After breakfast, we left for Ishiya White Chocolate Factory. In fact the entire area is called Shiroi Koibito Park where visitors can has a tour of Shiroi Koibito Cookies production line as shown in the photos below, the outdoor Rose Garden, Aurora Fountain, Sapporo Mechanical Clock Tower and many more.

Sapporo Mechanical Clock Tower: this is the entrance to the Factory Walk.

There are cat symbols everywhere, on the wall facing the Rose Garden and outside the gate of the main building. I am not sure what does it symbolize but they look cute.

The Shiroi Koibito Cookies production line.

Look at those Sugar Craft, be careful, they are not edible.

The famous Shiroi Koibito cookies(白い恋人) are so delicious! I keep eating one after another one. Yummy! Btw, Shiroi Koibito means “white beloved ones” in Japanese.

Cute Gramophone Theater outside the Gramophone Gallery.

Old-style Children’s Toy Box housed numerous classical toys from 1868 to 1989.

Hmm… Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe?

Odori Park(大通公園) was suppose to be next in the itinerary but we were simply brought to the Aurora Town underground Shopping for our free time. At that time was around 11.25am and we should be back to the bus by 1.45pm, if I remember correctly. Lunch was not included on this day.

There are two underground shopping malls, the first one where we entered is the horizontal line Aurora Town, which stretches 312 m east-west from Odori Subway Station to Sapporo TV Tower; next is Pole Town which stretches 400m north-south from Odori Subway Station to Susukino Subway Station on the Nanboku Subway Line. Both sides of these pedestrian corridors are lined with shops selling clothes, souvenirs and many others, not forgetting plenty of restaurants and cafés.

Pole Town

Since this was the first day that we could do a little shopping on our own,
I headed down straight to a pharmacy store and searched for the local Japanese
skin care brands.

After about 40min of shopping, see below:

DHC products are much cheaper in Japan compare to Singapore.

Same for Fancl health food products, I didn’t realize that Fancl are also sold in drug store like this, I was so happy when I saw them but only bought those below. My initial thought was: since Fancl products are sold in drug store, I will buy more when I reach Tokyo in order to save the trouble carrying so many items throughout the Hokkaido tour. This was the big mistake I have ever make here! For those who are interested in Fancl products, they are not available in any Tokyo drug stores, I could not find one the sell it there. It seems that it is available only in Hokkaido? Sigh!

Well, I know I can get it at the cosmetic section of a departmental store in Japan but the price here in drug store is definitely cheaper. At Kokomin, if you purchase above ¥2000 or ¥5000(I can’t recall the exact amount), the 5% tax is excluded.

Hokkaido Jingu(北海道神宮) was supposed to be the next in itinerary but again, we were brought to one of the shop in Tanuki Koji Shopping Street to buy Shiroi Koibito cookies. According to the tour guide, a main festival was held at Hokkaido Jingu and it would be extremely crowded; therefore we would be visiting it on the last day of our tour.

Looking at the itinerary , Tanuki Koji Shopping Street would be the last place on the last day of our tour but since it was changed, this place was considered being “covered” in the itinerary already. In actual fact, we only visited this one and the only shop below. Sigh! Another minus point for Chan Brother Tour!

Around 3pm, say goodbye to Sapporo and leaving for a night stay in Sounkyo Choyo Resort Hotel. It was about 3 hours bus ride from Sapporo.

Our tatami room.

Futon were laid when we were out for our buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant.

At the end of the day, I am not so impressed of the way of this local tour guide lead the tour. For the next few days of tour, we always ended up at the hotel about 5 to 6pm and no where else to go. I guess I overheard someone in our tour group asked her why we need to check in to the hotels so early and if I am not wrong, she replied that it was required by the various hotels that group must be check in before 5pm? Huh? I remember during our Central Japan Tour in 2007, the tour guide from SA Tours was so thoughtful that whenever there was a day being arranged to stay in a hotel which was away from the city area, she would take the initiative to bring us to a near by supermarket for a short shopping spree.

