Japan Day 6: Noboribetsu-Sapporo

We went to onsen first thing in the morning. It was snowing at that time and the sight was really beautiful. We spent about half an hour and had our breakfast before we checked out our resort.

We explored Jigokudani Hell Valley which is the source for hot springs in Noboribetsu. We hiked a bit before we bid the place farewell and continue our journey to our final destination – Sapporo. It was a 1.5 hours drive. Our last drive in Hokkaido as we were returning our car in Hokkaido.

Before we returned the car, we stopped by our hotel to drop all our luggage and bags. We stayed in Karaksa Hotel Sapporo and considered ourselves lucky to have stayed in the middle of Tanukikoji Shopping Street where you could get all your shopping spree done.

Being car-less, I thought we had to walk for about 15 minutes in this very cold weather from TIMES to board a train back to the city. Fortunately, the staff was helpful to tell us the nearest bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus, it was snowing again! Unfortunately, that was the last snow we experienced in Hokkaido.

The bus we took brought us to JR Sapporo station where we had our lunch at Nemuro Hanamaru. It is shared in the internet that this is one of the best places to start your trip in Hokkaido. This is a popular conveyor belt sushi place so, the queue can be really long. Since we arrived around 2.30pm which was past the peak meal time, we had to wait for about 10 minutes only. You can get really affordable and good quality sushi at ¥143. We ordered 15 ¥143-range plates and 2 ¥198-range plates.

Before we went back to our hotel to check-in and rest, we went to search for Kinotoya Bake to their famous tasty baked cheese tarts. It is located at the JR Station East Exit. There is a Kinotoya Cake shop located in Daimaru basement food hall but we were not able to find it. You can buy one cheese tart for ¥183 or six for ¥1080. We went for the latter deal.

Back in our hotel, our check-in process was really smooth. We had two inter-connecting rooms so, if you are looking for such place, look no further than Karaksa Hotel. During check-in, they would ask you if you would like to have some days to be an eco day – the days they will not change the towels, bedsheets, pillow and quilt covers. For one chosen day, they will give you 1 token per person and this token can be exchanged for a free drink from the vending machine in their common hall. They also have this activity going on whereby if you took a picture with one of their boards, they will give you a free selfie lens per pax in the picture. Pretty humble, right?

Where did we have for our dinner?

Suage Curry Soup and Dining! The meals are highly customisable. You can choose  the kind of curry, spiciness level, toppings and the amount of rice to go with your curry. We ordered three different types of curry dishes.

As it was getting really cold, we decided to head back to the hotel to rest after checking out the Tanukikoji Shopping Street.

Japan: Day 5 (Hakodate-Noboribetsu)

This was our last day in Hakodate and again, my baby brother made breakfast for us. Before we left Hakodate, we went to make our final stop at The World’s Second Best Ice Cream. I finally had my melon pan with ice cream which cost me ¥400.

Our next stop was Noboribetsu but we made a stop in Lake Toya for a short sightseeing and lunch. Unfortunately for us, it was raining so, we did not get the chance to explore Lake Toya. However, we were very lucky to witness snow during our ride. It was really beautiful! The temperature was 2 degree Celsius when it happened. Sadly, it did not last long. One thing I love about the highway in Japan is the public toilets are awesome and very clean! Some but not all the public toilets have this swallow origami which works like a good luck charm for those driving on the highway. Very thoughtful, right?

We had our lunch at Toya Marche whereby the food is not that great but the set meals are very reasonably priced. Beef dishes are their specialty so, we ordered 4 different dishes to share which cost us ¥4,370 in total.

It took us another 50 minutes for us to reach Noboribetsu. The hotel that we stayed was Noboribetsu Grand Hotel. Noboribetsu is famous for its many onsen resorts. The resorts offer either half or full board as well. We took full board whereby we had both dinner and breakfast. The resort that we stayed has both indoor and outdoor onsen. I suggest you to dip in the indoor onsen first before heading for the outdoor onsen because it was really cold outside unless you are visiting Noboribetsu during the warm seasons. We had a family tatam room, our most favourite type of room and the first thing we did after we settled down in our room was to get to onsen.

