Day 4 (Part 3): Genghis Khan at Sapporo

For Day 4 (Part 2): Otaru continued, click here.

Day 5 (Part 1): Nijo Market will be coming up soon!

Around Otaru Station 小樽駅周辺

Well, since Otaru was the main location for the day, it is kind of understandable that it's spilling over even to the last part of the day's posts. Had wanted to stay for Otaru at sunset but decided to head back to Sapporo first to dump all my souvenirs at the hotel before meeting up with Eri-chan. Come to think about it, I should have just soldiered on and gotten a nice view of Otaru at dusk. Decided to take the 20 minutes or so walk from Sakaimachi to Otaru station to see the less glamourous parts of the small town:

Otaru's pretty famous Sushi Alley... once again, too full ^^:

Heard the Romankan had a pretty lovely cafe which I ended up not having the time to visit.

Sunmall Ichibancho showing its age, there were barely any shoppers along this shopping district

Multicoloured crossing bridge for trains and I really liked those eateries right under... you could feel your bones rattling while dining in those places as the trains passed by ^^

Snapped while waiting for the train to arrive

The nice thing about leaving earlier was getting onto a faster, comfier Rapid Airport train instead of the usual commuter... got back to Sapporo in slightly over 30 minutes as compared to the 50 minutes it would have taken

BISSE SWEETS ODORI SAPPORO 店

Address: 北海道札幌市中央区大通西3-7 北洋大通センター １Ｆ

Had about two hours before meeting Eri-chan so decided to head to this dessert place I saw on TV yesterday night. I realised that I had been walking back and forth along the Sapporo station - Odori - Susukino stretch quite often this trip. ^^;

Shiba inu so cute with its pink T shirt!~

This place had to be good with a Tabelog rating of over 3.4

This was more like a desserts food court rather than a single desserts store.

Such lovely cupcakes and shortcakes and pudding and oh. Sooo much more.

Serving the food to you with no extra service charge and you can read more about the origin of their dairy products

Tada!~ The seasonal parfait (?) from Bocca. The slight sourness of the yoghurt went very well with the sweetness of the tangerine, which was carefully balanced with the range of flavours offered by the mixed berries.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Eri-chan came while I was enjoying my parfait halfway!~ Apparently school ended for her early, which was fantastic as we had much more time to go around Sapporo. She's also a Sapporo newbie, having starting university recently and having came from Sendai. Had a Tororinko pudding treat from Snaffles by her and what was interesting was that they actually have a few branches in Singapore?! (Apparently in Plaza Singapura and Bedok Mall, check out here for more info). So we were off to have dinner which was probably the highlight in Sapporo for me this trip.

The pudding taken together with my Shiroi Koibito chocolate milk back in the hotel

絵里ちゃんの顔を真似した…　これは一番普通の写真じゃん！~
他の写真はこちらへ

Genghis Khan Daruma だるま本店

Address: 北海道札幌市中央区南五条西4 クリスタルビル １Ｆ

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

We actually had a hard time finding this place as the GPS kept getting interfered by the different buildings around the Susukino area. And when we were finally there, it was just a small hole-in-the-wall establishment which could seat at most 20 people shoulder-to-shoulder. It was both Eri's and my first experience eating Genghis Khan, so what's that? It's actually grilled lamb barbeque and it was rumored that it got its name in prewar Japan where lamb was widely thought to be the meat of choice among Mongolian soldiers and the dome-shaped skillet is meant to represent the soldiers' helmets that they purportedly used to cook their food on. In any case, the lamb was so tender and juicy that we each had two portions each which came up to quite an expensive price. ^^;

First round!~

This photo captured about half of the store which goes to show how small it is and it is only open from 5 pm to 3 am

Eri's expert (?) hand in action ^^

La Maison ~ensoleille table~ ラ・メゾン アンソレイユターブル

Address: 札幌ステラプレイス CENTER 6F

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Was too smoky and noisy inside Daruma for us to talk and we felt really bad as the queue got longer so we decided to head for desserts!~ Decided to walk all the way back to Sapporo station as both of us stayed nearby there and we needed to work up an appetite anyway. Probably me and not her as she tritely reminded me that Japanese ladies have a separate stomach for desserts (I think probably ladies around the world have this miraculous function as far as I knew ^^). Was a lot of fun chatting with her about university life in Japan particularly as she was away from home and also about the job aspirations of her generation. Of course, we took a lot of photos and had a blast just laughing at how wacky we were. Was quite surprised when the flood of photos came in over LINE once I came back to Singapore lol.

Looks so yummy!~

In the end she had the dessert and I only took a bite out of the chocolate banana cake.

We parted ways at around midnight near the station as she was headed for the East exit while I was headed for the North exit. Despite complaining about being full and actually still carrying the Snaffles pudding dessert treat from Eri, I decided I really wanted the MOS Burger Card and thought I should visit one while I can, so yeah. I bought a burger meal knowing that I would not be able to finish it ^^; Also snapped a shot of a yakitori-ya that I wanted to go (besides the one I went earlier) but did not have the time to do so as I was checking out the next day.

The packaging is so nice, why is Singapore's so ugly?

I like how there's a sticker over the straw entrance, helps to prevent spillage. The fries tasted the same as Singapore's, but the burger and chicken leg was definitely much better in Japan.

Day 5 will be coming up soon!~