Day 4 - Tokyo/Hokkaido Trip

Otaru was our destination for Day 4 and we spend the whole day there. Otaru is famous for its seafood and is a picturesque harbour city about 30 minutes away by train from Sapporo.

We had breakfast at Cafe Danmark at Stellar Place (Sapporo Station).  We love Japanese bakery as they have a wide selection of bread, pastry, sandwiches, salads and burgers and their bread is always very nice, soft and fluffy, and their bakeries usually have a section for dining in.

Here's an assortment of bread for our breakfast. 

Lockers with cute giraffe 

After breakfast, we took the JR Hakodate Line to Otaru (30mins by rapid train or 45mins by local train,)

We had lunch at Sankaku Fish Market （三角市場) which is just 100m away from Otaru station. It is named the Sankaku (triangle) Fish Market because this market space is triangular.  There are vendors selling fresh seafood, most of them offer to cook the seafood for customers on the spot.  Hokkaido is famous for seafood and Otaru seems to be most famous for seafood in Hokkaido, so I really love Otaru for their fresh, sweet and tasty seafood.

We decided on this restaurant as it's the most crowded.

Shako (Mantis prawn)

Outside Otaru station

After the Sankaku Fish Markets, we walked down Chuo Street towards the canal which is quite picturesque with the street lamps lining the canal and old warehouses lining the other side. 

Some festival going on near otaru canal. Lots of street stalls and performance.

Queuing up for food in the call weather.

Sotong gal with her sotong. But too bad it's uncooked. Wasted our money.

Otaru Canal (小樽運河). Otaru Canal is an undeniably popular tourist attraction. The canal makes for a pleasant stroll during the day.  While strolling along the sides of the canal, we can find many artists showcasing their artworks portraying Otaru Canal in their very own style and perspective. A nice place for selfie, wefie and group photo and we did all of them :)

Handmade Name Brooch for Kennie and Videl. Veona didnt want to make one.

At Otaru Tourist Counter

Lots of Tour groups at Otaru Canal.

At Potato Collection. Every items has potato in it

Kennie and yakiniku restaurant. 

Nice deco outside a restaurant building

After checking out the canal, we followed the street running parallel to the canal until we got to Sakaimachi Street (境町通り) which is the main shopping area in Otaru. There were lots of shops selling glassware and other Venetian style arts and crafts, but there were other shops with souvenirs and seafood-based restaurants.

There are also famous pastry shops at Otaru. Kitakaro and LeTAO cheesecake. Tried some sample and bought some pastries and titbits back.

Out last stop at Otaru is the Oatru Music Box Musuem. Its one of the largest museum shops of music boxes, orgel, in Japan. The beautiful century-old building, designated as one of historic landmarks of Otaru City, is full of music boxes in various sizes and types.  There are thousands of music boxes at each floor ( there are three level in the building, the 3rd floor is for customers who wanna built their very own & unique music boxes ). Only spend a short while there as we were rushing to go back to Sapporo. Only managed to buy one owl music box. Oh btw, Japanese like Owl. Japanese Lucky Owls have a varying number of specific meanings depending on their colour:

·             A white lucky owl invites happiness

·             A pink lucky owl brings you love

·             A yellow lucky owl represents peace

·             A black lucky owl keeps you in good health

·             A red lucky owl brings you good luck

·             A green lucky owl represents dreams

·             A gold lucky owl brings you great wealth

From the Musuem, we walked to Minami Otaru station as it's nearer as compared to walking back to Otaru station. 

Back to Sapporo Station and had 串鳥Kushidori Yakitori (near Sapporo station) for dinner. Kushidori is one of the most successful yakitori restaurant chain in Sapporo and is one of the best yakitori we have had. Everything was really good and inexpensive including the alcoholic drinks . Around 150 yen a stick if I remember correctly. Yakitori goes really well with a cold glass of beer or lime soju. Complimentary chicken soup is served to us. It's so yummy that we had a few serving of it.