Day 10 (Feb 6th) - Izakaya Dining Experience

Location: Sapporo
Weather: -1 deg
Author: Chrissie

Ohayou minnasan! I'm backtracking to Day 10 since I realised we've missed a couple of days in between.

Today was another 'take-it-easy' day for us as we had plans to meet up with Yuri and her sister later that night for dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we did not have internet connection at the 3rd accommodation we had just moved to so we decided to head to a place with free wifi to catch up on our mails.

We went to Tully's Coffee (a coffee chain in Japan) at the Sapporo train station where we knew they offered free internet connection. Tully's Coffee was located on the 6th floor of Stellar Plaza in Sapporo and we managed to get window counter seats with a great view.

Our view from Tully's Coffee. You can see Seibu Dept store opposite with the triangular roof.

As you can see from the picture, it was snowing pretty heavily outside. The snowflakes were dancing violently outside the window in front of us. It's actually quite mesmerising to watch!

Anyway, we spent a couple of hours in Tully's before heading off to meet with Yuri. Yuri had also brought her younger sister (Yumi) along to meet us. We thought their names were pretty cute!

Yuri brought us to a very stylish Izakaya restaurant. An Izakaya is basically a place for drinking, although they also serve food to accompany the drinks. Amy had mentioned earlier that she had wanted to try a seafood hotpot and this particular Izakaya offered an 8-course dinner for about 4000 yen per person including unlimited drinks. Anyway, let's get to the good part, the pictures!!

Us before dinner was served. Yuri is on the left, Yumi on the right. I'm checking out Yuri's Jap-Eng translator!
The happy group! Our drinks had been served by then. Sapporo beer is pretty good...
Our first course - silky white tofu with spring onions

2nd course - 5 varieties of sashimi including tuna, mackeral and bream. Veerry ooishii!!
3rd course - vietnamese spring rolls with a thin slice of raw beef on top. Thumbs up for presentation.
4th course and the piece de resistance!! A seafood nabe with prawns, mussels, scallops, mushrooms and vegetables in an egg broth. Taste-bud tingling deliciousness!!!

The nabe pot was set on top of a portable stove to keep the food hot, but the waitress also placed something special in the nabe pot itself to make the broth extra hot. Can you spot it in the photo below?

Yup! They placed a very large hot rock right inside the pot! It started bubbling madly, I think you can see the steam in the photo!
Here's Yuri fishing the stone out for us to give us a better photo. According to Yuri, placing a rock in the nabe is quite rare. They've never seen it done before either.
Close up of our nabe stew. By now, we were already feeling pretty full!!
5th course - sweet potato tempura served with salt and seafood balls
6th course - Salmon sashimi and fish roe sushi

By now we had all gone beyond full to bursting, there was so much food!! The waitress later put rice into the nabe pot to soak up the flavour of the soup and finally we were served a white chocolate mousse dessert. Amy loved the dessert! Needless to say, we all felt like we needed to go for a good walk and exercise.

After the meal, Yuri wanted to take us to her favourite bar which was owned by close friends of hers she had met through salsa dancing. The bar owner's wife had apparently travelled around Australia about 10 years ago. We found out she was a scuba diving instructor and guide and had worked in Exmouth for a few months as well as Perth. Her english was still very good even after 10 years!

That was about it for our Day 10. The food and the company was excellent! Thanks to Yuri for giving us such a great experience!

Day 12 (Feb 8): Otaru 2 Part 2 - Music Boxes

Location: Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan
Weather: -2 deg + snow shower
Author: Amy

As promised, here's the Special on Music Boxes! We went to several places that showcased (and sells) all sorts of music boxes. Can't remember what the places we went to were called (and I probably couldn't read it anyway).

Anyway, the first place we went to had a lot of antique music boxes. Back when music boxes were first made, they were the size of tables and grandfather clocks!!!

Tall music boxes on left, desk-like music boxes on right and smaller ones at the end

More music boxes. Pretty big, huh?

A piano on the left. I wonder if this was one of the ones that can play by itself...

