Day 2 (part 1): Sapporo station - Curb Market

Day 1 can be accessed here.

Day 2 (part 2): Historical Village - Shiroi Koibito Park can be accessed here.

Day 3 can be accessed here.

Sapporo station vicinity 札幌駅周辺

Woke up damn early and did not feel tired at all since I slept like so much the previous day (didn't sleep well on the first flight to HKG, but had quite a lot of sleep and downtime on the subsequent flights). Managed to leave for Curb Market (札幌場外市場) at 7 am as planned! Some photos of my surroundings in the daytime below:

Hotel too many floors, camera and distance not powderful enough to take the whole building

It snowed again last night

Took my own sweet time to explore around Sapporo station and spotted Mister Donut right off to the left of the North Exit as I was entering. Made a mental note to eat there because I am a sucker for donuts just like Shinobu in the Monogatari series haha. For those in a hurry, there's convenience stores, bento and even ramen stalls on the platforms. It is really interesting just roaming around the platforms of major Japanese rail stations just to see what's on offer.

How abe, bento and soba spot?

Curb Market (Jogai Ichiba 場外市場)

Oh I forgot to mention that I got the 7 day JR pass for 29,110 yen (about 360 SGD). More details can be found here. The JR staff at Narita was terribly helpful and accomodating when I requested to change the start date, even going as far as to confirm with me repeatedly if the amended date was okay. After a 2 minute ride to Soen station on the JR Hakodate Line, I was now only about 10 minutes away on foot from my first delicious breakfast in Japan.

Such a serene and idyllic morning

Curb Market is one of Sapporo's largest public markets and specialises in not just in seafood but also local produce such as melons. You are always guaranteed the freshest catch at reasonable prices and also there are not many places you can head to so early in the morning. ^^;

Something not seen in Singapore: a wet market that stretches along the whole road, I ate at the Kita no Ryouba (pictured on the left in red).

Om nom nom nom. Pretty awesome price for 3-4 legs.

Since giant crabs are quite common elsewhere, here's a giant lobster.

I ate at Kita no Ryouba which was heartily recommended to me by Ryunosuke before I left for Japan (more details in the following pictures). Apparently the place had become so popular that there are now 3 different stores in the area. I ended up eating at the No. 2 store as it had a dedicated restaurant level on the second floor. Really liked the varnished wood setting to the place coupled with heartwarming and attentive service. The old shop lady even offered to help me take a photo and asked for the chef to look this way in the photo. The star of the sanshoku kaisen don was the salmon sashimi. I never was quite the fan of sashimi but I enjoyed the freshness and chewyness of the salmon.

Salmon-ikura-kani don @ Kita no Ryouba (北の漁場 ２号店)
Address: 北海道札幌市中央区北11条西21丁目374
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A very satisfied me with the lovely colours of the don and a very surprised chef

I just missed the next train to Shin-Sapporo at Soen station which proved to be a fortuitous blessing in disguise. Decided to check out the coffee place nearby and their latte was absolutely heavenly. I also bought the coffee-flavoured chocolates which I am still preciously rationing more than 2 weeks after I came back.

Address: To the left of Soen station as you are exiting, you can not miss it.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

For a trip down developmental Sapporo and yummy chocolate biscuits click here!