[Hokkaido] Day 3 - Part 1 : Sapporo City Center & Lunch at Nijo Market

Back to Sapporo again!! After a day trip to Otaru, we'd spent our 3rd day of this Hokkaido trip by strolling around Sapporo city center, seafood lunch at Nijo Market, and visiting the popular Shiroi Koibito Park. Since it’s gonna be a long day, so I divided into 2 parts. Let’s start from the first one, Sapporo city center and Nijo Market.

Sapporo Clock Tower 

After had a good breakfast at the hotel, we went to Sapporo Clock Tower by taking a train to Odori Station. Sapporo Clock Tower is a landmark of Sapporo, which can’t be missed when you’re in Sapporo. It’s located at Odori Park, where you can found a beautiful Christmas Market on December.

The real "Christmas Tree" at Odori Park

We visited this tower at 10AM in the morning, and as you can see on the photos, it’s still quiet. I didn’t know whether it’s too early or Sapporo is not as crowded as Tokyo. But i realized when we’re strolling at the street of Sapporo and Otaru, we didn’t meet a lot of people. Unless when we’re at indoor places such as Daimaru and other shopping mall at Sapporo Station. Maybe it's because of the weather which really cold (around -1 degrees) at winter season. So people chose to stay at indoor place which warmer instead at outside.

empty pedestrian street in Sapporo

Family picture in front of Sapporo Clock Tower in winter

As we visited Sapporo to enjoy the snowy weather, we used this chance to play with snow around Sapporo Clock Tower. We let Aurelia and Winston sat down, and play with those fluffy snow. They were so happy could see and touch the snow. It's a great experience for us to explore this snowy city.

Enough with the play time, we're walking through Odori Park to reach our next destination, Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade. Expecting a Christmas Market along Odori Park, all I saw just empty snowy land, with some used decorations. I just realized that we've missed the Christmas Market. I didn't know that it's gonna be ended at 25 December. But this snowy season, still gave use the Christmas vibes and it's so wonderful.

Pink theme tram in Sapporo

Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade is just like Shinsaibashi Suji in Osaka. It's a long road with rows of store, restaurant, and game arcade. I thought it's gonna be crowded like at Shinsaibashi Suji, but it's not. We could walk freely without jostling and it's a good thing. However, this empty space made us felt more chilly until our hand numb. Luckily, I found a takoyaki shop at the end of the street. A delicious hot octopus ball was really help to warm up our tummy.

Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade

Takoyaki at Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade

After had a shopping time (mostly winter gear because the weather was unpredictable really cold), we went to Nijo Market for having a lunch time. Sapporo known for its fresh seafood and a visit to Sapporo won't be complete without having a seafood dishes. There are several seafood restaurants, but I prefer to going local by eat the fresh seafood at Nijo Market. I haven't do some research about which food stall serves the best dish. So I just walked randomly and find a place with indoor table seating because we started to freezing.

Nijo Market entrance from Soseikawa Park

During at Nijo Market, we saw every stores sell fresh seafood, starts from oyster, scallop, and many kind of crab. Snow crab, king crab, and hair crab, you can choose whatever you like and you also can bargain while pay. That's also an advantage to eat seafood at the market. Because as we know, crab dish is very expensive. Besides seafood, I also saw many Yubari melon and dried mackerel hanging outside the store, which I just know it's called saba. It's also a tasty dish. I knew it because the hotel where I stayed (Ibis Styles Sapporo), served it everyday on breakfast.

Hokkaido food map. But now you can find all of these food at Nijo Market

I kept walking while looking for a good place to having lunch. Finally we arrive at the end of Nijo Market, and I saw there's a sign that they have (indoor) restaurant for dine in just accross the street. I checked them out and they have empty seats. So we went to that place directly because we're really starving. Unfortunately this place only has Japanese name. But if you want to go to this place, you might try to find Nijokani Market on Google Maps. They have the same owner and this restaurant located right across Nijokani Market.

