September 16-18 was a three day weekend for me, and also happens to be the weekend of Sapporo Pride, along with a ton of other events! This year I did want to partake more in the festivities, since I decided not to go at all last year. Since I also had the extra day off, I took the opportunity to stay the weekend. Unfortunately, I started looking for accomodation too late that all the reasonable priced places in Sapporo were gone, so I settled for a place in Otaru instead. The trip is much shorter than going from home, and I figured it’d be a nice chance to spend some time in Otaru anyway.
September 16th: I took my usual bus to Sapporo at 7:45, and my boyfriend and I arrived at Sapporo station around 10:30. He wouldn’t be staying with me over the weekend, but just coming along and hanging out with me for the day. Particularly, he was craving Ding Tai Fung, and wanted to try out some of the Japan exclusive items, so that was going to be out lunch spot of the day. The restaurant wouldn’t open until 11, so we hung around Stellar Place until 11, and were even the first ones in!
After eating our fill, we headed down south in the direction of Odori Park. To walk off the food we just ate, we decided to browse all of the Sapporo Autumn Festival, spanning 7 blocks of Odori Park, and is the biggest food festival in Sapporo every year. Yes, it is more food, but although a lot of it looked and smelled good, neither of us really wanted anything in particular, and I was just happy looking at the potential selection and variety. Honestly, there was just so much selection, to the point that it was like choice overload. Plus, at some point, a lot of the foods kind of overlapped, and quite a few of the booths were local Sapporo businesses, and I figured you could get similar and probably better quality than a street vendor at the actual restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, there were a ton of unique and out-of-town vendors, but there was also a ton of people…
There was a ton of ice cream (duh, Hokkaido), but what I really had in mind was ice cream from this green tea shop I’ve been wanting to try. Since we were in the general area, I figured it’d be a good opportunity. The menu calls it a “parfait”, but it’s more of a layered ice cream, or I guess you could call it a parfait in a cone. It comes with green tea ice cream, soft serve on top, some red bean in the cone, and a few toasted rice kernels. I went with the high quality as opposed to the standard, since I wanted the stronger matcha flavor, and it wasn’t that much more.
It was really good! I just wish it wasn’t super hot or sunny that day because the instant I walked out of the store the soft serve on top started melting. Other than that, the soft serve had a real milky flavor, and I really enjoyed the surprise crunch of the toasted rice. The matcha ice cream was good flavor wise, but the texture itself was a bit icy. Red bean was smooth and went well with the matcha.
I ate my ice cream on the way to the Animate building, since my boyfriend’s other main goal of the day was to check out a new release for one of his favorite manga. We spent some money, took a look around, and then headed for the new Moyuk building. I wanted to check it out after it opened recently, since it’s supposed to have some new shops along with the aquarium. We left the aquarium to check out for another day to dedicate more time for it, but we did get some gelato from Maruyama Gelato on the first floor. I know, I just had ice cream, but for one, I was intrigued by their flavors, and two, my boyfriend wanted to try the kiwi sherbet. Their most popular flavors in order are soba, yomogi (a Japanese grass), and corn. I’m not sure if they’re popular because they’re weird, or if people actually like them. We didn’t get them, opting for just a double scoop of the kiwi and Biei milk gelato. They were both good; the milk being the perfect creamy texture and milk flavor, and the kiwi refreshing and not too sweet, not too tart!
I briefly went to go check out the Pride stuff that was happening, and also pregister for the parade that was happening the day after. I love me some free rainbow stuff, all the merch was super cute, and the amount of corporate businesses that were there was cool.
Before getting on the 4:00 bus, I quickly stopped by Lupicia to get some tea for my mom (highly recommend for tea!), and we got Gong Cha for the bus ride back. Read about my boba here!
I got off at Otaru since I’m staying at a hostel for the weekend, and after checking in and putting down my extra stuff, I went to go check out the Otaru Autumn Festival that was happening over the weekend. It was pretty cool, a lot less like the Sapporo Autumn Festival and more of a local thing, as it was a small street lined with local businesses selling street food, along with a truck stage with performances at the front.
Since I was still relatively full from stuff I ate earlier, I went to Robataya Tsurukichi in Denkukoji, which happened to be right next to the festivities, to have some freshly grilled seafood. I’ve been interested in getting stuff from there for a while, and I figured it’d make a nice evening eat. The squid had always looked appetizing, and an oyster and a scallop wouldn’t be too much more, so that’s what I ended up with. Everything was much yum!
To walk off the rest of the food for the night, I headed toward the canal to go check out the Otaru North Canal Night Market. Yes, this was the 3rd street fod market of the day, but I just enjoy browsing and checking out the festivities, ok? There were less stalls than I thought there would be for a night market, as there were just a few lining the canal, but I still thought the vibes were cozy, and there were still some interesting items for sale.
