First thing we did after breakfast was go to the seafood section in a department store. I was wondering for ages why they were spending ages in there… and then I found out that you can ask them to send things for you as a service so the adults sent the famous Hokkaido crab to some of their relatives that live all over Japan. I thought that was so sweet, and so cool of the department stores. Similarly, we did the same thing with other delicacies such as biscuits to our hotel in Tokyo so that we don’t have to lug them all over Hokkaido. 
Saw him slice the fish up from start to end. It was kind of a turn off and a respect for his knife skills at the same time.
Pickles!
Warabi mochi – this was my favourite as a kid growing up in Japan. This time around I got to actually learn what it was. Warabi is a type of herb that is actually found on all continents around the world except Antarctica. Mochi for those who don’t know is a type of rice cake and the brown powder is soybean flour. So interesting – growing up I thought it was crushed peanuts. 
Sapporo Tokeidai (Clock Tower)
Sapporo TV tower
For lunch we headed to a renowned ramen shop of Sapporo. Here, tucked in a very little corner on the top floor of a building sat a ramen shop with 5 men wearing the same undershirt. It only sat a maximum of 12 people at any one time but we headed there early. We waited a little and then got seated, got served ramen and when we finished, we turned around to see a massive line curling around inside the building it sat in. It was insane. Apparently this was the shop to invent miso ramen which is what Sapporo is famous for.
Afterwards we headed to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory – you could say it’s an Asian Wonka Chocolate Factory. It’s so well known throughout Japan yet they keep the product exclusive to Hokkaido, Hokkaido-themed festivals or duty free in Narita airport (meaning you have to be flying out internationally to get it though). I had no idea it was so exclusive because it is one of my mum’s favourite treats. There seems to be an endless supply at our house so she must be hustlin’ some black market deals. Haha, I’m only kidding.
It was adorable that they made it into more than a factory. It was a wonderland and also a collector’s museum. I wonder if they actually worked at collecting it themselves or inherited it, or bought someone else’s collection.. because it was super impressive and would’ve been ridiculously hard.
I like stained glass windows. Something intricate and pretty about them.
Oompa Loompas at work on the most famous product, ‘Shiroi Koibito’…
Sugar crafting…
Best hot chocolate I’ve had. Shat on Max Brenner and San Churro’s.
However this was the weirdest and longest hourly tower show I’ve seen. It almost became annoying hahahahhaa.
Mad rush to grab the exclusive delicacies. We decided we’ll just head to a department to get it as it’s the same price without the line.
Clione.. some sort of sea slugs. They looked like little devils with wings.
Akarenga, meaning red brick which took on an American-neo baroque design. It was the former Hokkaido government office.
We had a grandpa approach us to help take a group photo and he went nuts on instructions. Far away, close up, crouch down, different angles haha it was absolutely hilarious. I saw him approach a couple beforehand and after us he lingered around to find more tourists. It’s probably his little pastime 🙂
TV game show was going on. All I really noticed was the cute monkey with no expression.
For dinner we went to an izakaya to enjoy all sorts of a la carte dishes such as fried camembert, yakitori, grilled squid, grilled fish of all sorts, cabbage, agedashi tofu, Hokkaido potatoes etc. I was stuffed.
Afterwards I enjoyed a little shopping spree where I picked up a trench coat. I told myself to not spend on this trip but I got sucked into this brown jacket. Dammit.
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