After dinner we went for our “soaking spree” at the hotel hot spring. The onsen here in Hokkaido is so much different as compared to those in central Japan tour, this one is huge with several hot spring baths. I soaked into the onsen one after another, of course in about 5 minutes interval in each of them. My face was red like lobster the moment I went back to the hotel room.

Continue to day 4 Hokkaido trip »

Our itinerary today was changed as we should be going to Mt Moiwa at night but was replaced by Okurayama(大倉山) Viewing Point. This was informed before the trip but we thought, well, since it would be a night view anyway, it doesn’t really matter that much which mountain that we were heading to. But after breakfast, we were informed by the tour guide that we were going to Okurayama Viewing Point first, in the morning(Not at night), the reason was because the tour guide thought that we would not make it in time to visit this place as it closes at 5pm.

There were a couple of changes to the scheduled itinerary by this Japan tour guide(formally a Malaysian married to a Japanese and based in Osaka, if I heard her correctly). I will write down all changes according to the date of the trip.

Ok, Okurayama Viewing Point is in fact a Ski Jump Stadium but when the stadium is not being used for any sport event, Okurayama Observatory at the top of the hill can be accessed via a chair lift for views of Sapporo city.

Sapporo City view from the top of Okurayama Viewing Point, under a foggy condition, not so spectacular after all.

Next we headed for Otaru Canal(小樽運河). The temperature was 23°C but it was warm with bright sunny day here.

Both sides of the canal are lined with century old stone warehouses where some are transformed into shops, cafes, museums and restaurants.

Along the canal we could see some artists promoting and selling their artworks and hand-crafted stuffs.

Time for our seafood Steamboat lunch around 12pm at one of the Otaru Seafood market. The restaurant is located on the second floor, customers can pick and buy the fresh optional seafood at the ground floor.

We ordered the king crab(Tarabagani) which was an optional dish. It was quite expensive for 1 piece as shown below which cost ¥10,000, about $160 Singapore dollars. Well, I didn’t try it raw as I am not a fan of raw food, I know it is kind of waste but really, can’t brave myself to eat anything raw.

Next we proceeded to Otaru Music Box Museum. On the way we saw these Hokkaido ice cream displayed outside of an ice cream shop.

The main building of Otaru Music Box Museum.

This board states that Otaru Music Box Museum is a designated Historic Landmarks of Otaru City. ".. While many of the buildings in Otaru are made of stone, this building utilizing brick construction tied to an internal wooden frame. Characteristic features of the building include its brown brick walls, the arched window keystone and cornerstones with openings and corners. Although the building was at one time a home furnishings store, it has presently been reborn as a specialty music box retailer."

Colorful music boxes are everywhere in the Museum.

Up to second floor..

The draw-string musical cat are so cute! Regret that I didn’t buy any of them, they are indeed not cheap, from ¥7000.

The Otaru Music Box Museum Hall Number 2, namely the Antique Museum, holds exhibitions of many antique music boxes and numerous musical instruments.

Further up another floor is selling Japanese styled goods with many of the kawaii cats.

Took too many pictures till my camera batery ran flat, had to use my handphone to take the following pictures. Hmm.. yummy sushi, look carefully, they are all musical boxes!

Next we went for the afternoon tea session at one of the cafe where we can keep the porcelain cup as a memento. I bought the hellokitty cup and saucer set which cost ¥800(if I remember correctly), with 1 extra free top up drink included.

Not much interesting stuff to blog about till our dinner time at around 6pm. Ah, eat again. This time we were having barbeque at Miyanomori.

First time savored the Kobe beef, it costs ¥8000 per 200g, expensive. Well, some people said that it melted in the mouth but to me, just another kind of beef(by name), juicier than the normal one though.

Going back to Apa Hotel & Resort Sapporo for a 2nd night stay. It was about 8pm and the night was still young but we had no place to go, there is nothing much outside the hotel, not even a convenient store, sigh. So we went for the onsen bath, lol. Since this onsen is located in city area, it is not a true onsen with little mineral in the hotspring. We were looking forward to those mineral-rich onsen in the next few days.

Continue to day 3 Hokkaido trip »