Saturday, February 1, 2014

Hokkaido Holiday - To Do 14-19thJan2014 (Sapporo Town, Skiing, Ramen Alley, Otaru)

Hokkaido - Where One Could Stay
Hokkaido - To Do
Hokkaido - To Eat
Japan - To Buy 

Day 1
Sapporo Beer Museum
When in Sapporo, guess the only thing to do is to pay homage to the well-loved Japanese brew. Located nearest to Naebo(JR Line) this is the museum of Sapporo Beer. Nothing really to the whole place, apart from looking pretty. Perhaps the Picturesque snow fall during the time of visit (Jan2014) made it a little more magical.
The Museum, free to enter, covers the basics of making beer and a little on its brewhouse history. nothing new if you've seen other breweries like Heineken (Click here for Heineken ABBA Review in Amsterdam), which in this case, pales in comparison by way of a tourist attraction. All exhibits are written in Japanese, with only a self-guided, Photostatted, English write-up.
Probably the only thing that was enjoyed were the tasting trio, of Sapporo beers with a write up on their distinct tastes. ¥500 for three with choice of cheese snack. Continued with Sapporo's Beer Garden for a dinner. Click here for ABBA review.
Click here for ABBA location of Sapporo Beer Factory located 9-1-1 Kita 7 Johigashi Higashi Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture 〒065-8633, Japan

Day 2 
Ban Kei Skijo
How to get there:
Maruyama Koen Mae (Tozai Subway Line)
Take Ban.K bus from Bus Terminal to Ban Kei Skijo.
 Ban.K Ski lodge: 
Looks relatively mordern and well-maintained
Equipment and pricing:

Ski boots look great, with equipment (boots, poles and shoes) and lift passes available in a package costing about¥6800/pax for 4hrs with unlimited ski lift rides and lunch thrown in.

Slopes:


Picturesque with a good variety of difficulties to meet everyone's abilities. Adequate ski lifts are available to cater to the large number of students, tourists and locals spending quality time with fresh daily powder runs. Slope maintenance leading towards and away from the lifts are also well designed allowing for ease of access getting to and away from the platforms. A children’s play area is also available for fun in the snow.


Hokkaido Shrine
Elegance and beauty in a peaceful environemnt. Local one stop before Maruyama Koen Mae subway staiton. 

Tanuki Koji Street
(shopping street)
Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade (nearest station Susukino Station) Click here for ABBA directions to the long shopping stretch.
Seems that the tourist market has once again reigned supreme. A range of shops selling popular Japanese snacks and trinkets. There is however, lots of variety in dining options available (click here for Abba review of Nakamchi Gabacho for Yakitori, in Tanukikoji shopping arcade.)
Having walked the whole stretch, nothing much by way of of boutique fashion stalls, shoes, collectables or otherwise, seen in this alley.Click here for ABBA directions to Tanuuki Koji Street.
Ramen Alley
(located near Susukino Station)

An 'attraction' of sorts. Don't expect any English write up in this place. But from the looks of the display pictures, it seems this famous alley has been around since the days of old, serving Ramen to the masses. Popped into, Kari-Yu Ramen Shop for a bite. Click here for Review of Kari-Yu in Ramen Alley.

Day 3
Sapporo Central Wholesale Seafood Market
The place to go see these massive crabs for sale. King, Queen and Snow Crabs. Have a sample of Hokkaido's best and soak in the sights of vendors going about their daily trade. Some were using the heaters to heat up massive crab legs. 

For sale and sampling were salmon roes, smoked/preserved fish and much more. Watch tourist purchase crabs whole for gifts for their friends and family back home. Grabbing a here here is no problem with the a sushi place located around every corner and some shops offering you to buy seafood and subsequently dine in. Click here for ABBA review of Dine-in at Kita No Ryouba (2nd Floor At Sapporo Wholesale Seafood Market)

Arrival at 1000hrs with lots of activity still on going and departed after lunch at about 1300hrs. where shops shops were starting to wind down.
Click here for ABBA location of Sapporo Central Whole Sale Market

Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Factory
¥600/entry
From afar, it looks like a scene from Charlie and the chocolate factory. The Museum section of it was a little of a stretch,with minimal displays to be able to hold its own in each of its 'display' rooms. Probably there were only two sections which brought particular enjoyment.
The first was a view into the manufacturing halls pictured second from left in image below.
And second, the coffee/dessert room,which had a great view of the mountains and clock tower, with accompanying 'live' music from a self playing classical grand. Hot chocolate came with orange liquor, whilst white chocolate drink with strawberry syrup. Pastry had, pretty but not awfully big on flavor. 
Over all, the park itself, just brings in huge question marks. A random mix of things. It starts out alight with the underlying chocolate theme, but later, devolves into a small gramophone exhibit, old toys collection and a candy selling and making section. A strange water tank in the center of the hall and ends with it's flagship store, which in no way sells its biscuits cheaper. 
Probably the only perk of traveling all the way down here was to have your photo taken and printed of the decorative tin boxes for your chocolate biscuits.
*A fish tank in the middle of the shops? And keeping strange sealife.*
Click here for ABBA location of Chocolate Factory, 北5条手稲通/道道124号線

Day 4
Otaru Port Day Trip
Takes 40min by JR Train from Sapporo to Otaru
A round trip costs about ¥1250.
An Otaru day pass goes for ¥1500 and covers all subway lines in Sapporo as well.
ABBATip:
Not really worth it or justified.
- Unless you are going to be hopping on and off at various stops along the way, which there are negligible attractions, and on and off various stops in the subway in Sapporo city itself, the savings if any is negligible.
Further more, to purchase this Otaru day pass, one needs to bring their passport along and purchase at either New Chitose Airort or Sapporo JR station. There's no two ways about it.
Otaru 

Otaru port. Other than the, iconic and picturesque longkang (drain), which was probably aided by snow and beautiful backdrop, there's nothing really outstanding.
A quaint township, selling popular Japanese snacks and Otaru made products. Namely their beautiful musical boxes and colored glasses-ware. However, shops get repetitive quickly and the over commercialization gives the impression of mass production for the tourist market. One shop, to the next offering the same thing, with bus load of out-of-towners queuing to make their purchases.

Perhaps to qualify as worth while attractions, some so-called museums/shops do have small collections of old musical boxes and even a replica of Vancouver's steam clock with set show times. Abysmal at best.
However it's not all a complete loss. There are loads of boutique like eateries which line the street with both sweet and savory eats not to be missed. The shops which specialized in selling smoked fishes as well as seaweeds were worth the look and purchased.

All-in-all, perhaps a half to a 3/4 day activity would suffice. Perhaps the heavy snowfall on the day of visit did not help, but the eateries and initial look at glass wares and music boxes were a treat.

Day 5
Moiwayama Skijo
How to get there?
Take the Namboku Subway Line to Makomanai Station
Take the Rinyu Kanko Bus to Maknomanai. (15min ride)
(Taken from stop 17. Ask JR Station staff for most updated pickup point)

Moiwayama Skijo
Slope Review

Ski lodge:
Looks dated, and a school cafeteria like atmosphere for dining options.
Not immediately clear to non-Japanese visitors where to rent the gear from. Strange smells from the ski collection point.
Equipment and pricing:

Equipment – Boots  looked outdated and well-used. Ski’s looked like they’ve seen better days and were also a little beaten up. ¥3500/pax for ski set for 3hrs (inclusive of boots, poles and shoes)

ABBAWarning: Accepts Cash ONLY!
Slopes:

- Not too picturesque, but has nice larger open spaces. However, the main landing zone for all the slopes gets packed quickly and messily with lots of people all heading for the main ski lift.

- Poor slope design going towards the ski lifts result in one having to walk / waddle in an ungainly fashion towards the lifts.  The lift seats also come up behind riders too fast, resulting in having the edge of the seat slam into the back of your calves hard enough to bruise. The slopes are not well marked with the level of difficulty with a large portion of the ‘Green’ beginner zones way too flat to be of any challenge suddenly merging into a steeper ‘Yellow’ intermediate zone just prior to the bottom of the mountain.  


Day 6
Ban.K skiing before the travel home







Caught 1730hrs flight from new Chitose to Hanneda Airport for return home.
6day Itinerary

Day 1Arrival at New Chitose Airport from Tokyo Hanneda Airport 
Arrival at hotel at 1430hrs.
Sapporo Beer Museum and Beer Garden

Day 2 
Ban Kei Skijo
Hokkaido ShrineTanuki Koji Street
(shopping street)
Ramen Alley

Day 3
Sapporo Central Wholesale Seafood Market
Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Factory

Day 4
Otaru Port Day Trip

 Day 5
Moiwayama Skijo
Tanuko Koji Street Shopping
Day 6
Ban.K skiing before the travel home
Departed from hotel at 1500hrs.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)