On September 2nd, I took a solo day trip to Kutchan, because I felt like going out after staying at home for two weeks. Why Kutchan? Well, for one, there’s a Chinese place there that looked pretty good and has been on my radar, and I figured it’d be a nice change of pace from the “usual” Otaru or Sapporo. Plus, the bus ride is faster and cheaper, saving me some transport time, and money while I was at it (good chance before my upcoming mini weekend trip in a couple weeks! Look out for that post 🙂 !).
I got on the 9:30 bus, and my first mishap(?)/realization was that this bus doesn’t take IC card (one of the non-advanced ones I suppose…jk). I had enough time to go back and pre-buy a ticket so I wouldn’t have to find exact change later on. This was actually my first public transportation that wouldn’t take IC (excluding the one bus I took in Tokyo, but that was a direct express bus to DisneySea).
I arrived around 10:20 or so, and since my lunch of the day wouldn’t open until 11:30, I took the opportunity to walk around the area and visit a couple bakeries that were in my bookmarks. First up was Fujii sweets, right next to the station. I went mainly for their freshly made cream puffs, but their entire case of sweets and desserts were all so tempting…I also ended up buying a few pre-packaged desserts, a chocolate milk manju and a few baked donuts (seems like one of their specialties?), along with a cream puff.
I guess this was my breakfast of the day, and I ate it as soon as I left the store on my way to my next stop. It was so good, and I would totally come back for it. It’s “freshly made” in that they don’t put the cream in until you order it. The outside was crispy andjust a bit flaky, and would crumble pretty easily after each bite because of how delicate and crispy it was. The cream was also really nice, thick but still somewhat airy, vanilla flavor that was also apparently by the black specks in the cream, and plenty that filled the pastry. Very satisfied! I had their donuts a few days later as an after-work snack, and I was pleasantly surprised! For a baked donut, they were very satisfying, just slightly dense, and delivered well on the flavors!
My next stop was was Bird Bake Shop, a cute, local bakery that I read had good donuts. Despite buying donuts at Fujii, I was actually planning on getting donuts here, and besides, the Fujii donuts are not normal donuts…I ended up buying a matcha chocolate chip scone (the scones looked really good), a matcha donut, and a strawberry donut. I ate the matcha crunch one right away…
I will admit that when I bought it I was kind of suspicious by the color of the donut itself, as it was super pale, but I figured since I was there I’d give it a shot. I suppose my suspicions were correct, as when I had it, I really thought it’d be better. The donut itself was soft and a bit chewy, almost like the texture of bread. The matcha icing was good though, very matcha-y and not too sweet. My boyfriend agreed when he had the strawberry; again, the icing was actually really good, but the donut itself was kind of off in texture, at least from what we normally expect of a donut.
On the other hand, I had the matcha chocolate chip scone the next day for breakfast, and I really liked it! It was pretty large, I loved the chocolate chips interspered throughout, it was just a bit crumbly, and I could actually taste a bit of matcha.
By this time, it was around 11, so a bit of an awkward time to hang around until the restaurant opens. I decided to kill a bit of time at the Coop, a supermarket/drugstore near the station. For one, I could soak in the indoor AC instead of waiting in the sun, and also, I heard Kutchan supermarkets have more imported goods because of the traction is gets from foreign tourists and residents. It was…fine?
When 11:30 was nearing, I made my way back to Kouka, my Chinese restaurant and lunch spot of the day, and I wanted to be a bit early in case a line started forming (I heard lines are a thing and the place is popular). Thankfully there wasn’t a line, only an old guy sitting on the bench outside, and with nowhere else to wait, I just kind of stood in front of the restaurant for about 10 minutes. I realized as it got closer, the cars in the lot next door started turning off their engines, and before I knew it, people were getting out and lining up behind me. I ended up being the first to get inside (not the first to order mind you…), because the old guy said to go first. I was pretty happy to get in the first wave, because I think 10-15 minutes after they opened, they had to start a waitlist for people because the restaurant was full.
Unfortunately, the things I wanted to try was their crab fried rice and gyoza, which I saw was limited to 12 plates a day for some reason. Upon browsing the menu, I noticed it was considerably shorter than the pictures I saw online, and I asked the lady who took my order, who then replied that gyoza was limited to their evening service for some reason. Slightly defeated, I wanted something else along with the fried rice, so I ordered their gomoku ankake yakisoba (soy sauce starchy sauce with various protein and veggies), since I saw they actually fry the noodles here, which is how it’s normally done in Chinese cooking. The lady warned me it would be a lot, but I was hungry, and came here to eat anyway…
Everything was yum! Japanese people sure know how to make fried rice good, and it was light, all the grains were loose, and I enjoyed the amount of crab that was in it. I think the rice itself wasn’t too much, but the noodle plate was sure big. I ended up eating all the stuff for the protein and veg, and all the crispy bits, but did leave a bit of noodle at the end so I woulnd’t fill up on excess carbs. Aside from the actual crispy bits, the noodles themselves were like normal thin ramen noodles. The egg drop soup was really good, light, refreshing and hot, and the pickles they served were Chinese-style! Overall happy with the meal, but still dissappointed there’s no gyoza during lunch. I also noticed when I left that the people waiting outside were Chinese, which was funny.
Before my next spot, I decided to briefly walk off lunch by heading to another local grocery store, Lucky, to check out their potential selection of import goods, since my coworker said there’s a considerable amount. It was certainly spatially bigger than my local Lucky, but other than a few items, I didn’t see too much more foriegn goods.
I may have just eaten lunch, but dessert wasn’t going to be heavy, as my next stop was Cafe 909 for some kakigori! I think this place does kakigori year round with seasonal flavors, and from pictures it looked so good so I had to come while summer and hot season is still around. I went for the peach one, but the menu had a tomato one, which seemed wild to me…
Oh my goodness it was much yum! There was real peach sauce/puree on top of super fluffy shaved ice that just melted in my mouth and the spoon went right through. Along with that were some cut peach chunks in the middle, and the whole thing was so real peachy. I’ve been having peaches at home while I can since it’s a very summer fruit here, and I really think the juicy peaches here hit different…
With about an hour to kill before my bus home, I decided to go check out another bakery that had some nice looking bread on Google, Morideai. Gosh, their bread did look good, especially their baguettes, but they were also large and I didn’t know how I’d eat that much bread. I also highly considered their donuts, which looked like much more normal donuts and very appealing, but I held back, since I already bought donuts in the day, and figured I could come back to Kutchan sometime…
As an aside, when I finished browsing, I stepped outside to super heavy rain, which was totally unexpected since the forecast didn’t say anything about rain. I had an umbrella with me, so that wasn’t a problem. but it was pretty pouring and I didn’t know how long it would last. Weirdly enough, within a few minutes, it let up, and it became sunny as if nothing happened…
With not much else to do, I casually made my way back to the station, popping into the local Tsutaya bookstore along the way. On the way, I just so happened to spot a sign outside of Harvest Cafe saying they offer boba, and so I ended up getting boba! Read about it here.
And then I made it on the 2:45 bus home!
Japan Excursions 
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