Day 3 - Tokyo/Hokkaido Trip

It's just shopping, eating, shopping, eating for the whole day.

Kennie kept pestering me to take photo at Nakajimakoen Park as we missed it yesterday. 

Didnt take a nice shot as it's too cold.

We took the subway to Odori station and walked to Nijo Market 二条市場. Hokkaido is famous for its seafood, especially its crabs and Nijo Market has lots of crab. Nijo Market covers only a couple of blocks, much smaller than Tokyo’s Tsukiji, but the people working there were more approachable and welcoming. Both locals and tourists visit the market to shop for fresh local produce and seafood such as crabs, salmon roe, sea urchin and various fresh and prepared fish.  

Lots of fresh seafood. Salivating just by looking at the photos. We didnt buy any of the seafood at the market. Worried that we will be overcharged by them as we do not know the market price. So we just ended walking around and taking photos. 

Several restaurants can be found among the shops and a recommended way of enjoying a visit is by having a fresh seafood breakfast at one of the market's restaurants. Not sure which one to choose for our bf. Ended dining at Ohiso as the menu looks the most extensive.

Poising with the fake food

Donburi (rice bowl) for bf.

The seafood is really very fresh. Dont think we can get such fresh food in Sg. I tried sea urchin in Sg and it tasted like shit. I'm not joking. But the sea urchin here is so sweet and full of flavourful taste of the sea.  At first we have some reservation when ordering it. Didnt wan to pay so much and ended in disappointment. Luckily we tried it or we will never know that sea urchin tasted so good.

Shopping at Tanuki Koji.It stretches from block 1 to 7, wiith more than 200 stores offering a variety of choice including local delicacy restaurants, eateries and folk handicraft shops stand side-by-side.  

& theres's also pet shop. The puppies are so Kawai.

Lunch at the famous Ramen Yokocho (ラーメン横丁)! Ramen street at Susukino, a famous ramen alley and known as the birthplace of miso ramen.  With roots dating back to 1951, this Ramen Alley now has 17 ramen restaurants. We can feel the nostalgic atmosphere. Though it's a famous Ramen street but the place is almost empty. We have a hard time deciding which one to eat. I didnt really do any homework on where to eat as I was expecting long queue for those famous one. But there's no queue at all. Ended eating at this restaurant. Not really very nice and the ingredients used are not very fresh. Anyway we are not a Ramen fan. This is the one and only Ramen we ate in Sapporo although Sapporo is famous for their Ramen.

More shopping at Pole Town. Sapporo is somewhat of a shopper’s paradise, with the interconnected underground shopping areas of Aurora Town, Pole Town, Chikaho Underground Walkway, Stellar Place, Odori and Tanuki Koji. Shoppers can enjoy shopping year-round without having to brave the weather.

Our dinner at Lavi at ESTA Sapporo, a popular curry restaurant. The fun part is we can choose the level of hotness, from 0-50. We can also select either 150g, 200g or 350g rice without additional charges. Still prefer our Chinese curry. 

Ramen Kyowakoku or Kingdom （ラーメン共和国). It is like a ramen theme park. Didnt get to try it.