[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.

[Hokkaido] Dinner at 3 Michelin Stars Restaurant - Hanakoji Sawada, Sapporo

Kitchen situation seen from counter table at Hanakoji Sawada, Sapporo

Japan known as a country with delicious food. No wonder Japan become a country which has the most michelin stars restaurant in the world, especially in Tokyo. It always become my dream to have a fine dining at one of those restaurant. However, due to its popularity, they always full booked so I never had a chance to do that. One day I found Hanakoji Sawada, a restaurant which offers omakase style dining in Sapporo , and their dishes looks very appetizing. After had some research, I just knew that they just received their 3rd star in May 2017, and become 1 of only 3 restaurants with 3 Michelin Stars in Sapporo. Since Sapporo is not as crowded as in Tokyo, I believed it's not gonna be hard to get a seat at this restaurant. Don't want to missed this chance, I was asking hotel concierge to make a reservation 2 months before, and yess.. We got it!

At the entrance of Hanakoji Sawada

Plaza 7.4 (where Hanakoji Sawada located). Source : Google Maps

Hanakoji Sawada located at Susukino area, which known as the city center of Sapporo. It's not too far from Susukino station, and can be reach by walk around 500m. You can easily found it at the 3rd floor of Plaza 7.4 Asai building. Once I stepped out from the elevator, I felt a different ambience. It wasn't feels like we'd have a dinner at a small restaurant at the small building. But it's more like we're going to traditional Japanese restaurant, at the little Japanese village.

Matching Outfit with Ivan in Kenzo X H&M Sweater

When we're making a reservation, we were asked whether we want to sit on the dining table with a private room, or sitting at the bar. We chose the bar seating so we could get a new experience while having a dinner at 3 Michelin Stars restaurant. By sitting at the bar, we could see how's the head chef worked with his team at the kitchen, and even served some of the dishes directly. It was an honour for us to saw their skill to process the food and even had some conversation with them.

I'm so proud with Japanese people. They can cook a lot of dishes and work in silence.

They got 3 starts not without a reason. As you know, not every restaurant can get a star. It's not judged by how expensive the food is, or how fancy the restaurant, but they scored from everything. Starts from the ingredients, cooking technique, the atmosphere at the restaurant, satisfaction in service, which mixed together and makes the guests feel something special that they can't get at another restaurant. After had an amazing dinner at Hanakoji Sawada, I knew why they promoted from 2 stars to 3 stars. Hanakoji Sawada serves kaiseki cuisine with fresh seasonal ingredients that cooked in a perfect way.

Japanese mountain yam (yamaimo) topped with salmon caviar (ikura) and shiso

Our dinner started perfectly with the first dish, yamaimo topped with ikura and shiso. It tasted really fresh and of course delicious..

Corn Fritter

When they're serving the second dish, I was little bit surprised. I never thought a corn fritter became a dish at 3 Michelin Stars restaurant. However I started to realize that it's not about the name of the dish. But, the cooking technique they used, and the special taste of the dish. As you can see on the picture above, it's different with the "original" version of corn fritter. Each corn kernel covered with crispy fried flour, but it's not hard at all. When I bit it, I could feel the texture was really soft and even  there's a sweetness taste of Hokkaido corn.

Japanese Hairy Crab (Kegani)

I know that Hokkaido really famous for its crab. But I never thought I'll eat a hair crab in this portion, personally. Though I've ate snow crab before, but eat a hair crab in this way made a different taste. The hair crab served with a cut of lemon, to give a little bit taste and not fishy. However, I tried a bite before squeeze the lemon, and it's not fishy at all. Eat hair crab in this way gave me the "real" taste of hair crab meat. As I was expecting, it was really juicy and sweet. I was really satisfied with this dish.

Sweet and juicy hair crab meat

Sea urchin (uni) with grilled eggplant

The next dish was uni!! Actually, I'm not a big fan of uni. But, knowing that Hokkaido also famous for its uni (sea urchin), I don't want to missed a chance trying this expensive seafood dish. While usually uni served as a topping of sushi, they served it in different way. The chef served uni with grilled eggplant at the bottom, and little bit sauce in the middle. Well, this dish changed my mind about both of the ingredients. The sea urchin was really sweet, and matched perfectly with the soft and bounce texture of eggplant. For me, this dish makes eggplant going to the next level.

Fugu sashimi

If there's a food that I really want to try in Japan, it's gonna be fugu. Even though it's known as the most dangerous food, and even until know still many people got poisoned after eat it, but my curiosity overcame my fear. I really curious about the delicacy when we eat it raw (as a sashimi), that people always talk about. Thankfully, Hanakoji Sawada gave me a change to try this raw blowfish without getting poisoned. I don't like to eat any kind of sashimi, but this time is an exception. It was really tasty, no fishy smell - at all, and the sauce made it become the best sashimi ever. It was my first experience to eat fugu sashimi, and I didn't regret it.

Seared sea brean (tai)

The next dish was a seared sea bream. This dish was looked very simple, but I could feel the crispness of its skin only by looking at it. The skin was seared until very crunchy, but the fish meat still soft and juicy. A squeeze of lime would give a good taste for this tasty fish.

Nigiri sushi

The sushi?? I couldn't say anything about it. Just scored them 10/10.

Hokkaido Beef Sukiyaki Topped with Egg Sauce

The next dish was beef sukiyaki topped with egg sauce. Looking at its presentation, I thought it's just a simple beef dish. My tummy also started to full, and I lost my appetite. However since I've paid for this dish, I forced my mouth to eat it. After ate a bite, this time it wasn't the appetite I lost, but all the words that came out of my mouth. I was speechless, and had nothing to say. This beef was the best food I ever ate. The tastiness of the sauce, and the soft texture of the meat, they're blowing my mind. Not forgetting a little "surprise" under the meat. That green beans freshen my mouth from the sweet thick sauce of this dish.

Tofu and green beans under the beef

Fresh made soba

So far, none of their food has dissapointed me, until I saw them preparing soba. I'd admit that soba is the only kind of noodle dish that I don't like. Knowing they gonna serve soba as one of the dishes, I just tried to put a positive mind that it's gonna be good. Well, it tasted slightly different with other soba noodles. However it also has a "plain" taste and I don't like it. Sorry to say this, but I thought it's not worth to be served at michelin star restaurant (IMHO).

Seasonal fruit bowl with jelly

Finally, we reached the end of this course, a dessert. Since it wasn't a dish that I was expecting, I didn't put too much hope with it. I've seen before when people eat here, they served a "deconstructed apple" as a dessert, which looks amazing. But again, they could make a simple ingredients become a surprisingly, delicious food. The freshness of the fruits, combined with a soft jelly, made my dinner ended perfectly.

A picture with the chef of Hanakoji Sawada after a great dinner

It was our first experience to have omakase dining in Japan, and I was really satisfied with it. The price also quite reasonable for 3 michelin stars restaurant. It costs ¥25000 for each person (drink not included). Reservation is mandatory to dine in here as they have limited seats. However, they only can be contacted by a phone call. So you might need a help from hotel concierge to make a reservation here.






Hanakoji Sawada
Address : 4 Chome-4 南7条西 3rd floor, 4 Chome Minami 7 Jōnishi, Chūō-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaidō 064-0807, Japan
Phone number : +81 11-562-0088
Opening hours : Mon - Sat 5.30PM - 10PM
Website : http://hanakoji-sawada.com/index.html