Shopping At Daimaru (Day 3)

Continuing from where I ended, it was 5pm when we reach our hotel. We dropped all the things that we bought in Otaru and headed back out to Sapporo City again. This time, we went to Sapporo's Stellar Place to do some shopping. After a tiring day visiting Otaru, my parents have decided not to work up on anything extreme for the rest of the night. Mom and dad went to GAP to get some baby clothes for little Marcus, leaving me wandering around looking for clothes for my dear.

I also managed to go to HMV to get some Japanese CD's as well as some concert DVD's. The place may looked big, but eventually there's nothing much that interests me on the inside. Local designer clothes most of it, a very large bookshop and the rest are pretty much the same (clothes for everyone, game shop, restaurants, etc).

After my parents got the stuffs that they wanted, they've decided to move over to the next store. Yes! 株式会社大丸 which also stands for Daimaru. Let me share a bit on Daimaru Inc. Daimaru operates as a chain of department stores that was originated from Kyoto back in April 16, 1920. This company are one of the top flight department stores alongside with Mitsukoshi, ISetan, Daiei, Seiyu, Sogo, Takashimaya and Marui. For the Sapporo branch (the one and only in the area) it is situated in the West Section of the Sapporo station. Opened in the year 2003, this department store houses 9 floors with almost 5 levels are dedicated for women's designer brands of clothes and cosmetics (women can find themselves in heaven here).

Most of the departmental stores in Japan does not allow pictures to be taken. Sorry to those ardent picture fans. At first, my dad suggests if we want to have our dinner at the top level of Daimaru, but after taking the effort of going up and taking a look, they have decided to just keep it simple... buy your own dinner at the Daimaru food department. The food department is HUGE and there's just so many stalls. Imagine KLCC's I-Setan food department... just that its 3 times bigger. Trying to order at the counter was extremely hard but the staffs are very friendly even though there are tonnes of customers around. We tried our best to point and speak with our limited Japanese and this is what we have gotten for ourselves after spoiling our eyes over lots of food.

First up, Japanese Pork Curry Katsu. The curry isn't that nice... a bit sticky and salty. Probably its because we don't have a microwave to reheat the curry.

Chicken Wings marinated in Soya Sauce... Steamed prawns sauteed in salt... and my favourite potato croquettes (I fancied to eat those every single day if possible, but its very hard to find it in Japan unless u went to department stores to get it, so this will be the one and only time I managed to get croquettes... *groans*).

Barbeque Chicken Thigh and also mom's favourite, Inigari Sushi.

Last but not least, Fried Ramen and also my Tuna Onigiri.

For dessert, I got myself a Starwberry Shortcake from Akai Ribon stall that was located in Daimaru food department. Now every confectionaries that you purchase in Japan are properly packed in away where it is presentable so that you can give it to someone or perhaps just for yourself. :-)

My dessert are being properly packed in a little box which holds a dry ice pack, a spoon and the cake.

The cream topping off with a huge sweet strawberry on top, layered with sponge cake and in between, vanilla cream that is mixed with strawberry pieces. Heavenly! I'm giving Akai Ribon's Strawberry Shortcake a rating of 8 out of 10. It costs around 500Yen each (mind me for forgetting the exact price) and it tastes extremely nice (do make sure you rinse your mouth before tasting the cake to taste the cream used. Hokkaido's fresh milk holds a major part of its ingredients used to make the cream and it does brings out a big difference in its taste).

As for tomorrow's plan are torn in between Minami-Chitose for some shopping or to go to Noboribetsu for some Hot Springs. All that will be revealed on the next blog posts the decision that I myself have been dying to get an answer upon.