After contemplating a bit, I ended up puchasing a cup of apple juice as an evening sweet treat from a Yoichi apple juice booth for 200 yen. As an apple juice connoisseur, I really enjoyed it, and it literally tasted like liquid apple sauce. You know how 100% applesauce just has that natural sweetness and tang at the same time?
September 17th: I had an agenda for the Sunday, which started with getting breakfast at the LeTao main store at their cafe. The main reason was that the main shop has a new seasonal, limited time treat: the shine muscat tart. The cafe opens at 9, so I figured it’d make a nice breakfast before heading off to Sapporo for the day. I left my hostel so I’d arrive a few minutes before they open to guarantee I get in, but when I did get there, I saw there was already a decent line forming! I quickly lined up and prayed I could get in the first wave. It was at this moment I learned to never underestimate Japanese people’s ability to line up before a store opens.
The line moved pretty slowly, making me anxious about whether I’d actually get in or not, but once I made it to the cafe floor, I saw that there were plenty of tables. I assumed that it might have been a combination of staffing and staggering seating customers. Nevertheless, after waiting a bit, I was able to sit down, and I ordered a set with the shine muscat tart with the seasonal tea (supposed to be hints to peach and muscat), and although the tarte fraises is not seasonal, it looked really good (to be honest there was a lot that looked good, ha!)and I wanted a second pastry, so I got that.
Alright before the food, I’d like to complain a little. I’m not sure if this was a staffing issue or something happened in the kitchen, but I waited 30 minutes for an iced tea and two pastries that theoretically just needed to come out from the showcase up front. Was it the tea that took long? Did they need to restock one of the pastries? It was honestly bizarre, plus their Wifi wouldn’t work (woe is me, first world problems I know, but why mention your free wifi if it doesn’t work).
Anyway, everything was good, but the muscat tart especially lived up to my expectations. The flavor was subtle, and the muscat flavor came mostly from the fresh grape slices themselves, but I liked how the crust, cream layer, jelly, and grapes all went together. I liked the strawberry tart, but not sure if I’d get it for myself again; the strawberries tasted really good, and I liked the vanilla cream underneath, but the crumbly cake thing in the crust didn’t do anything for me, and the crust was a bit hard to break with just a fork. Finally, I really enjoyed the tea, and could taste the muscat and peach notes.
Immediately after I finished I left to go get on a bus to Sapporo. Since the bus would take an hour and two pastries and a tea isn’t exactly a filling breakfast, it was basically time for lunch when I arrived around 11:30, which fit perfectly into my schedule: Thai food for lunch. I’ve been low key craving pad see ew for a while (along with other non-Japanese food), and I recently found on Google a couple Thai places that have it. Siam though, actually has Thai tea, whereas the other one didn’t, which made Siam higher on the go-to list. I’ll probably try the other one at some point, but for now, this seemed to satisfy my Thai checklist.
Oh man, they were both good! The Thai tea was perfect, tasted like a solid Thai tea. The pad see ew was nicely stir fried, the flavor was really good, a nice balance between salty and sweet, and the whole thing had a great smoky flavor. I found it interesting that they used bok choy, but maybe it’s the most accessible non-Japanese vegetable. My only complaint is that the amount served vs the plate size was a little disproportionate, and it was litle on the oily side, but that’s probably their normal serving size, and I’m assuming oil for stir fries is natural.
Before the pride parade started at 2, I quickly ran a few errands, getting some water and buying some things for friends, checked out the pride booths again, got some free rainbow stuff, and then met up with some friends at the meeting place for the parade. Some old, some new, and some Norwegians (one of my new friends met them at the hostel they were staying at).
The parade was fun, and lasted about an hour and a half as we basically walked around all of Odori park and circled a bit towards the station before coming back full circle. Luckily, it just started to sprinkle just as it was ending (beats a full day of rain as predicted by the weather a few days prior). At this point, a few of us were hungry, and we wanted to sit down somewhere quieter and grab a snack and chat. To accomodate everyone’s various needs, we went to the food court in Akarenga Terrace. Only 2 out of the 6 of us got a proper meal, and the rest of us just wanted a snack. We decided to head to a nearby bakery before heading back to the food court to use their seating. I got three things: a chocolate bagel, a Flaky Matcha, and a chocolate croissant. Everything looked so good (I have to go back for one of their donuts…), but I got a couple things since I was there to save for later, and ate the chocolate croissant right after. It was good chocolate croissant, but I wish I toasted it with their toaster they had. Plus apparently this croissant appeared on tv before?
We chatted for a couple hours, mainly about cultural differences between our varying countries, and I learned a lot about Norway from one of our new Norwegian friends. Around 5, we split up, with us all having different plans before the weekend ends, so we said our goodbyes, and me and a coupe friends headed to the Tokyu building to grab an early dinner because I needed to do some shopping there anyway. My friend chose a Korean place, and I went for the seolleongtang, one of my Korean food cravings.
