:00 bus, and we needed about 40 minutes to kill. Since we bought some things that required batteries earlier, my boyfriend wanted to buy some while we had some time, so we went back to station because the closest 100 yen shop I knew was there. I also coincidentally bumped into a friend/coworker on the way! After finishing up there, we got on the 6:00 bus home.
Japan Excursions 
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