We had a plan for today!
Actually, we pretty much had a plan every day -
full credit to the sister and her busband. They were so amazing in their suggestions, planning everything from accommodation, to transport and pick-up points and including things we wanted to eat/see/buy... the whole trip was a breeze because of them so
thank you dear sister and your busband. - lots of loveeeeeeee; I hope we played our part by being as obliging and agreeable as possible :)
So, back to our plan. It was to stuff our faces with
fresh fish. Mmmmmmmm.
When on holiday, do things that we do not normally do! After a quick stop to 7-11 (steps away from our hotel lobby) to grab a make-shift coffee, we headed off. Destination was the Sapporo Central Wholesale Fish Market (
Jyogai Iciban), a 15-minute drive from our hotel. We had 2 vehicles, so we agreed to meet there.
This was our view when we'd parked our car. Turns out, we had parked at different places (2 roads away), but we managed to meet up anyhow.
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| Wholesale market |
While waiting for the other car, we headed into the wholesale market and ventured within. There were stores of raw food, selling fish, vegetable and other stores selling cooked food. We walked the grid about 3 times trying to locate an entrance we can find the rest. This was one of the beauties I saw...
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| Hole-in-wall-sushi-bar |
We ended up not eating in this place anyway, but before we headed out to the main food street, the mother scored a palmful (
yes, a lot of balls in her palm) of ikuru.
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| Ikuru sampling! |
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| Ikuru 0, family 1 |
The weather was beautiful, and so we had to take a picture, just because we are happy!
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| Happiness |
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| Breakfast |
After walking along the streets (trying not to stop to sample
every thing we saw), we ended up at this mart that sold fresh food on the first level, and served as a restaurant on the second. What we saw on the menu made us very happy, and it was even better when the food arrived.
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| Yum bowl |
It's not easy travelling with kids, especially when they are as active and loud as mine. However, I found a way to occupy this active boy - drawing. He loves to draw and if you gave him a task, he was quite happy and willing to accomplish the brief. It made me so happy to watch him concentrate in his task. I am also very proud of his drawing - he expresses details in his own way and it always makes me smile.
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| Keeping him entertained |
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| Fresh-supermarket-browsing |
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| Nearly edible |
Above was a snapshot tease only of all that we saw at the mart; it was very refreshing to fill our tummies and then continue shopping with no specific aim in mind. Ahh, the joys of being on holiday with no serious agenda. Woot! After eating, we made our way to the next stop.
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| Cool winds, cloudy skies, family = love |
We headed to the Hokkaido Shrine, about a half hour's drive away. While we are very greedy, we decided that we should try to do something different in between the main job of eating, and so we did. The shrine was quite lovely, and it was nice to just walk about, just because.
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| Entrance to shrine |
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| We chanced upon a wedding |
After a short tour within the shrine, we decided to venture the external compound. There was an abundance of trees, fresh air and space, so we just walked.
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| WHEE! |
The children saw a sign that said "zoo" so we obliged and headed where the arrow pointed. We never found any zoo (sighting a squirrel did not qualify); instead, finding a lovely spot where the parents took a tian mimi shot...
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| Love goals |
The men found food like bees to honey...
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| What an adorable yellow food truck |
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| Ice cream! |
And the kids found a playground where they very happily got all sweaty and active on!
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| Happy place |
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| Ice-cream cone and whipped cream crepe |
We spent some time there just resting in the lovely weather and eating our sweet fare. Then finally, as it got a bit warmer, we decided to head off. Lunch was a short walk away and we took a while to get there... because, well, there was hopscotch to jump on, pictures to take and things to see and time to will away...
ahhhh, lovely.
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| Photo credit: K |
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| Photo credit: J |
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One more at the main entrance to the shrine.
In blossom season, the whole stretch behind us would be full of lovelies... |
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| Our private room! |
Lunch was different forms of curry in soup form. It isn't like anything I'd tasted before, so very interesting. Between all of us, we tried seafood/pork/chicken/tempura; soba, as well as different levels of spicy curry. It was a lovely and novel lunch. We were all stuffed after this lunch and it was quite a relief to trot back to the vehicle.
But, full is only what we think we are, until we decide we need to try something else. And here is where I reveal the super-hero talent that my family has - we have bottomless stomachs. Just as we were bursting from lunch, the sister says we have to try this rice-cake; so we did.
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| Happy in the queue |
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| One rice cake for 8, pls! |
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| This is what food coma looks like |
At this point, we had missed the opportunity to visit the beer brewery as we had originally planned. Instead, we decided to head straight to the park after, and off we drove.
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| Afternoon snooze. |
It took us nearly an hour, but sadly, it was a futile trip. Turns out, the park was closed by the time we reached there and we were not able to venture in the park. I was looking forward to it actually, just sitting in nature and frolicking in the fields; but that was not to be.
Undaunted, we moved straight on to the next plan in the agenda - shopping.
It was the Mitsui Outlet and after about 2 hours there, most of us managed to get something. It wasn't as cheap or as amazing as we'd have preferred, but it was fine. We then made plans to head for dinner and the adventurous husband, who was
intent on having the
best possible, searched for food options; and after nearly getting lost, all was well as we figured out the way to the restaurant and park our vehicles and not get lost. Hooray!
By this time, the temperature has dropped and it was pretty cold (
bbrrrr) so our dinner choice was perfect. Shabu shabu FTW!
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| Waiting for our table |
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| Lovebirds |
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| Sight for sore eyes |
We spent ages at dinner, a good 3 hours, I think. It was a buffet where we had free-flow of meat and drinks and I was
so stuffed from dinner. I think I managed only 2 beers? But I had like, 3 cows and 2 sheep and 4 little piglets. It was a very full dinner!
We bade farewell to the kind and attentive restaurant manager at closing (
we were the last ones to leave) and it was a hearty exchange of goodbyes and namecards as the men bonded (
ah, whisky forms friendships).
We were hit by the cold winds as we stepped out from the building and it was a refreshing walk back to our hotel. We even found energy to step into a multi-purpose shop where we bought some random stuff, before continuing our journey. Again, we contemplated heading out for another drink, but that plan failed as the kids clung to us like velcro; so we stayed in and did another round of in-room entertainment.
We had a picture taken with some big clock/tower telling us the time as we walked back to the hotel.. but I need to find that pic.
Edit: I found the pic on the sister's blog! It's the last pic of this post; here.
What a lovely day, and it was only our first full day in Hokkaido. WHEE!
Read about our flight to Japan, here.
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