Chilling in Sapporo
We had a great time in Sapporo. It was cold because it was the tail end of winter, but we love the weather so much because it was the height of summer back Manila.
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We had a great time in Sapporo. It was cold because it was the tail end of winter, but we love the weather so much because it was the height of summer back Manila.
SAPPORO Clock Tower.
SAPPORO Beer Museum.
THE Hidden Buddha revealed.
INSIDE the Royce Cacao & Chocolate Town, Leo Tiopes, Gary Garcia, Rene Alcala (the author), Ramon Tan and Dr. Larry Mallari.
SAPPORO Sky Tower.
VIEW from the top of Sapporo Sky Tower overlooking the Odori Park in the foreground and the mountains in the background, which include Mt. Moiwa, Mt. Maruyama and Mt. Teine.
After much deliberation, looking for a new place to visit in our favorite country, Japan, last summer, we decided on the cool climes of Sapporo in Hokkaido, home of Niseko, the skiing capital of Japan.
The flight was long, as there are just two airlines with a direct flight to Sapporo. All others have a connecting flight with a layover of at least a couple of hours. Our travel group of five arrived in Sapporo in the early afternoon, so we headed straight to our hotel by van.
Our hotel, located in the city, was just an hour from the airport. On the road, we were greeted by blotches of snow waiting for the sun. The weather was cold, very cold, but who does not like cold weather when you live in the Philippines? It is de rigueur that you wear thermal clothes underneath your sweater over a puff jacket with a muffler and a bonnet in Sapporo. Yes, it was that cold and we were liking it very much.
A night of noodles
In the evening, we went to Ramen Alley for dinner. Quite famous for the Japanese specialty, it is a very narrow, 42-meter alley with 17 different miso ramen shops. All of them have their own way of cooking ramen. We trotted along to scout for a place we could eat. They were all tiny ramen shops! With a seating capacity of 10 to 15 persons per shop, small groups may have to split up to find a table or a spot in the bar. Ramen is the best food for this kind of weather, with a rich hot soup and a satisfying amount of meat and noodles. Oishi!
In the morning, we went to the shopping street called Tanokikuji. Spanning seven street shopping arcades stretching to about a kilometer, it has over 200 shops like tax-free drugstores, vintage shops, restaurants featuring their famous curry soup and more ramen spots, bars, conbini stores and souvenir and coffee shops, even a hotel, too. We ended up eating in a hotel, but please don’t crucify us. It was not your ordinary hotel food. They served a very good selection of Lunch Specials, the price of which included unlimited soup, salad, desserts, coffee or tea. I ordered a Hamburg, made of half ground wagyu and half ground kurobota pork. It was divine!
We continued our lazy first day, window shopping in the premier department store, the Daimaru, and its adjoining mall, the Stellar Place, where you can find lots of Japanese homegrown brands of clothing, beauty products, houseware and décor.
Time ticked by so fast that we were late for our 7:30 p.m. dinner at Nanda Seafood Buffet Restaurant. We had heard the place was awesome with a good selection of king crab legs, hairy snow crabs, mud crabs, eel, tuna, salmon and Hamachi. There were oysters as big as your palm and scallops so big you needed to slice them in two. For meats, there was pork loin and pork steak, barbecued chicken on skewers, grade A5 wagyu slices and steaks and lamb chops, along with three kinds of soup, an array of drinks and alcohol (with an additional fee), plus cakes and six flavors of ice cream! How’s that for dinner? But we missed it, so we settled for an izakaya, ordering the usual Japanese food. We were full!
Two hours to the mountains
The next day, we headed for Niseko, a two-hour journey to the mountains, for a dose of more cold weather. About a kilometer from the city, on the way up, we were treated to kilometers of white snow! What a glorious day! One of my friends said he had never seen so much snow in his life! I was blown away!
We stopped in Nakayama Pass to have our pictures taken with snow and Mount Yotei, the Mount Fuji of Hokkaido, in the background. From there, we proceeded to Takahashi Dairy Farm. We treated ourselves to their soft-serve ice cream and cookies made from butter and cheese. They were all heavenly. There was a chocolate store, too, and they were as delicious as the cookies at the front store.
Off we went to Niseko town for lunch. The view was stunning on the way up. The cabin houses were all so beautiful and inviting with the snow as their backdrop. What a sight to behold! They were all for rent during the skiing season. For lunch we ended up in another hotel named Setsuo. Since we arrived in Niseko at 1 p.m., all the restaurants were already closed. Afuri, the name of the restaurant, serves typical Japanese food with a twist. Our ramen tasted sour, which gives its signature taste available only in the Niseko area. Setsuo is so well-located that all the rooms facing the main road have an expansive view of Mount Yotei.
