Weather: Cold and Snowing! Below 0 degrees...
Author: Chrissie
Konnichiwa minna! It's been a while! Today's post is all about our visit to the Sapporo Brewery Museum and Beer Garten Restaurant. As I mentioned previously, Sapporo is the home of the Sapporo Beer. What visit to Sapporo would be complete without a visit to the museum (and tasting)of this famous beer?!! Please be forewarned that this post has a LOT of pictures!
I had made plans earlier to have dinner at the restaurant next to the Brewery museum with a friend who was also visiting Sapporo for skiing and the Yuki Matsuri. But before meeting up, Amy and I decided to take a quick tour of the Museum as it was free anyway.
Sapporo Beer Museum
Amy outside the entrance to the museum.
Me inside the museum. This level had lots of info on the beer-making process with cute figurines acting it out and some out-of-use beer machinery.
A huge beer vat in the museum. It is way bigger than it looks in the photo.
The lower floor had glass cases containing the numerous types of Sapporo beer that's ever been made, like the different types of bottles, cans and sizes they've appeared in
More of the same...
The popular Sapporo Black Label Beer comes in mini-me, mini, normal, large and giant (for some people - normal) sizes.
This wall showed the many advertisement posters promoting Sapporo Beer that's ever been made. It was very interesting to see the progression in time via the fashion and styles seen in the posters. 
From the very early 1900s
The 'Charleston' years maybe?
I'm guessing 1950s or so
1970s and 1980s. The women in the posters are wearing more modern outfits.
1990s and present day ads. They began to include sport stars and famous male celebrities to promote their beer.
I had to take a pic of this poster. It's Fukuyama Masaharu - a popular Japanese singer known for his beautiful ballads and deep crooning voice.
More colourful bottles being showcased. I think they also include non-alcoholic drinks manufactured by Sapporo Beer as well.
And of course the beer cans and bottles. I read somewhere that Sapporo Beer classic can only be bought in Hokkaido and not anywhere else in Japan. I will have to make it my mission to see if that's true by searching for the Classic here in Tokyo.There was a guided tour through the museum but I think it's only conducted in Japanese and also includes beer tasting for a few hundred yen. We didn't stay very long in the museum and didn't end up going for the beer tasting because Amy doesn't drink and I didn't want to spoil my appetite for dinner. So we decided to head outside and have a look around before dinner.
A picturesque view of the Sapporo Brewery chimney. The words on the chimney say 'Sapporo Beer'. Make the most of advertising I say! :)
A close up view
One of the many snow sculptures lying around the grounds of the museum. This one was simply entitled 'Panda' by the Osaka Beer Group.
The two of us in front of the restaurant we would be eating at later.
A beautiful view of the museum chimney from a different angle.
I took this photo during our walk around the grounds of the museum. It had started snowing and looked like it should be on the front of a postcard.
There was also a snow slide for children (and young-at-heart adults). The snow tubes are on the left. Can you see the kid sliding down on the right side of the photo? It can't be seen from the picture, but there was a large shopping mall to the left of the snowslide. One other thing to do if you ever get to visit the Beer Museum. It was closed by the time we got there.
Another snow sculpture. I am not exactly sure what it is but I assume it's a cartoon character?
An interesting feature consisting of beer barrels. It's beyond my abilities to translate this at the moment though. Gomen.
Our restaurant. The Beer Garten Restaurant is just next door to the museum and is known for serving the Genghis Khan (Jingis Kan) specialty (grilled lamb) which has become a very popular Sapporo dish
The menu!We finally met up with my friend Tuanh who had come to Hokkaido with a group of friends. She had luckily made reservations for this restaurant, otherwise I think it may be a little hard to get a table here! The smell of grilled lamb was pretty strong in the restaurant. We were given 'cool looking' bibs to protect us from any oil splatterings from cooking our food or in some other people's cases, food drippings during eating! No names are being mentioned here!!
Our very stylish bibs.
Luckily we were given big plastic bags to wrap our coats and bags in to prevent them getting dirty during cooking (and hopefully to prevent them from smelling too much like barbecued meat!)
Our very pretty hot plate before cooking.
Amy and I ordered a couple of beers to accompany our food. The Sapporo classic and the other the Yebisu Black label beer. I ended up having the Yebisu beer since Amy found it too bitter for her taste.
We all ordered the All-You-Can-Eat Genghis Khan meal which comes with two different cuts of lamb and lots of vegetables, mostly consisting of beansprouts, cabbage and pumpkin. The boys in our group went for the All-You-Can-Eat & Drink!! Ganbatte!
Cooking our meats first!
Tuanh and Me. Taking a break during cooking.
Our meat and vegetables!
I got caught in the act eating some lamb. Yes, I did try some!
Amy enjoying her meal
Tuanh and Amy decided they weren't satisfied with just lamb and shared this crab. Apparently very sweet!
After some beers we were pretty happy to pose for a group pic! Thanks Tuanh for the great company and meal!Tuanh and company stayed behind for the boys to take full advantage of their all-you-can-drink special, so Amy and I headed off first. We took a bus back to Odori Koen to check out the other part of the park that we had not yet walked. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Sapporo TV tower (looking blatantly like the Eiffel tower) is situated at one end of Odori Park.
Our view of the Sapporo TV tower from where the bus dropped us off.
Carrying the weight of the tower all by myself. No wonder my shoulders have been aching lately!!
A closer view of the tower.
Odori Park at night with very pretty tree lights.
More tree light decorations
I thought this was a great picture as you can see the tv tower and the 'Tree of Lights' which is a symbol of Odori Park in the background.
My turn to take a pose with the many different lights on display!
We managed to get someone to take a pic of the two of us!
An ice sculpture in the park all lighted up.That was basically it for Day 13. It was also our second last day in Sapporo. By now we had been to all the places we had wanted to see and visit so our last day in Sapporo (Day 14) was just spent relaxing, packing and eating our last fill of yummy Sapporo ramen.
Hokkaido is a really beautiful place and I would definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in the neighbourhood. We stayed here for 2 weeks, but there were so many more places to see that we did not get a chance to visit. There are a lot of beautiful national parks in Northern Hokkaido, onsens and active volcanoes but unfortunately it is better to see them during warmer weather - summer or autumn as they are generally either closed or not hike-able during winter.
This is probably our last post from Sapporo!! Look forward to our Tokyo adventures next (finally)!!
Hokkaido is a really beautiful place and I would definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in the neighbourhood. We stayed here for 2 weeks, but there were so many more places to see that we did not get a chance to visit. There are a lot of beautiful national parks in Northern Hokkaido, onsens and active volcanoes but unfortunately it is better to see them during warmer weather - summer or autumn as they are generally either closed or not hike-able during winter.
This is probably our last post from Sapporo!! Look forward to our Tokyo adventures next (finally)!!
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