Morning call at 0630 which is 0530 Malaysia time! 
…Do we have to wake up so early, aren’t we on holiday….how come much early than working day! Sob…sob..we have our buffet breakfast at the hotel. Too early for my stomach to have breakfast la. In Japan, you take a tray and put empty plate(s) or bowl(s) with cutleries first, then proceed to the food section. Their normal breakfast is porridge or rice. Of course they have western food to cater for the tourists too. Not many choices though.
…Do we have to wake up so early, aren’t we on holiday….how come much early than working day! Sob…sob..we have our buffet breakfast at the hotel. Too early for my stomach to have breakfast la. In Japan, you take a tray and put empty plate(s) or bowl(s) with cutleries first, then proceed to the food section. Their normal breakfast is porridge or rice. Of course they have western food to cater for the tourists too. Not many choices though.Sapporo APA & Resort served their breakfast in the banquet hall. This morning we will travel to Otaru 小樽市, a harbour city located northwest of Sapporo. Its beautiful canal 小樽\河 give a very nice picturesque for photo taking. The street full of trishaw puller where they will take you around the town with a fee. They wore traditional custom and looks like Ninja. Smart looking. Sorry, since I am not paying for a ride so shy to take any of their photo la. One of the trishaw puller is a young beautiful woman with strong hands and stamina, I bet.
Otaru canal. It is very pleasant to stroll along the canal and the weather is perfect.
Otaru canal canteen. As the name suggest, I think it should be some sort of canteen located near the Otaru canal.
We spent a short while at the opposite building to get a feel of Japanese culture. It is a building with a number of small "restaurants". Really small. Maybe can cater max of 5-6 person only.
Cute little statute inside the building. It is still early and not many shops are open. 
Inside an art museum. We are not visiting this place but just borrowing the washroom. A nice museum and behind this museum is where we will be going.
Beautiful sculptures inside the museum.
We follow Low-san to the Music Box Museum 音樂盒博物館, which full of all kinds of music boxes or you could create your own if you have sufficient time. Don’t worry that you couldn't find one as they have hundred of choices for you to choose. The only thing you don’t have is time. So, we quickly look around and bought 2 music boxes. Then off we go, we only have an hour to visit the other places here 
.
.
Same design but different music.
Nice atmosphere but packed with tourists.
Snoopy World in the Music Box Museum.
My little prosperous music cat (¥1,890) which only sing Sakura…very Japanese feel indeed 
Steam clock stands in front of the music box museum. It will steams every 15 minutes. This steam clock is a replica of the one built by a Canadian horologist in 1977 in Gastown, a famous tourist area in Vancouver. Made of bronze, it weighs 1.5 tons and measures 5.5 meters in height and 1 meter across.
銀之鐘咖啡屋 This is where you could drink coffee and take the cup back with you. We did plan to have coffee here and bring back the limited Hokkaido Hello Kitty cup edition. Well, not everything run as planned since we don’t have much time here, bye bye 
to my Hello Kitty cup. So we decided to take a picture of the building and continue strolling down the street instead. Maybe next time…
to my Hello Kitty cup. So we decided to take a picture of the building and continue strolling down the street instead. Maybe next time…
We arrived at LeTAO, famous with pudding, cakes and chocolate. We tried the pudding which cost ¥315 each (the 2nd item from the bottom left). I like the bottle and I brought it all the way back to Malaysia 
. I love the pudding but my sis found it a bit too sweet. Funny, normally I’m the one who is complaining.
. I love the pudding but my sis found it a bit too sweet. Funny, normally I’m the one who is complaining.
Glassware is another symbolic character of Otaru.
Beautiful crafts but hard to bring back. So did not spend much time here. In fact, I’m standing at the doorway indulging myself with the pudding. Both of these photos are very precious. Photograph is prohibited here but Oops my sis did not see the sign.... 
Finally we reached Kitakaro sweets shop北菓樓 . They have a number of popular snacks here especially the layer cake 妖精の森 , apple cake 果樹園の六月, rice cracker etc. Official site: http://www.kitakaro.com/
Kitakaro entrance
This apple cake (¥1,050) only sell in Otaru. Although I don’t see the others snacks being sold in other places too. Do take note of the expiry date as they have very short lifespan. Ask for sample before buying. Somehow they only offer sample for the layer cake but not this. So remember to ask, they have it ready cut at the back of the counter.