It was my very first onsen experience in my life with strangers. The last experience I had was I was lucky to be alone. No one was in the bath at that time. Hence, I had a cultural shock. There’s an etiquette that you need to adhere when using the hot spring. You are not allowed to bring your body towel into the onsen. However, you can bring a face towel with you. You had to bath first before dipping into the onsen but do not dip your face towel which is considered rude. We spent about 1 hour before we went for dinner.

We had a buffet style dinner. They offer various types of dishes. Everything is free except for beers. As it was really cold outside, we did not explore the town and spent our time in the resort until we hit the sack.

Japan: Day 4 (Hakodate)

Our morning in Hakodate was really simple but lovely. We had our homemade breakfast in our AirBnB. My younger brother prepared them for us. Lovely, right? It feels like we were really at home. We did our laundry before we had our breakfast so, when it was done, we would send them to the nearest laundry shop to use its dryer to dry our clothes. The place we found was Rico Smart Laundry. They have a cafe inside the shop so you could enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting.

After we finished our laundry, we started our adventure together! The first place we wanted to go was The Old Public Hall of Hakodate War. Unfortunately the place was closed for renovation so, we moved on. However, before we left the place, we came across this shop that sells really delicious soft serve ice-cream. The name of this shop is really interesting though. It’s called The World’s Second Best Ice Cream.

Later we walked all the way to Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse. It is located next to the sea so, you can imagine how strong the wind was. We had our lunch at Lucky Perriot. It looks like an expensive place but the food there were really affordable. We had 4 burgers and 2 fried noodles from the menu and it cost us ¥2,772.

Since we still had time, we took public transport to Goryokaku Tower and Goryokaku Park. I enjoyed the park the most as it was really beautiful. The star shaped fort surrounding the park is often the icon that comes to mind when we talk about Hakodate.

That night, we had our dinner at Ajisai Ramen. We ordered 5 bowls of ramen and 1 plate of dumplings. Out of all the ramen dishes we ordered, Miso ramen was the best! We ended the night by making a trip to a convenient store to replenish ingredients for our breakfast. During this tip, we bought Lawson’s neck warmers and gloves. Honestly, the quality is so much better than the ones that we bought in Uniqlo. I even tested it out by covering my whole face with it and I still felt warm in such a cold night. Hence, a tip for you, buy neck warmer and gloves in Japan’s Lawson next time.

Japan: Day 3 (Otaru–Hakodate)

We started our morning in Otaru by heading to Sankaku Market (小樽三角市場) to have our breakfast. Apparently no trip to Otaru is complete without having a fill of fresh caught seafood on rice (kaisendon). It was only 10 minutes from our hotel.

The market was not as crowded as I expected. We went to the first shop on the right. They have a Taiwanese staff whom we can communicate in Mandarin better. Our breakfast cost us ¥6,900. Unfortunately, the husband did not get to eat anything there. Hence, on our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Burger King. The guys ordered two set meals which cost us ¥1,020. The fries were really good though.

We came across a railway track close to our hotel. We stopped for a very long time to take photography that we did not get to walk to Otaru Canal. We had to check out and pick up our car before we were charged more for exceeding the time. By the time we left Otaru, it was already after 12pm.

We made a pit stop at Nikka Whiskey Distillery in the town of Yoichi. It is only 30 minutes drive from Otaru. There are tours around the distillery but only Japanese. Since we do not understand Japanese, we walked through the sections of exhibits on our own and ended off with a free set of 3 whiskeys to taste. They were really generous even though it is free.

