My family came to Japan! They’re staying two weeks, exploring one by themselves in Otaru and Sapporo, and the other with me in Tokyo, and other places. They flew in on July 1st, and I met up with them in Otaru on the 2nd and showed them around.
My boyfriend and I took the 10:30 bus and arrived around 12, just so we would be in the city before my family to greet them. Since we had a bit of time before they arrived, I decided we could probably skip the wait at a sushi place we wanted to eat at by taking a number earlier on (since I knew they would be busy), and we made our way to Waraku Revolving Sushi. On the way there, my boyfriend stopped by the croquette booth(?)/store next to Ungaya, the nikuman place, and got a crab cream croquette (I think this place won an award or something). It was good, warm and crispy, and I like crab, but not a huge cream person. Then we made it to Waraku, and took a number. The estimated wait time was 110 minutes, and it was 12:16. I figured it was perfect, by the time we dropped off my family’s luggage at the hotel, we could just walk in.
My family arrived at Otaru station around 12:30, and after greeting them, we made our way to their hotel to drop off their bags, since they couldn’t check in yet. I figured we had plenty of time, so we casually made our way back to Waraku. On the way, we stopped by Niikuraya, the Japanese sweets and dango place, and got a few treats. After chilling for a bit, we made our way in the direction of Sakaimachi, walked a bit of the beginning, did some window shopping, and then turned at the intersection to get to Waraku.
I wanted to check our place in line, since at that point only an hour had passed, and it turns out, they had long called our number! So, the system kind of lied to us, and since if you’re not there within 15 minutes of being called, you have to start over. I got a new number, with a slightly extended estimated wait time, but this time, we would check back in an hour.
We circled back to Sakaimachi, first heading into the Kamaei factory. There was a huge line, so no fresh fish cake for us today, and the factory wasn’t even operating to look at. My sister did find an abundance of Hokkaido Kirby merchandise though.
After that, we perused the street food, first going to the dango/street food shop that also sells savory fried cheese sticks, among other miscellaneous items. My sister got a strawberry soda, my dad got a melon soda, and I opted for a potato swirl, which we all split. It was just salted, but it hit the potato swirl spot.
Otaru is full of glass stores, but we stopped by one selling wind chimes because my sister was interested. She ended up buying one. Glasswork super pretty.
My mom liked matcha, so I pointed out the Sawawa. She got a cake, a matcha ice cream after being tempted by a girl outside, and my dad got an unsweetened latte. The ice cream was pretty good, super creamy, a bit decadent, and pretty matcha forward. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. But was worth, and 10/10 would get again.
At this point, we were nearing an hour mark from our number in line, so we went back to Waraku to check out our spot in line. Luckily this time, we were the fourth number in line, so we decided to just wait the rest of the time out in the restaurant. It wasn’t too long before we were seated, and we ate a lot! Quality was great, and there was a variety of sushi available. Here’s a note: the stuff rotating on the conveyor belt tends to be the same stuff, and with some basic options and more interesting ones. A lot of those also had a plastic sheet covering. However, they provide you a menu (English available!) that you should write what you want on and hand it to the chef. Also, it’s a cash only establishment.
We eventually left pretty full and satisfied, and walked back to Sakaimachi to finish the tour of the rest of the street. I wanted to hit up Takeda Zangi, because I’ve also been interested, and also because my dad expressed an interest in Japanese fried chicken and long fries, which I discovered they had last week. We ordered just a cup of salted zangi, and got an order of salted long fries to share.
They both came out hot and freshly fried, and the karaage/zangi was super crispy and juicy on the inside! They had some indoor seating in the back, and it was there I learned that apparently “zangi” is derived from the Chinese word for fried chicken (“zaji”). Go figure. The fries were good, like pretty standard, fresh long fries, and although they did go well with the salt, I really could have gone for some ketchup, which was a flavor option. Overall, even though everyone was full, I think everyone enjoyed having at least a bite of each.
We continued browsing until we hit LeTao Pathos, where I showed off all the sweets to my parents (why do I sound like I made them, I have no connection to LeTao or anything). They were actually giving out free samples of their famous Double Fromage cheesecake (along with one of their cheese cookies), and although I’m not a huge cheesecake person, was pretty good as a cheesecake, super creamy and melt in your mouth. We ended up buying an original, a chocolate, and the new limited melon one to eat together later. Oh, also, the current seasonal thing at Pathos to go is this tiny berry parfait which really tempted my boyfriend, but we didn’t end up getting it.
On the LeTao hype, we crossed the street to go to the chocolatier one. There, my sister bought some souvenirs for her friends after getting a free sample of their chocolate cookie, my mom got their ice cream swirl, my boyfriend wanted to try their current seasonal berry chocolate thing (the more berry one was sold out though), and at the last second, we bought two of their Sylvie cakes to eat as well. Lots of cake for the night after…Their ice cream is super good (I’ve had it before!), and the seasonal thing was basically a rich chocolate milk with their chocolate ice cream on top, topped with frozen strawberry bits and raspberries. Overall very chocolate-y and rich, and I like chocolate, so I liked it. The berries were a little odd, being frozen and a little sour, but definitely worth sharing.
We made a quick stop at the beef sushi place, because my dad was intrigued by the wagyu sushi thing being advertised and wanted to try it with my boyfriend. Apparently it was good, but didn’t look as good as the picture. Finally making our way to the end of the street, we entered the Music Box hall, took a look around, and headed back to the hotel to check in and exchange stuff for each other.
We ended up taking the 7:00 bus home, after stopping by a grocery store to get water for my family, and buying my family bus tickets for their trip tomorrow.
Oh, a bit lack of pictures today because I was very in the moment hanging out with the family. ❤
Japan Excursions 
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