Nameko's Adventures in Hokkaido, Part 1: Sapporo

After taking the night train from Aomori to Sapporo and arriving bright and early (around 6am), Nameko started off his trip at the Sapporo-Shi Chuo Oroshi Urishijou Jougai Shijou (札幌市中央卸売市場場外市場 a.k.a. the Sapporo Fish Jyogai Market).

He enjoyed kaisen-don (a bowl of rice topped with seafood--usually raw) and crab miso soup. While wandering around the market, he narrowly avoided becoming breakfast himself!

After that narrow miss, he decided to go somewhere safer and headed to Hokkaido Jingu (北海道神宮 Hokkaido Shrine) in Maruyama Koen (円山公園 Maruyama Park).

 

 

 Next he headed to the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (北海道立近代美術館). (Unfortunately he forgot to take a selfie there...)

 When he finally finished admiring the artwork, it was lunch time, so he headed over to the Sapporo Beer Garden (サッポロガーデンパーク).

At the Garden Grill Sapporo restaurant, he enjoyed:
- Sapporo Beer
- Genghis Khan (barbequed mutton) lunch set (with soup and appetizer)
- Ezo Shika (a type of Japanese deer, i.e. venison) sauteed with ginger (蝦夷鹿ショルダーのジンジャーソテー)
- baked potato with butter (じゃがバター)
- Dorobuta (a local Hokkaido brand of free range pork) chorizo sausages (どろ豚チョリソー）
- and a crema catalana (Spanish burnt cream custard) with homemade ice cream and haskap (edible blue honeysuckle) sauce (道産ハスカップカタラーナ自家製牛乳アイス添え ).

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, Nameko headed to the Sapporo Beer Museum (サッポロビール博物館).

 At the end of his time at the museum, he had a 3-beer sampler set with Black Label, Classic*, and Kaitakushi* (only 500yen and comes with choice of snack--cheese or crackers) and Ribbon Napolin* soda  (100yen and choice of snack--white chocolate or crackers). (*Only available in Hokkaido.)

After the Sapporo Beer Garden, Nameko headed down to Odori Park to check out the Sapporo White Illumination that had fortuitously just started that weekend!

 

 

Next Nameko headed to Tanuki Kouji (狸小路 Tanuki Shopping Arcade).

It was late so a lot of the shops and restaurants were closed, but he managed to find a soup curry restaurant called World Kitchen A-Style (ワールドキッチンA-Style（アジアンスタイル）). He tried chicken soup curry and bacon soup curry.

 

 

Having walked over 20,000 steps over the course of the day, Nameko was exhausted and headed back to the hotel for the night. But he did make sure to stop at a 7-Eleven on the way back to pick up some Haagen-Dazs Japonais Ichigo Azuki (strawberry red bean) ice cream to eat at the hotel! (The Japonais line of Haagen-Dazs is only available at 7-Elevens, but there aren't any stores in Aomori!)

 And that was the end of Nameko's first day of adventures in Hokkaido (Sapporo)!

Links:
Sapporo Fish Jyogai Market: http://www.sapporo-tourguides.com/news/sapporo-fish-market.html 
Maruyama Park: http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/find/nature-and-parks/maruyama_park/?lang=en
Hokkaido Jingu: http://www.hokkaidojingu.or.jp/eng/
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art: http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/find/art/museum_of_modern_art/?lang=en
Sapporo Beer Garden: http://www.sapporo-bier-garten.jp/foreign/english.php
Sapporo White Illumination: http://white-illumination.jp/en-us/
Tanuki Kouji: http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/find/shops/tanukikoji_shopping_arcade/?lang=en
World Kitchen A-Style: Japanese Facebook Page