King Crab at Nijokani Market

A set of crab soup with rice

While at Nijokani Market, I saw people eat grilled crab and also crab soup. But when I looked at the menu at the restaurant, they serve crab tempura as main dishes which looks more appetizing than boiled or grilled. Beside as an ala carte, they also serve crab tempura as a topping of donburi. There are 2 kind of donburi, with snow crab or king crab (which has bigger size). I ordered 2 of them and they both delicious. The crispy crab tempura was served over the rice, and topped with a sweet sauce which make it taste better. It was the first time for me to eat crab in this way and I love it. Must try when you're in Hokkaido.

Crab tempura menu at Nijokani Market

King Crab Temple Donburi ¥2700 (at the bottom) & Temple Donburi ¥2000 (on top)

Huge king crab tempura

After lunch time, we're not leaving this market directly. Instead we still walked around to find other tasty food. We were walking at the north side of Nijo Market, and found a food stall selling oyster and grilled scallop. I tempted by its oyster because it's really huge, probably the biggest oyster I ever seen. I bought some oyster and put a lemon juice on it. OMG!! It's really fresh, no fishy at all. Nijo Market is totally a paradise for fresh seafood lover.

Fresh scallop

Fresh Oyster and Sea Urchin (uni) at Nijo Market

Even the oyster size is bigger than my hand

That oyster ended our culinary trip in Nijo Market. From Nijo Market, we're heading to our next destination, Shiroi Koibito Park. Actually, you can take a train from Odori Station to go to Shiroi Koibito Park. However, at that time we were at the east of Nijo Market, and if I looked at the map, it's written that Bus Center Mae station was closer from my spot. So we were walking to Bus Center Mae station and take Tozai Line train to reach Miyanosawa Station, which is the nearest train station with Shiroi Koibito Park.

During our "walking trip" to Bus Center Mae station, we found that Sapporo was really a quite city. It looks like nobody lives at this town. As you can see on the pictures below, it was really empty - totally different with the crowd of Tokyo. We've visited 3 cities in Japan such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and they're all different with cities in Hokkaido. However, even though it's really quite, but the ambience of winter in this city was really wonderful and also memorable for us.

Combination between traditional shrine and white snow is really amazing

The entrance if Bus Center Mae station

[Hokkaido] Day 2 : One day trip from Sapporo to Otaru

Stellangelita in Otaru

Second day of our trip in Hokkaido, we're going to a city outside Sapporo. This city very popular with the beautiful scenery of canal. Yup, it's Otaru. Located only 40km away from Sapporo, this city become a must visit place when you're in Sapporo.

Huge Christmas trees  outside Sapporo Park Hotel which located right next to Nakajima Koen station.

Otaru Station with white mountain as a background

We started our day by taking a train from Nakajima Koen (the nearest station from the place we're staying) to Sapporo station (¥200), where we changed to train JR Hakodate Line (¥640) which directly brought us to Otaru station. During this 45 minutes train ride, I saw a lot of amazing winter scenery. Starts from houses, mountain, until seashore and all covered by snow. Can you imagine it??? It's really a winter wonderland. Weather in Otaru is much colder than in Sapporo. Even though there's a sunshine, we still felt very cold. However, a beautiful view around us made us feels excited and couldn't wait to explore this city.

The view of Ishikari Bay seen from the window at the train ride

Even the railroads also covered by snow

The first place that we gonna visit was Otaru Canal. It's the highlight of this day trip and we're going to that place directly once we arrived at Otaru station. To reach this canal, we need to have a quite long walk for around 700m through Chuo Dori street. Actually it's not really far. But the cold weather made our hands numb and we had to make some stops (read : "hide" at convenience stores) to warm up our body. Well, honestly it's not the only reason why we need more than 30 minutes to reach the canal. Fabulous view of this city which covered by snow, and a touch of sunlight, made it become a perfect place and perfect time to take pictures.

Photo stop at Chuo Dori street

BUDO-KAN2 Pachinko Parlor seen from accross the street

KFC outlet looks charming when it's covered by snow

Aurelia was very happy when arrived at the end of Chuo Dori street, and started to see the canal.

