Sushi day

Day 26

I had been wanting to have sashimi breakfast at a fish market ever since I arrived in Japan. I lost the opportunity in Tokyo but I embraced it in Sapporo.

Nijo fish market is small, tiny compared to Tokyo's. Half of the shops were closed and there didn't seem to be a lot of clients. Reviews said it is usually crowded with tourists but we were the only ones. Actually, now that I think about it, we haven't seen many tourists in Sapporo. Apart from some chinese and americans, no one else. The most rated tourist attraction in Sapporo is the Snow Festival which is obviously in Winter. Therefore it seems safe to assume that crowds of tourists are only in Winter. 

After going around the market twice we realised that there was only one sashimi shop, not very cheap. The lack of option can be dangerous and the boys were not easy to convince but in the end they indulged me. 

The shop had lots of pictures and autographs and bank notes from different countries. There was one from Macau, when it still was a portuguese colony. Cool! 

Although it was the tiniest shop I've ever seen and we had to squeeze ourselves in the chairs, we did good because the fish was deliciously fresh.

The shopping arcade was nearby so we checked out the shops. We haven't done souvenir shopping yet and this is our last stop. I found a shoe shop that handmades typical japanese sandals. I'll be back!

We also found bears, Hokkaido trademark.

Sapporo must have a very harsh Winter. There is an enormous shopping arcade underground that traverses almost half the city centre and it's lined with cafes, restaurants and shops. You can tell that construction has been done in different stages as layout and decor differ from section to section. Overground you don't see many people walking around but as soon as you descend the stairs to the underground passageway a new city emerges. Filled with people, walking in different directions. It seems like it doesn't matter what the weather is outside, people are used to walk underground and continue even when the weather is good. It is dry, warm and you avoid traffic lights. It took us about 30min to walk from the overground shopping arcade to the train station, all underground.

Al fresco dining underground style:

Underground market:

The rest of the day was spent at the Nopporo Forest Park, a train ride away from Sapporo city centre.

The first thing we saw when we got there was a huge tower erected in 1970 to commemorated the 100 years of Hokkaido colonisation. Manuel was mesmerised by it. He kept saying it looks like Sauron's tower and decided that it was the prettiest tower we had seen in Japan. You can tell he's partial to the Lord of the Rings. He does have some point...

There are plenty of pedestrian paths in the park and a walk is probably worth it in Spring and Autumn.

A bit further down we found the Historical Museum of Hokkaido. I regret not seeing more museums in Japan, specially in Tokyo and Kyoto. Our initial experiences with the museums in Kyushu island were bad as there was barely any translation to english. However, this museum set it all right. Half is translated to english and there are even laminated reading charts in every room translated to several languages. 

We saw the skeleton of a mammoth. Amazing!

The museum explains very thoroughly that Hokkaido island was inhabited by a race called Ainu and tells you a bit about their costumes. They are natives like the american indians were the natives in North America. So the dominant japanese race are for the Ainu what english and french settlers are for the native american indians. It is a very interesting museum and worth a visit!

Look at an old iron griddle where the jingisu-kan we had last night is made:

I am a little slow in museums. I love museums and I am annoying enough to read all that's written. By the time I finished both Jorge and Manuel were seating, holding their phones and browsing the internet for some distraction. We also did not have much time remaining for the Historical Village of Hokkaido.

We were hungry by the time we got to the village so we had lunch at the cafe. We were the only ones when we arrived. The cafe is huge so you can tell this site is popular during tourist peak time.

We had miso ramen and soy ramen, local specialties. They look the same in the photographs and the difference is just in the sauce, the soy is the second picture and my opinion is that it's not as tasty.

The village has actual real houses that were donate by people, taken from their original location and reconstructed here. You can see shops, inns, a dojo (house to practice martial arts). There is a reconstitution of a fishing village, a farm village and a mountain village. Be prepared however to take your shoes off all the time if you want to step inside the houses. Have I mentioned how annoying it is to be removing shoes all the time? Please bring lace-less and easy to use shoes if you come to Japan.

