TacoCat’s Travels #171 (Japan 9.0 - Hokkaido): A Cloudy Panoramic View of Sapporo! 🗼

Hey Hive!

So if you missed the last couple of posts, we started recounting our final journey to Japan back in July 2019 when we decided to explore a new region and see Hokkaido in summer (since everywhere else in Japan is really hot during that period)!

Last week, we arrived in Sapporo after a pretty long train ride yet again, and checked into our Airbnb before exploring a little bit of the city and the huge mall at the station!

5 July 2019. Friday.

We didn't really have a plan for today other than exploring more of Sapporo and seeing what the massive city had to offer! So the MEGA Donki we briefly visited the previous day was right here at this huge intersection not from our apartment.

There were quite a few interesting buildings we passed as we looked for a late lunch to start off our day. Like this building with Santa climbing with the help of some dwarves? It looked like a commercial building though so I'm not sure what Santa was doing.

We also passed this little cutie walking on the street on the way to finding lunch!

We were getting hungry and came across this interesting looking ramen restaurant so we decided to try it! It did look pretty fancy but I don't think this was part of a chain or franchise. The tables were these huge slabs of wood and everything looked pretty natural.

We sat at this counter in the middle of the restaurant next to these huge flower volcanoes!

Seany ordered this dry ramen where you had to dip the ramen into the accompanying broth that was very rich and thick.

I opted for something a little more spicy I think it was a spicy tantanmen; one of their few spicy options. And it definitely did look spicy with how red the soup was!

I'm normally not a huge fan of tantanmen since it tastes kinda meh to me, but the soup was actually really good! It was spicy but very tasty!

After we had our fill we left the restaurant and went out into this shotengai to explore!

And we actually found a Calbee shop with a ton of different Calbee products including our favourite potato chips!

Calbee is a snack brand and definitely one of our favourite brands of chips so we were pretty excited to see a whole Calbee store!

They even had a SUPER BIG BAG which I was so tempted to buy but we didn't want to be carrying it all day long so we left it for now.

But this nori flavoured chips is actually a lot different compared to the seaweed flavour we get here in Singapore. There's some extra salty and roasted sesame oil flavour there that gives it an extra something that makes it so delicious!

They surprisingly had a dessert bar at the back of the store too where they had these huge ice cream cones! So we decided to try it since we weren't getting any other snacks, and I needed something to cool my tongue from the spicy ramen.

Turns out they also had an Ikinari Steak here! Although that shouldn't be so surprising since Sapporo is a huge city but it's nice to find another one of our favourite restaurants near us!

It was actually pretty nice and cooling weather today despite it looking kinda gloomy. But at least it wasn't too warm since the sun was hidden.

Turns out there was some festival going on at the local park! At first we thought they would have some lemon drinks out for sale or something but nope, sadly.

I have no idea what was going on but there was a bunch of reporters standing around and police or something so we hurriedly walked past.

And we found ourselves in another mall where there was this mannequin we spotted wearing the same type of shirt as Sean! 

Then we visited one of the biggest UNIQLOs we've been to since Ginza!

They were promoting their special Super Mario line of UT shirts but most of the designs were kinda meh imo.

The store itself was pretty big and wide though; way bigger than any in Singapore that's for sure!

The building had a roof garden so we took the lift up to go and see it! It wasn't anything big and spectacular but it was nice and had these chairs you could relax on.

We were thankful the weather was nice that day because it got kinda cold up there when the wind came. But at least it wasn't hot.

After taking in the view we went back down and found a small arcade in the mall! It was a pretty simple one but they had this huuuge and creepy Thomas and Friends store right next to it.

After that we went to visit the JR Tower Observation Deck called T38! Actually the building we were in might've been the JR Tower this whole time but I can't be sure. Anyway, we're always a fan of visiting tall buildings and skyscrapers in cities so we had to check this off the list too!

I'm not sure what Sean was doing but just seeing this huge empty floor made him want to run around I guess? 😆

It was getting kinda late though and we weren't sure if they were still open, but if they were it would enable us to see the sunset so we went to check it out and get tickets!

The lobby had this whole board of all the famous tall buildings in the world with the T38 for comparison:

They also had a scale model of it made of LEGO!

Thankfully they were indeed still open, so after we bought our tickets we headed up to the observation deck!

I'm not sure why they had this map on the elevator up or what it means really but it's cool that they compared Sapporo to Paris?

The light at the top was actually more than just a light it was a compass!

The moment we stepped out of the elevator we were greeted by this awesome view!

There was also some general information about Sapporo and its geography on the walls.

But the view was just amazing! It truly was a concrete jungle for sure with barely any trees though.

There was also these very helpful labels on top of these warehouses just for the observation deck I think! How ingenious!

It definitely was a real sight to behold! I think we were a tad early for the sunset though, although it was a little hard to see the sun with all this cloud cover.

But we still had a good time enjoying the view and taking lots of pics!

In fact the entire observation deck was practically empty! It was so silent and peaceful up there it felt like just the two of us.

We were playing around with some filters on our phone camera and ended up with some pretty decent shots!

Of course there was also a gift shop with various merchandise.

And a pretty fancy looking cafe with plenty of seats! We had to buy an item each to sit so we did.

There was even a grand piano at the cafe! It must be nice to have a live piano player here and listen to some nice music while enjoying the view.

There were quite a few other people here at the cafe so it was a bit more lively. I guess everyone's just waiting for the sunset or the city lights to come on for the night.

We ordered a cake and drink each, which was kinda pricey but they didn't allow us to just share a set unfortunately.

But it was worth it just to be able to enjoy the view. Sean got a melon soda with a cheesecake.

While I got a mango cake with some raspberry layer and an iced lemon tea.

To be honest, the cakes were kinda meh. Nothing special and I'd rather have a cream puff from Beard Papa or something but we got to enjoy the nice view comfortably as the lights turned on so not a total loss.

Unfortunately the sun was nowhere in sight of the whole city, but it was setting pretty quickly and soon the lights started to turn on!

It always feels so different seeing the view at night. Like a whole other side of the city is waking up.

Although we couldn't enjoy a beautiful sunset, the view was still spectacular and we had a nice relaxing time in the observatory!

I think a lot of people would get bored of seeing so a city like this but I don't think I'll ever get bored. There's just something about seeing a vast city like this stretch on for miles and thinking how much people have accomplished building everything. What a marvel.

Thanks so much for reading! Tune in next week for another very special outing!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #170 (Japan 9.0 - Hokkaido): Visiting the Eiffel Tower in Sapporo? 🗼

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