Sapporo City Evening Visit (Day 2)

Saying hello again to my fellow readers. I guess that everyone must be all geared up to read my next entry on my visit to the city of Sapporo. Sapporo is the fifth-largest city in Japan by population. It is the capital of Hokkaidō Prefecture, located in Ishikari Subprefecture, and an ordinance-designated city of Japan. The weather on the day of arrival was gloomy, full of clouds and light rain. It's like putting a sprinkler around the garden kind of rain, unlike malaysia... the heavy torrential rain.

So after checking in to the hotel, we wasted no time and took the JR Hokkaido Chitose Line in Shin-Sapporo (H05) to Sapporo (01). The train ride will take about 5 minutes if you rode the Rapid Airport train or you can ride local train which will take up to 15 minutes (it stops at every single station along the way) just to get to the city.

The JR Sapporo Station is a huge building itself. However, the top layout of the train station lies the Sapporo JR Tower which consists of three sections: West, Center, and East. In the West section, Daimaru Sapporo branch store, the Center section consists of Sapporo Stellar Place, a shopping mall, and the Sapporo Cinema Frontier and on the East section consists of 38-storey Tower building (which consists of office and a hotel). As we walked out of the station heading towards the heart of the city of Sapporo, I was instantly "wow-ed!", so this is Japan! (if you think this is nice, wait till you see what Tokyo has in store).

As we are walking towards the all time famous Susukino Crossing, we had to stop a few places along the way. First up was the Sapporo Clock Tower, located at North 1 West 2, Chuo-Ku. This little tower was built back in 1878 and now houses a museum inside.

Next up was the Sapporo TV Tower which is located at Odori Park. The TV Tower, is 147.2 metre high TV Tower which was built in the year 1957 and as for the big digital clock... which was installed in the year 1961. Odori Park are being divided into the 13 blocks, ranges from Nishi 1 chōme to Nishi 13 chōme.

From there, I also passed through the Tanuki Koji Shopping Arcade is the oldest shopping mall in the City. The shopping arcade extends 1km long and has 7 blocks (West 1 block to West block 7).

Inside, you will definitely find a lot of stuffs, from pharmacies to restaurants, from shoes to T-shirts.

At the East end of the Tanuki Koji Shopping Arcade, it's where the Nijo Fish Market lies. There, you can see fresh fish that was caught from the Pacific Ocean being sold here. However, by the time I reach there, the fish market has already closed its doors. Much to my disappointment, I only managed to grab a picture of a statue where it was pronounced that this statue eventually brings plenty of luck to the fish sellers there.

The clock shows 7pm and dad decides that we should have some sashimi and sushi for dinner on that night. I am all in for it as it's my first time eating out Japanese food in Japan. So he blindly choose a restaurant nearby the Nijo Fish Market and the display seems to catch his eyes and we head on in. However, when it comes to ordering, we have no idea how to speak Japanese so dad took action by asking the waitress lady who speaks absolutely no English to go out with him so that he can point out the dishes that was seen displayed at the entrance.

Orders came... first up, the Kakikage.

The Tamagoyaki (Japanese Style Omelette).

A plate full of Sushi and Sashimi (various choices of raw fishes, squid, and prawns). Note: If you can't handle raw stuff, do refrain yourself from Sashimi. I had a little encounter with the raw prawn where it sticks in mouth and it took me more than 5 minutes to swallow every single part of it. GROSS!!!

Grilled King Crabs which was my dad's favourite.

And of course, grill yourself a Scallop. Yeah! They brought out the entire little BBQ pit for you to grill your own Scallop right on your table.

And to top it off, some form of Japanese beancurd soup, which really helps me to digest all the food that was ordered after meal. The total damage is around 13,000 Yen for that night alone. I find the prices rather reasonable for the food that we ate, for which it will be much more expensive if it's eaten in Malaysia itself. After meal, we head back out to the cold & wet weather and continue our walk.

Finally, the big finale. We reached Susukino Crossing. Susukino Crossing is located between Nishi 3 chome, Minami 4 and Nishi 4 chome, Minami 4. Susukino is famous because it is one of the major red-light districts in Japan.

The district is filled with many restaurants, bars, hotels, shopping places and adult entertainment establishments (I didn't manage to glimpse at anything because I was busy taking pictures of the neon lights). You can see why it has been a glamorous night spot of Sapporo City.

Before heading back to the Sapporo train station, I managed to take a few pictures to end the rest of the journey around Sapporo City area for your enjoyment. Have a lovely weekends everyone as there's more story to tell on my next blog entry.