We drove to Shikotsu-Toya National Park to view the picturesque Lake Toya from above. The wind was fierce when we got there. Of course, it was very cold, and I savored all of it, looking down on the very tranquil Lake Toya. It was bliss! From there, I asked the driver to make a stop at Little Dairy Farm, a famous soft-serve ice cream shop in the area. We were there in minutes. The soft ice cream is only available during summers, but there were coffee jams, milk jams, combinations of them, string cheese and a lot of milk cookies, too. That was the first time I heard about string cheese and they‘re literally in strings. I ate them like I was eating a rope twine.
Our last stop for the day was the Mount Usuzan Ropeway. We got lucky as we got there one hour before closing. The rope line climbs Mount Usu, the active volcano in Shikotsu-Toya National Park, and it has a view of Lake Toya and the central crater of Mount Usu. Up in the observatory, the view was breathtaking! Expansive, rolling and wide are the words best to describe the feeling when you get to the top.
Harbor city
The next day, we continued exploring the island by going to Otaru, the harbor city of Hokkaido, an hour away by train from Sapporo. From the train station, we walked down Chou Dori Street, the central street of Otaru that brings you to the canal, a good spot for photos with the warehouses in the background. Feeling hungry again, we went to Le Tao Main store just across the canal. This place is known for its cheesecakes and cookies. Of course, their famous Hokkaido milk makes these melt-in-your-mouth cheesecakes taste more delicious. After cheesecakes and coffee, we hunted for a place for lunch and trained our sights on Sankaku, the fish market of Otaru. We scoured the place, but it was full. We decided to try the famous fried chicken of Otaru. Off we walked to nearby Naruto Fried Chicken House. The fried chicken was fall-off-the-bones but needs some condiments to be really enjoyed.
We were scheduled to go to Mount Moiwa Ropeway but our Uber driver told us it was closed, we went to Sakaimachi Street instead for shopping. Le Tao has five shops on this street! I bought dried scallops in one store and I went inside a souvenir shop and bought a ref magnet for a friend. We ended up in a Le Tao shop that gave us doses of energy like coffee and tea. In the evening, we feasted on shrimp tempura and wine — budo no hana in Japanese. The tempura was top-notch, crispy outside and tender on the inside.
The next day, we chose to explore the suburbs of Sapporo and the city itself. A tour of Royce chocolate factory was on top of our list. We arrived at exactly 10 a.m., which was our booked time. At the end of the walk-through and visual presentation, we ended up in a Royce Chocolate Store. It was chocolate heaven!
Moerenuma Park, an 189-hectare park that used to be a landfill and was designed by renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi, was our next stop. Opened in 2005, it is known as a “landscape sculpture” combining geometric features like the Hidamari Glass Pyramid, an ode to I.M. Pei’s pyramid on the grounds of the Louvre in Paris, France and Mt. Moere, a man mountain towering 62 meters. You can do a lot of activities in the park depending on the season. In summer, you can play in the water of Moere Beach or rent a bike. By fall, you can watch Moerenuma Artistic Fireworks, a fireworks event which combines the synchronized beauty of fireworks and music. In winter, you can rent sleds and snowshoes so you can play in the snow and in spring, Moerenuma Park has an area planted with 1,600 cherry trees.
For lunch, we went back to the city for Nijo Seafood Market. There we had unlimited sashimi and soup plus grilled fish, which turned out to be a winner. In the afternoon, we drove to Makomanai Takino cemetery to visit the hidden Buddha by Tadao Ando. Upon entering the place, you can already view the head of the buddha from afar. Walking through the chamber that houses the Buddha, you will be enthralled by the massive statue of Atama Daibutsu, literally the “Large Buddha’s head,” that slowly emerges until the 13.5-meter tall buddha is right before your eyes. It is a sight to behold!
We drove back to the city and visited the Sapporo Clock Tower and the Sapporo Sky Tower, two of the top tourist attractions of the city. A couple of us wanted to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum, the only museum dedicated to beer in Japan. It explores the long history of the brand, which was born in 1876. The beer was fresh and sleek, maybe because it’s freshly brewed and the weather makes a lot of difference.
Last look
On our last day in Sapporo, we heard mass at the Guardian Angels Cathedral. It was Easter and the cathedral was small, perhaps because Roman Catholics are a minority in this land of Buddhism. After the service, we went back to a ramen shop that had a long line the night before. True enough, their ramen is to line for! The ramen in Sapporo is different from the other regions in Japan.
We had a great time in Sapporo. It was cold because it was the tail end of winter, but we loved the weather so much because it was the height of summer back in Manila. We promised to go back next time, stay longer than eight days, and explore more of the island of Hokkaido.