Noodles shop:

Noodles's shop urinals. Note the sandals to use in the toilet area only (very japanese!) and the lack of flush:

Asian toilet (always by a window):

Sweet shop:

Sledge workshop:

Dojo:

Living room:

  Wood storage:

Lumberjack's accommodation in the mountain:

We saw about half of it and tried to stay away from the security guard's view whilst he started closing the houses one by one. We did alright for a while but then one of the employees politely followed us indicating the exit. Oh well, we tried...

Manuel was in the mood for cinema so we went to the JR Station shopping mall and checked out what was on. I never thought japanese cinema was this big. There were about 10 movies screening and only 2 were foreigners. We clearly had limited choice! We agreed on watching 'Jupiter ascending', after ascertaining it had subtitles. We seem to have picked the right day. Wednesday's are men's day so men get a discounted ticket. Women's is on Thursdays. ¥1800 for my ticket and ¥1100 for the boys. Not cheap!

I was desperate for an ice-cream so we walked several floors to find one. There was no need to go far as the cinema had ice-cream. How stupid was that? Vanilla flavour however tasted more like cream than vanilla. Either something was lost in translation or the vanilla is really of poor quality. Anyway, it soothed my craving.

I enjoyed the movie more than I thought but I still prefer Channing Tatum in 'Magic Mike', for obvious reasons! 

As in the west there is advertising before the movie starts but, unlike in London, it is not 20-30min. There was some general advertising before the due time for the movie to start and at the due time there was only a very healthy 10min of cinema advertising. Time is money and nobody is wasting mine! I like it!

Jorge had spotted a sushi restaurant when we were looking for the ice-cream. It had a big queue. One movie and 2 hours later, it still had a queue. 'Probably a good sign' we though. We took a number at the door and waited on the stools outside the restaurant. It's so popular it has permanent stools outside!

It was a conveying belt sushi restaurant. In Japan!! We were excited!

I was so excited that I started making a fool out if myself from the beginning... I set up my soy sauce dipping little bowl and started mixing this green powder which was located at the table. 'Must be wasabi' I thought, and I loooove wasabi. I had seen wasabi powder before (in a supermarket) but this one was rather difficult to mix. That was when the chef said 'No wasabi. Green tea!'. Ups! Powdered tea to mix in water and make a hot green tea. Gotcha! Embarrassed, I turned the bowl aside and started preparing a new one, this time with soy sauce only. The chef was kind on me and gave me a little bowl with wasabi. 'These crazy foreigners!' she must have thought.

On the pictures, note that there are 2 conveyor belts. One on the top for the food and one on the bottom for cups and dipping sauce bowls. How clever!

Lots and lots of sushi, of every kind and shape. Unfortunately, the sashimi we had at breakfast time in the tiny market stall was exceedingly better. When you taste good quality, you really start to realize the majority is average. It makes your dinning experiences rather dull but makes you a food expert. When you find a good place to eat, you find heaven.

How disappointing!

Day 25

We slept like babies. We are getting used to these japanese beds. Or maybe it's just the tiresome talking.

When I planned the trip I factored in a day here and there at an onsen for relaxing. What I should have done was to factor in 2-3 days straight in an onsen to properly rest. One day is good but the rest you get doesn't give you very lasting energy. By the time you put your backpack on your back, you realize how tired you are.

The boys went for a bath in the morning but I was lazy and decided to stay in bed. When they returned I was informed that the baths swap everyday and that they went to the one I had been yesterday. Could the receptionist not have told me when we checked in? I would have made the extra effort to get out of bed earlier. Now we had 1.5h before check-out time and breakfast still to have...

I decided to go to the onsen and just have a look around but when I got there I changed my mind. I had noticed that this morning my skin was softer than the day before so clearly these sulphur bath work. There is no such hing as too soft and I was loving the effect on my skin. 'Jut a quick one' I thought.