Finally we arrived at Otaru canal. Arriving at this canal, we were truly amazed by the beautiful scenery and began walking down the canal. Though their noses turned red, but kids were so happy to be at this place. They couldn't stop laughing and play with the snow. But this situation didn't last long. The snow started to fall heavily, and we ran to find a shelter.

Winston's first touch of snow

Ivan with Aurelia and Winston - Otaru Canal 

Since it's already a lunch time, we're looking for a restaurant around it, and we found Tempura Wakisaka which is a famous crab tempura restaurant in Otaru and it's really recommended. It's located right across Otaru Canal, and we thought it's a perfect place for having a lunch. However, we're not lucky enough on that day. The food was sold out which means we need to find other place. So we started to walk to the famous street in Otaru, Sakaimachi street. Located just 2 blocks away from Otaru Canal, Sakaimachi street offers rows of seafood restaurant and dessert shops. Looking at this situation, we'd need a long time to reach the end of this street :P

At the viewpoint if Otaru Canal

Actually we had no plan about what we gonna eat for lunch in Otaru (besides Tempura Wakisaka). Since it's a lunch time and almost every restaurants were full, we just chose any restaurant that has empty seats randomly. At least we could fill our empty stomach and warm our bodies because the temperature was getting lower.

Even though it's very cold, but when the snow was falling, it's a perfect time for a beautiful shot of winter.

Sakaimachi street in winter

After an hour, finally the snow started to stop falling and we continued strolling through Sakaimachi street. As I was saying, this street has a lot of dessert shops, not to mention the souvenir shops. It's like a heaven for a sweet lover. We visited every stores and bought some Hokkaido snacks. I would say that all Hokkaido sweets are delicious. However, there are some dessert stores at this street which are my favorite : Kitakaro (cream puff), LeTAO (cheese cake), and SaWaWa (all about matcha). You might be not familiar with Kitakaro and SaWaWa. But for LeTAO, I'm pretty sure you know it so well.

KITAKARO Otaru Main Shop

A small snow park next to KITAKARO building where the children spotted to happily playing with snow.

Matcha Ice Ceram (¥500) at SaWaWa, Sakaimachi Street - Otaru

LeTAO Main Store Building

If you have read my blogpost about our first day in Sapporo, you'll know that Kitakaro and LeTao also have a food stall at Daimaru Sapporo. I've bought Kitakaro cream puff there. But special for Le Tao, I wanted to buy it at its main store in Otaru. LeTao has 3 stores in Otaru, and 2 of them (LeTao Pathos and LeTao Main Store) located at Sakaimachi street. It was really easy to find the main store, because it's located at the end of the street, right across the famous Otaru Music Box Museum. Actually I wanted to try their desserts and eat it on the cafe. However I just realized it's already 5PM and it's getting dark soon. Besides, kids also very tired and their bodies started to freezing. So we just bought some cookies with cheese flavor from LeTao (which is very very delicious, even much more delicious than Tokyo Milk Cheese), and walked to Minami Otaru station which is closer than walk back to Otaru station.

Otaru Music Box Main Building seen from Sakaimachi Street

Even though it's closer, the road to Minami Otaru Station is a bit uphill. In conditions of roads covered by snow, it's very difficult to walk uphill because the road becomes slippery. Especially if using a stroller. But if we go back to Otaru Station, it will take a longer time. Whereas we all started to get cold and the sky was getting dark. So we decided to keep walking slowly, while enjoying the atmosphere of the small town - Otaru in the winter.

Mountain view while on the way to Minami Otaru station. It was so quite and even we didn't see other people beside us.

Minami Otaru Station

Well, that's the end of our daytrip to Otaru which mostly we spent for eating :D Overall I just want to say, Otaru is a very beautiful city especially during winter. Even though we were freezing walking outside for the whole day, but it felt magical to exploring this city when it's covered by snow. Instead of just look the pictures or watch videos, you need to see it with your eyes and feel the atmosphere directly. If you have enough time, you might want to stay here for a few nights so you also can see Otaru Snow Light Path Festival which held every February.