As it was already close to 2.30pm when we finished the whole thing, we decided to stay for late lunch/early dinner since it will take 3.5 hours drive to our next destination. They have a restaurant at the premise that serves decent dishes– Cafe Restaurant Taru and the meal cost us ¥5,890. Surprisingly the spaghetti was really good though.

It was 7pm-ish when we arrived Hakodate. We went to our AirBnB to drop our bags before we went to have our late dinner/supper at Daimon Yokocho. It seems to be the largest food stall village in Hokkaido. There are many different kinds of restaurant, selling different types of food. We had a hard time to decide where to eat as we are a big group and the stalls are really small. It is like the ramen stall you see in Naruto. It rained suddenly and we had no choice but to enter this random ramen stall located opposite of Daimon Yokocho spotted by the guys. Lucky for us, it fits all of us. They only serve one type of ramen, Shio Ramen. I wonder if that’s their menu or because it was already late that there were not much choices left. Guess what? The ramen was really good! The noodles were really chewy and the taste of the soup was right. We wanted a rolled egg so we ordered “Tamago” with lady boss. She then came with an egg that was not ripe. That’s when we learned that rolled egg is “Tamago-yaki” in Japanese. 5 Shio Ramen cost us ¥2,750. It was indeed affordable.

As we saw someone waited outside the stall, we decided to make our move and walked back to Daimon Yokocho since the rain had stopped. We randomly entered a stall that could fit all of us, ordered a few snacks and just spending quality time together. It was about 10pm when we left the place to a convenience store, LAWSON, to buy some ingredients for our breakfast tomorrow. What did we have for breakfast? Who was the chef?

Find out in my next post!

Japan: Day 2 (Otaru)

Otaru was our second stop in Hokkaido. It is a small city located northwest from Sapporo. It was about 2.5 hours of drive from Asahikawa.

Our first stop in Otaru was Yabuhan (籔半) for lunch. It is one of the best places for soba in Otaru. It was easy to find the place using Google Map. There is a parking place just opposite the store. We did not see it so, we parked at Times which is really close to the store as well. One of the tips I found online was it says that the queue can be quite long. Fortunately, we did not have to queue when we arrived. The waitress that served us asked us if we wanted to dine at the Western or Japanese style dining table. We went for the latter option. However, I would suggest you to just go for the former option. More comfortable and easy to dine. It was hard for the husband since he has long legs.

Yabuhan provides English menus. Each menu comes with the history of how their soba came about as well as how to enjoy soba. Each item on the menu comes with 2 options, the “Jimonoko” type, a Hokkaido specialty and the “Namiko” which is mixed with imported buckwheat flour. Another tip found online was Jimonoko noodles are more chewy whereas Namiko noodles are softer. Hence, it really depends on what you are into. As my brother is not a fan of soba and my mother loves to eat rice, they both ordered donburi. My sister in law is a big soba fan so, she ordered their cold soba whereas the husband went for hot soba – Jimonoko Atsu Nameko Soba. Me? I ordered a soba that came with 3 side dishes – wariko soba. However, it turned out different than what I had imagined. I would advise you to share this with another person should you want to try it out. Our lunch cost us ¥5,115.

We went to Tanaka Sake Brewery Kikkogura (田中酒造亀甲蔵). We went to the wrong place initially. The place we got it wrong is located at Ironai Road. It is just a normal shop that sells sake. The one that you should go to is the one in Nobukacho Road. The short tour is free. What else is free? Sake tasting! Since sake is famous in Otaru, do make a stop here.

What else is famous in Otaru? Music box! We went to Otaru Orgel Museum (小樽オルゴール堂). It is the city’s cultural heritage, a music box museum and shop. Feast both your eyes and ears with the beautiful lighted room, filled with pleasant music. As it was only the second day in Hokkaido, I managed to control myself not to burn a big hole in my pocket. If you wished to get a beautiful gift for someone, this is the place. 