The same central circular bath, but with the statues in the middle. One extra bath around but not of a different kind from the others. The outside baths however were different and better. There is a waterfall and the garden is bigger. There is also a small wooden bridge  over a little river that comes out of the bath. Although my bath wasn't long, it was definitely worth it.

Heading to the  dining hall for breakfast a japanese lady harshly told Manuel the he had dressed his yukata incorrectly. You put left over right and he had done the other way around. Japanese are discreet people and I wound't expect someone to mention it. Was she that offended that he wasn't following the rules or is it just because we are portuguese and loud? The funniest thing is that Manuel has been in Japan for more than 3 weeks and he never noticed there was a way of dressing the yukata, despite the fact he read the instructions on our first accommodation in Fukuoka!!

Breakfast was again a huge buffet of mixed japanese and western food. There were about 10 varieties of jams, and the 4 we tasted were bad. Clearly not homemade! The rest wasn't too bad and variety was good. It was going well until I noticed there was an aquarium where yesterday the sashimi chef was. At first it didn't look real as the octopus in it was quite still, but then the 2 fish around it blinked. Oh My God! They keep them alive for the sashimi to be fresh. I felt hot and a wave of nausea overcome me. Manuel kept teasing me saying 'Why do you think the octopus sashimi tasted so good yesterday?'. I couldn't eat anymore. I left the table and went straight out of the door.

No, I am not vegetarian. Yes, I love animal protein. No, I will not stop eating animals. No, I do not like watching animals being kept alive until the minute before they are killed. Yes, I would prefer them to be killed as soon as they are fished, they do not need to see their cousin being chopped into small sashimi pieces. Thank you.

Check-out done quickly and we took the bus back to Noboribetsu train station. We had checked the timetable of the rapid train so today we would be travelling a bit faster. Our japanese friend had warned us the day before about the chinese tourists in the rapid train. He wasn't wrong! They were loads and had huge bags. Although not together, at least we managed to find a seat.

A rapid train it might be but it still took 1h10min to get to Sapporo. I guess it is quick for Hokkaido standards.

The last hotel of our trip was a western style hotel. We chose it because we thought it was cute (check out the photos) and we would probably be fed up of japanese style accommodation by the end of the 4 weeks.

Old style lift:

The floor's counter works!

The floor's counter inside works as well!

How cool is the phone? It works!

We also have separate rooms for the first time. I must say that it has been a challenge for a couple to sleep in the same room as someone else for almost 4 weeks... This is something I didn't think about whilst planning the trip. The lack of privacy and the need of private time for a couple is nothing to be ignored. If we ever do this kind of trip again, I will factor in some separate accommodation several times along the way.

Bags left at the hotel and we went exploring the city. Very modern looking with high rise buildings. The city is partly surrounded by very pretty mountains which still had snowy peaks. The main touristic sites were seen in the first hour: clock tower, tv tower, Odori park.

We tried to find a coin laundry for the boys as their clean clothes were running out but funny enough we couldn't find any. Where are the coin laundries in Sapporo? Jorge did some hand-washing in the evening...

Sapporo station is quite pretty and it has the highest tower in Sapporo: JR Tower - Observatory 38 (173m heigh). It has an impressive view, buildings, streets, the mountain range, heliports and playgrounds on the top of buildings, trains coming and going. It was almost empty, completely different from the Skytree in Tokyo. There is a cafe on the top and chairs strategically placed for viewing. We sat in one of them soaking in the view and the sun. Even the toilets had a view. I mean, the disabled toilet and the men's urinals had a glassed wall. Impressive!

Another interesting aspect of Sapporo station, and train stations in general, it the fact that they have huge shopping malls. This one has 3 buildings of shops! We popped in to one of them and found a kit-kat shop with different flavours: sakura & green tea, plum, strawberry, citrus, pear, apple, edamame, sweet potato, chilli, wasabi, etc, etc, etc. Unbelievable!