Next to Kitakaro is Rokkatei 六花亭, popular with rum raisin biscuits, cappuccino cracker and strawberry chocolate. We wanted to buy the biscuits back for friends but somehow the expiry date is too short. So we bought a few for own consumption only. The strawberry chocolate can last a bit longer than the biscuits.
Official site: http://www.rokkatei.co.jp/top.html
While strolling back to the bus, we saw a woman selling the yummy shredded cuttlefish...couldn’t resist the nice aroma…free sampling and the woman is trying to tell us something. But what?? 
We don't understand nihon-go. Luckily there's a cardboard she could use to point at. Although we can't read nihon-go…but no fret…we are good at guessing 
~~ she's trying to tell us the expiry date. If you could read Mandarin, then somehow you could guess the meaning of kanji too.
We don't understand nihon-go. Luckily there's a cardboard she could use to point at. Although we can't read nihon-go…but no fret…we are good at guessing 
~~ she's trying to tell us the expiry date. If you could read Mandarin, then somehow you could guess the meaning of kanji too.
I bought this at a stall near the bus parking area. Hello Kitty in a wolf outfit. Cute?
We left Otaru and headed back to Sapporo for city tour. You are right, we are back to Sapporo again…Low-san explained that either way we still have to pass by Sapporo during our journey to our hotel tonight.
Okurayama 大倉山滑雪跳台 is the main ski jump used in the 1972 Winter Olympic Games. We took a 2-passenger lift up to the Mt Okura for a panoramic view of the Sapporo city. It was quite an experience. First time to take such lift. It took about 5 minutes to reach the top for the observation lounge.
View from the summit. At the right hand side is the 2-passenger lift.
City view from the summit but a bit foggy.
The slope view from below. It’s about 300 meters high.
Good thing to follow a package tour is you don’t have to worry about food or accommodation or transportation. When the time comes, you will be duly served. Today we have crab, crab porridge, codfish and scallop. Before proceeding with the lunch, everyone is given the chance to take photo with the live big hairy crab, but you got to hold it. Just don’t hold the crab too near you unless you want to lose your nose.
The crab is big and shared by 4 persons. We took this picture before the scallop and porridge was served. How to eat the crab??…well, no worry, the waitress will show you and she speaks in Mandarin. Later I found out that she is from China.
The restaurant is on the first floor while the ground floor is a mini market selling live and dry seafood. I bought a packet of konbu 昆布 (a type of seaweed) here, costs only ¥400.
You don’t need to cook this konbu for very long or soak it before cooking. Good for boiling soup. Seaweed is rich in potassium, calcium, iodine and carotene. It also contains amino acids that help lower blood pressure.
Next we visited the old city hall 紅磚館舊道廳, Hokkaido's government office building, an American-neo-baroque-style structure with red bricks, constructed in 1888 as a base of former Hokkaido administration. Now, inside housed a few historical exhibition rooms and libraries open for visitors.
In front of the old city hall are a pond and flower gardens.
One of the items exhibited inside one of the room. Low-san is doing some explanation here but I totally forgotten what is this already. 
Must be getting old….I think it's some kind of heating machine used in the old times.
Must be getting old….I think it's some kind of heating machine used in the old times.Odori Park 大通公園 is a park located at the heart of Sapporo city. Today is a public holiday in Hokkaido and thus a lot of Japanese came to the park.
Odori Park -- it was originally designated as the main street but eventually became a park. Many events and ceremonies held throughout the year such as the Sapporo Snow Festival are held here.
Sapporo TV Tower 時計台 built in 1957, another visiting spot in the Odori Park. It’s 147.2m height with an observation deck. We are given 15-20 minutes to visit the park only. No time to visit the nearby shopping mall at all and I've heard this is where you could buy Burberry blue label range… 
After the Odori Park, we traveled to Sahoro Resort Hotel and it took about 3 hours to reach the place. Dinner that night is hotel buffet style. You could take a walk around the hotel in the early morning… greenery, foggy, cold but smell of dung though. Basically nothing around the hotel, it located in a remote area surrounded by forest. The only place you could shop is the gifts shop inside the hotel. They have this kind of shop at each hotel selling different omiyage (souvenirs).
After the Odori Park, we traveled to Sahoro Resort Hotel and it took about 3 hours to reach the place. Dinner that night is hotel buffet style. You could take a walk around the hotel in the early morning… greenery, foggy, cold but smell of dung though. Basically nothing around the hotel, it located in a remote area surrounded by forest. The only place you could shop is the gifts shop inside the hotel. They have this kind of shop at each hotel selling different omiyage (souvenirs). 19 July 2008
0 comments