We went to check-in our hotel at Hotel Nord before we continued our journey by heading up to Mount Tengu (天狗山). We took the ropeway to reach the peak of the mountain which only takes 5 minutes. You can enjoy the spectacular night view of Otaru. You can obtain a map at the ropeway station so you could explore Mount Tengu. We did not though as it was freezing, thanks to the strong winds. We took some photography, while enduring the coldness before we quickly went back into the observatory hall. There is a cafe for you to dine while enjoying the view. We ordered a few dishes which cost us ¥3,300.

As it was still early, we decided to walk around Otaru Canal. The city was really dead. A lot of shops were already closed and it was not even 9pm. Mostly bars were still open. We randomly entered a sushi restaurant, Kantaro Sushi (函太郎), and apparently, it is the best place to have sushi in Otaru.  We ordered 6 sushis and cost us ¥1,562. We also came across Otaru Denuki Koji (小樽出抜小路) where there are a lot of small shops with narrow pathway. We did not get to check out the shops as they were mostly closed at 8pm. Hence, since most of the shops were already closed, we decided to return to the hotel to call it a day.

Japan: Day 1 (Asahikawa)

It was finally the day that all of us had been waiting for. We bought the flight tickets more than a year ago and it took us one year to plan for this trip. There were a lot of things that we had to plan since we were going around on our own especially when we rented a car to go around. It was our first family trip after such a long time.

We took a night flight so we could sleep during our journey to Hokkaido and able to kick-start our adventure once we landed. Our flight left on time and landed The Land Of The Rising Sun around 8.15am, Japan’s time.

When we were at the airport, there were a few things we need to settle before we could pick up our rented car. I went to collect the famous Jaga Pokkuru as well as SIM cards which were bought through Klook while my brother and his wife went to collect the travel stamps in the airport.

We rented our car from Times and were supposed to get a Toyota Sienta. However, we ended up with a Mazda. According to my brother, it is more spacious. The process was smooth and we did not face any difficulties when we went to pick up our car. Hence, highly recommended to those who want to rent a car in Hokkaido.

Our first destination was to Furano. We had our lunch at Furano Cheese Factory. This place is a to-go place for those who love cheese and ice cream. We had to place our order through a vending machine and passed the tickets to the staff at the counter. They will call out your order numbers so you could collect your order at the counter. The funny thing was, they used Japanese. Hence, we strategize that should no one stood up when a number was called out, that order would be ours. To our surprise, the staff called out our order numbers in English.

We explored the place after we finished our lunch. They sell soft serve ice-cream – classic cheese flavoured (¥360) and it was really good. We bought one to share but the husband ended buying one for himself. We took some photos before we continued our journey to Farm Tomita. It was said that the greenhouse has lavenders that bloom all year round, even through winters. Sadly, when we were there, there was no lavender. However, we went to the cafe to have lavender ice cream and lavender coffee (¥570).

Next destination were Blue Pond and Shirahige Falls. It was really crowded at Blue Pond. As for Shirahige Falls, the view was magnificent. What surprised us the most was the sky turned dark when it was close to 5pm! It was freezing so, we did not spend a lot of time at both places.

It was close to 6.30pm when we arrived Asahikawa, the place where we would be staying a night at. Before we checked in, we went to Asahikawa Ramen Village to have our dinner. This is a place to be in Asahikawa for ramen lovers. We did not know which ramen store to go for but the one that we went comes with a fairly English-friendly menu. Since Shoyu ramen is a specialty of Asahikawa, do go for it. 

The hotel we were staying for the night was Court Hotel Asahikawa. We booked a decent tatami family room. Since we did not overspend our food budget on the day, we purchased the hotel’s breakfast deal (¥6000) for the next day. Since we had been really tired from all those traveling, it was best to have breakfast in the hotel instead of searching out for food outside.

It was around 11pm when we turned in, which was 10pm in Malaysia. Truly early but we were really exhausted especially for my brother who had been the one driving whole day. We will be heading to Otaru the next day so, stay tuned on my next post!