Day 3 (Part 2): Noboribetsu can be accessed here.
Day 4 (Part 1): Otaru will be coming up soon!
Nakajima Park 中島公園
Around Noboribetsu station 登別駅周辺
The Noboribetsu post was getting just a bit too long, so the journey back to Sapporo from Noboribetsu will be covered here. ^^; Had about 15 minutes to wait for the Hokuto 84 Limited Express which comes at 7.54 pm (Dat exact timing courtest of Hyperdia), so decided to walk around the station as I had rushed straight towards the bus just now. If Noboribetsu-Onsen at night had been pretty ghostly, Noboribetsu station would easily take the cake for ghostliness. There was absolutely no one outside the station and stores that were still open were sparse. But it did make for a pretty soothing experience walking along the street admiring the gas lamp design of the streetlights while hearing your boots crunch against the gravel. Back at the station, there was a foreign backpacking couple that arrived too late to buy tickets from the Midori no Madoguchi which closed at 7.30 pm. Offered to help them buy tickets from the automated machines which was my maiden experience as well - had always used the JR pass and never missed the Midori no Madoguchi timings.
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| And even within the station, there was no one save myself until the foreign couple came in. |
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| Yup the bear influence is strong in Noboribetsu |
Ichigen Honten 一幻本店
Address: 北海道札幌市中央区南7条西9丁目1024-10
After a close to 1.5 hour ride, was finally on my way to eat the super famous Ichigen ramen which was near Nakajima Park subway station or the Higashihonganji-mae (東本願寺前) streetcar stop. At this point I'm thinking of renaming the title of this post as I spent less than an hour there after eating (had to make the last subway train back to Sapporo, it was definitely not walkable ^^; then events took another turn, more on that later) but meh. Opted to take the bumpy streetcar and this time round it really did make sense to take it from Susukino (unlike the previous day) as it was only about 10 minutes away.
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| Took the Coca Cola-themed streetcar!~ |
It took another 5-10 minutes of walking before I finally arrive at Ichigen Honten and I was like, "Ha! Don't need to queue, lucky!~" Oh but that was because I had not stepped inside yet. It was actually pretty late in the night and the place could be considered to be in a rather ulu location but there were a good 10 to 15 people waiting. Had hunkered down for a good long wait but the turnover rate for ramen was surprising fast, something I like about Japanese people - they can and will eat very fast particularly when there's a queue!~ (Particularly for the genghis khan dinner with Eri-chan the next day, more on that in the subsequent posts)
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| No queue!~ Muahahaha!~ (Should have seen the telltale warning signs of legs inside.) |
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| Dawwwwwwwww. On a separate note, a lot of celebrities had been there. I saw KimuTaku, Horikita Maki and my recent favourite Masato Sakai among the super many. |
You know a place is damn good when they can proudly (but not haughtily, actually loved their service) tell you that they do not take reservations. Everyone would order while waiting, so when you are brought to your seat, your items would arrive very shortly after. Once again, I let slip my gaijin tail too early at this place as I was caught dozing off while queuing and was thrown totally offhand by a pretty handsome waiter suddenly kneeling by me. And the chef was so kind to give me an extra egg!~ He had actually said in halting English while serving me the ramen, "Extra egg, service! This egg... very good!" After I sheepishly said that I could actually understand him in Japanese, he went to elaborate (with a certain relieved tone I must say) that their ajitsuke tamago are strictly made such that there are two different layers of runnyness within the yolk. And I must say, I was certainly impressed with not just the egg but also the superbly flavoured and rich prawn-based soup. A must go!~
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| The usually ramen came with half an egg, hence the 3 halves ^^ Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars |
Nakajima Park was NOWHERE near where I was, in fact it was more than 20 minutes away by foot and I walk really fast. Good thing I had just filled my belly with warm warm ramen soup, but I was really feeling the cold coming back by the time I reached the vicinity of the park. Had barely spent any time at the park when the bojio messages started coming in on LINE from Keiko and co. I was actually thinking "Jio you also won't come since we already met liao and you guys are most likely supposed to be not in the area by now" but well, was proven wrong so was off to another off the itinerary location!~
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| Passed by some of the seedier establishments in Susukino... |
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| Lily no Ie ハッピータパスとごちそうイタリアンの店 Lilyの家 Address: 北海道札幌市中央区南6条西5-8-5 |
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| At the counter waiting for a table, I didn't eat here but had a taste of mairyan's squid ink pasta and it was yummeh |
Welp, missed the last train as feared but also as expected haha. Shared a cab back to Sapporo station and was really lucky to have passed by the Sapporo Clock Tower (札幌時計台). The building is of American design and is one of the few surviving Western-style buildings in Sapporo. I heard there's a museum of sorts in the daytime but required an admission fee of 200 yen (about 2.5 SGD) so had not planned to visit here due to my tight schedule, but then lucky!~ ^^ Barely had much time to sleep after reaching the hotel at 3 plus am but the Suntory Premiums and all sorts of wine consumed a while earlier made sleeping easier (and also a splitting headache in the morning easier too).
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| Sapporo Clock Tower 札幌時計台 |
For that Venetian experience in Hokkaido, click here (coming soon)!~
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