Overall, I thought the soup was good, had that signature creamy texture, and hit the spot flavorwise. There were a ton of noodles, and also lot of green onions, onions, mushrooms and carrots. I appreciated the veggies, but I think other than the green onions the vegetables are untraditional. What was also untraditional was that the soup came with rice already in it, hidden under the noodles. Usually Korean soups come with a side of rice, and I completely didn’t expect rice in the soup at all. I much would have preferred rice on the side…One of my friends’ food was taking a while to come out, so a waitress offered us all free drinks, and after looking at the menu, we all chose the Korean pear juice. I mean, I chose it because it was labled a Korean drink, and I’ve been really into pear flavored things this summer (spoiler alert!), and I have to say, it was really good! It had a natural sweetness to it, was light and refreshing, and even came with pulp.
Our small group parted ways after dinner, I did some shopping, and beofre getting on a 7:00 bus, I obviously had to get boba for the bus ride. Read about my boba here!
September 18th: Happy Respect for the Elderly day! Monday is the national holiday that made it a three day weekend, and although it’s a day off, I ended up waking up at my normal time, mostly so I could wake up early and go get breakfast. Specifially, get a seafood bowl at Sankaku Market, Otaru’s morning seafood market. I read that there could be a morning rush, and wanted to beat any potential wait, so I decided it was better to just get there early. Sankaku Market has quite a few seafood bowl eateries, but I had Kawashima in mind because their prices looked good, they were supposed to take card, and I read they use normal rice.
I picked out a 3 color bowl with my top 3 favorites: crab, scallop, and salmon. It came out almost immediately after I ordered, with miso soup, a soy sauce plate with wasabi, and a marinated squid side dish. Everything was so good, and I especially liked my seafood bowl. As a white rice addict, I was glad that the review was accurate and that they actually used white rice as opposed to sushi rice, which you normally find in any other seafood bowl. In fact, the rice was so hot, that it started kind of cooking my salmon sashimi, which I had mixed feelings about. Other than that, I was really satisfied with my experience there, especially the real white rice.
It was still pretty early in the morning, and nothing would be open anyway, so I went back to my hostel and chilled there for a few hours until it was time to check out, and then headed to my lunch spot of the day, Ushan Hanten, my new favorite Chinese spot in Otaru. Ok well, it’s the only one I’ve been to in Otaru, but we’ll put that aside…usually they’re closed on Mondays, but since it’s a public holiday, they were open, and I made sure to get there around opening time. It was 10 minutes before they open, and there was still already a mini line forming! I made it in no problem though (10 minutes into opening they were already full!), and I ordered their gyoza, which I loved last time, along with pig ears, which I also really wanted to try.
The gyoza were as good as the last time I had them, nicely crispy on the bottom, pretty chewy skin, with a ton of meat filling. I noticed they were a lot less juicy than the last time, which I actually appreciated so that there wasn’t dumpling juice getting on my clothes. I was very satisfied with the pig ears, as they’re not an easy find in Japan, and they really hit the spot. Soft but still chewy and crunchy, they went really well with the tianmianjiang that was on the cucumber.
After I finished eating, I rode a bus to Wing Bay, where I would enjoy my main event for the day: a movie! My stay in Otaru worked out because in Otaru, movies are discounted on Mondays, which made Monday the perfect day to hang out in Otaru. Plus, I actually had some time before my 2pm movie to actually walk around and explore Otaru.
Before my movie, I went for a pre-movie snack to the Misono Ice Cream booth in Wing Bay to grab some ice cream, since it looked like they had a variety of interesting flavors. I got the double with pear sherbet and matcha gelato. The lady even gave me a bonus of a tiny bit of strawberry yogurt!
It was so yummy! As you can see, I’m into pear as a flavor recently, and the pear sherbet was an unexpected good find! The matcha was also nice, just slightly creamy with a light matcha flavor. The bonus strawberry yogurt was also like the name says, tangy from the yogurt, but naturally sweet from the strawberry. As a warning, it looks tall, but there wasn’t any actual ice cream in the cone itself apart from what you see on the top. Oh, and my kids found me while I was eating ice cream…
I went to go see my movie when 2 came around, and it did live up to my high hopes! I’m not going to tell everyone to go see it since it’s for a niche audience, but if anyone likes magical girls, it was a momentous point in magical girl history…
To wrap up my vacation, I took the train back to Otaru station, and stopped by Ekimo LeTao to pick up the new seasonal Niagara grape version of their signature Double Fromage. I had it a few days later, and I’d say it was ok. It tasted mostly of cheesecake, and the grape flavor was subtle, but did inded taste a lot like the niagara grape chocolate I had from them a while ago.
My last stop before getting on the 4pm bus was Mister Donut right next door, and I picked up a few seasonal donuts, and boba! Read about my boba here!
And that was my three day weekend!
Japan Excursions 
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