Sapporo Japan

We flew All Nippon Airways from Vancouver-Tokyo-Sapporo. Somehow we ended up being upgraded to premium economy. We're not sure how that happened but it seems like the way to cope with long haul overnight flights!

Unlike the rest of Japan, Hokkaido and Sapporo does not have a lot of castles and temples. It seems that Hokkaido was not part of the feudal wars that took place on the other islands, hence a lot less feudal and religious history.  Hokkaido is new in comparison to the rest of Japan and still retains a bit of the frontier spirit. It is a large island that is a major producer of agriculture products. There are a lot of dairy cattle on Hokkaido so they produce wonderful cheese, milk, butter, and ice cream. They have many specialties - the waters are cold so there is salmon, shell fish and crab.

Sapporo has a population of around 2 million people and has its own food culture.

Sapporo Clock Tower

Sapporo Cowboy!

So being foodies, we made sure we sampled all the specialities of Sapporo. Sapporo style ramen made with miso is so popular that there will be an alley, street or an alcove in a department store where there are 6 to 8 ramen restaurants that all specialise in the ramen from different parts of Hokkaido.

Miso Ramen with Pork, Yum.

One of our favorite Japanese dishes, and very hard to find in Canada, is Okonomiyaki, a flour and cabbage type pancake. So we found a Okonomiyaki shop and ordered the Hiroshima style with soba noodles and egg. Although we had our own grill, the waitress took pity on us and cooked it. Delicious along with Suntory beer.   

I like they size of there beer!!

There is a rare speciality called Jingisukan (Ghengis Khan) that is lamb and cabbage that you barbecue on a grill which we enjoyed at a restaurant at the Sapporo beer museum. The Sapporo lager is legendary and the museum is in a beautiful old facility with an interesting history.

The Sapporo beer

The restaurant at the Beer Museum complex

The original Japanese person that started brewing beer in Sapporo studied in Germany to learn how to make a German style lager, he had been so impressed.

Grilling up a little lamb and veggies!

Sapporo, like other Asian cities, seems to center a lot of department stores and restaurants around the major train station. At Sapporo main station there are three major department stores, 8 floors plus the basement, plus all the underground walkways are full of shops.  We love the department stores with the basement food floor and the number of restaurants is mind blowing. Everything there is expensive but so perfect and the packaging is a bit excessive. When we went on our tram trip we did notice a few regular type grocery stores as I don't know how people could afford to shop at the food floors although they are packed. What an interesting society - the customs, traditions and everyone follows the rules. What drives me a bit crazy is NO ONE jay walks or starts to cross a street until the light changes. The lights are very long and before they turn green and there are NO CARS coming no one will make a step until it is green! 

Tomorrow we are off to the country side to visit an old friend, Natsumi, who lived with us for a year in Dawson Creek while she studied at the College.