On the flight into Japan we had chated with a man who advised us to go to the beer museum and beer garden. For anyone who doesn't know, Sapporo is the mecca for japanese beer, aka Sapporo beer. Jorge had had it before and it tastes similar to Super Bock. On arrival at the museum we were wowed by the receptionist, who spoke in an impeccable spanish. It was the first time we saw a japanese speak in a foreign language that is not english or chinese! Museum is free and small but explains well the history of beer in Hokkaido and how the beer is made with very cute scenarios.

The beer garden is obviously in the grounds of the museum. It has 4 restaurants to choose from and we went from one to another to find a reasonably priced. We wanted to eat Jingisu-kan, mutton and cabbage prepared in a iron griddle, which is a speciality of Hokkaido. We discovered that they all do it. We settled for the one inside the old beer factory building, a pretty red brick building. On arrival we were given plastic bags to store our bags and coats as the lamb smell is strong (we felt it as soon as we opened the door) and sticks to anything. We were also given bibs. I don't think the food is that messy that requires it but the boys were in the mood for fun and wore theirs.

We ordered a dose of lamb Jingisu-kan but fearing that we might be sick if we ordered 3 doses, we ordered a dose of seafood rice, crab cakes (delicious!) and a dose of chicken Jingisu-kan. Jingisu-kan is done on the table, it's similar to teppanyaki but with a special equipment. Of course, all washed down with Sapporo beer!

We walked back to the hotel but stopped on the other side of the road where a Pachinko & Slot gaming alley is. Pachinko is a typical japanese game and Manuel had been talking about it ever since we arrived in Japan. He had wanted to see an old japanese women playing pachinko with a big basket of little balls on her lap. We had seen one in Fukuoka and he ticked that of his list but then we needed to play...

We thought pachinko was an elaborate and complicated game of flipping the pins to get a ball into a small hole. Pachinco resembles pinball but the machine is vertical. After a while of frantically moving a lever that seemed to do nothing, the man on the next machine told Manuel to keep the hand holding the lever turned to the right side, keeping the lever still, not to move it. What?!? Is that it? The lever releases the balls and they free fall. Some (not many) hit the hole, the majority does not. Every time a ball hits the hole, 3 more come out for you to play with. No! It couldn't be it! We started observing the other players... and got disappointed. It was indeed it! A mind-numbing, passive, uninteresting game. How the hell do you get addicted to it? The players had the right hand on the lever (there are even arm rests!) and with the other hand they would smoke or feed the machine with more money or with the balls they had in baskets lined up behind their seat. 

They were all statically looking at the balls free falling. Is this really the game that represents 40% of Japan's leisure industry (including restaurants and bars), has 20 million regular players who cough up more than a ¥30 trillion a year?!? After spending a ¥1000 note, we were in no mood to spend any more.

The weirdest thing however is that gambling for money in Japan is illegal. These pachinko addicts play for the fun of having several baskets of balls. The balls can be swapped for prizes but we saw some of the prizes (key rings, cheap jewelry and similar sorts) and you need a shit load of balls plus some money to buy them. Ridiculous!

Another interesting feature of these pachinko places is that pachinko balls make an incredible amount of noise. So much so you have to shout to hear each other. As soon as the doors open you feel like you are going to be crushed by a tsunami of balls, that's how the noise sounds like. We had walked into one in Beppu and as soon as we were hit by the noise we started laughing with our hands covering our ears, the gaming alley attendant started laughing at us. The noise is a trademark.

Disappointed with pachinko we decided to try the slot machines downstairs. They are the same as in the west but you have buttons that allow you to stop the wheels turning, allegedly increasing your potential for winning. Another ¥1000 note (yes, it's the minimum allowed) and the chips went a lot quicker than the pachinko balls. As in pachinko, there were several addict-looking people continuously feeding chips into the machines. We got bored even quicker!

So that was it. A very disappointing experience of gambling in Japan with japanese games. We left the gaming alley with watery eyes and stinking clothes from the smoke and sore throats from the shouting.