Other displays. Not sure what they were meant to represent but I think these are still music boxes.

Old style music box. The round disc is what makes the music as it rotates and hits the needles.


A smaller-sized music box. Maybe made during modern-er times? It is still bigger than a toolbox.

The mechanics of how a music box works. The left cylinder rotates and the sharp protruding knobs on the cylinder comes in contact with the 'needles' on the right and produces beautiful sounds. I love music boxes!

How music boxes were made. The knobs on the cylinder appear to be manually inserted! Think about how complex the notes and how precise the maker would need to be to produce so many harmonious melodies with the right timing!

Glass music boxes. These were my favourite. I liked the 'Beauty and the Beast' melody and the 'Canon in D' melody.

I took a video of the music box playing 'Canon in D'. Reckon it's infringement of copyright?

The music boxes were so expensive. The ones I liked (glass ones above) were more than 50,000 yen!!! That's like a grand in AUD (bloody exchange rate...)

More music boxes

LET'S TAKE A BREAK!

It was pretty cold and snowy outside so we detoured to a place that sold lots of chocolates. For 70 yen, we got a custard cream puff and a free hot coffee! So that helped warm us up a bit. I was pretty surprised but the coffee was actually pretty delicious! Although I'm not a coffee drinker, I found that particular one much to my liking.

Time out for a sweet treat



BACK TO THE COLD STREETS....

After admiring the music boxes at this place (and cursing the prices), we went to another place with more modern-style music boxes.

Welcome!

We have lots to offer! Take your time (and lots of pics!)

View from the top (Chrissie's cam captures pics in yellow lighting)

Pretty globe music boxes. Don't break them, Chrissie!!!

Amy staying at a safe distance

A close-up. I think it was a dragon?

A music box that lights up and changes colours

More glass ornaments...

...and trinkets

Glass Santa!

Gorgeous!!

Remind you of Aladdin?

Those were just the ones on the ground floor. We went up to the next floor to Chrissie's favourite section. But before that, a brief interlude...

SILLY CHRISSIE!!!


LET'S CONTINUE, SHALL WE?

As mentioned previously, we went to Chrissie's favourite section which was a lot of metalwork featuring clocks, wall ornaments, mirrors, etc.

Welcome to Chrissie's favourite area! Chrissie went trigger happy around here.

Chrissie Cam

Chrissie Cam again. She liked this centerpiece so...

Amy Cam: Chrissie and fav centrepiece.

Trigger happy Chrissie Cam again.

Me taking a pic of Chrissie taking a pic. See result below.

Cute owls, hey?

Owls are featured a lot in this section.






Me amusing myself

Chrissie and her Prince Charming. She's waiting for him to grow up.

I liked the lamps they used for decorations. If I had a nice big house, I would fill it up with these types of lamps. Something I'm sure Danny wouldn't like so out the window THAT thought goes...

My study lamp...

Danny's study lamp...

Visitor's room lamp?

A little carousel for fun...

My bedside lamp...

And here I am again, amusing myself... I didn't realise it was a mirror until after I took the shot.

THIS is going to the children's room!!!

Here's what our nursery will look like.

In another section, even more goodies!!

Even more!

I love these ones. They can also be used as jewellery boxes. But could possibly cost more than whatever jewellery I actually own... Hmm... Danny? *hint hint*

Close-up

We thought we were taking too many pics without us in it, so got the kind shop assistant to take pictures for us. I've asked so many times, I think I remember it in Japanese...

Chrissie taking pic of a gold carousel.
Amy being funny again and taking pics of Chrissie taking pics

The end result. Gorgeous hey?

But don't think that all the music boxes are just beautiful, ornate and delicate. We also found....

Sushi music boxes!!!!

I thought it was cute... You can listen to music and get hungry...

And that ends today's post!!!

A bit of an FYI, new posts don't always end up being the first. Posts get published according to when they were first started, not when they are published. So there are several posts that you may have missed out.

Next! Otaru Part 3 - Glass blowing!