Tokyo Junction: Day 8 (Feb 4) - Lazy Day in Sapporo

Location: Sapporo
Weather: Cold and chilly, but refreshing
Author: Chrissie

Hello minnasan! Ohisashiburi (it's been a while)! So many things have occurred in the past week so I am hoping I will be able to recall our adventures for Day 8 of our hokkaido holiday!

For those eagerly awaiting our posts sorry for the delay. We had pretty bad internet connection at our third and final accommodation in Sapporo and we just arrived in Tokyo about 3 days ago and have been busy setting up our apartment and getting to know our area. But our Tokyo news will have to wait, since we have a LOT of catching up to do so you may be inundated with a flood of new posts over the next few days. Yay!!

Day 8 was really our lazy day. We had actually planned to go to Asahikawa today but woke up late. As it is about a 2 hour journey by train one way, we decided it would not leave us much time to explore the area and to postpone it to the next day.

We left the hotel early early afternoon to find sustenance. Actually I think it was more for my sake because Amy had been snacking on her chips and chocolates before we left our hotel. We ended up going back to Ramen Yokocho (Ramen Alley) because I wanted to try the Corn Butter Ramen which is a Sapporo specialty. The restaurant we decided to eat in (because of the yummy smell wafting from it) had a mexican theme going and the chef was a young japanese guy wearing a jamaican hat. I thought that was pretty cool already!

Chrissie's Corn Butter Ramen

Amy's yummy gyoza

The corn butter ramen was miso-soup based and was extremely tasty. Looking back, it was probably the yummiest ramen I had in Sapporo, it was so full of flavour. As for Amy, she ended up choosing gyoza as I think she was still too full from her previous snacking :).

I was so full from my lunch that I wanted to go for a walk around the city and work it off! I persuaded Amy to visit another landmark of Sapporo - the Sapporo Clock Tower (Tokeidai). I had read a lot about this clock tower, which is pictured in almost any Sapporo city brochure and is a symbol of the city. The clock tower is located on the corner of a busy street, surrounded by concrete buildings and traffic. These are apparently photoshopped from the brochures and the size of the clock tower is a little misleading so tourists usually walk by it without realising. I even heard stories about tourists jumping out of taxis, taking a picture in front of the clock and then driving off again! Even though we were fully prepared, we were only really sure we were at the right place by the number of tourists that were taking photos in front of it!!