Japan May 2008 Day 4

Day 4- 3 May 2008

This is one of the funniest days ever during the trip.. Haha.. Thinking about today still brings a smile to my face.. I'll explain why later..

We checked out of the hotel.. No one to wave us off this time because it's a business hotel.. Anyway, off to the seafood market from Hakodate to Sapporo we were.. The sea starting fogging like crazy on the way there..

Anyway, we saw a cemetery on the way there.. No pictures though because the bus travelled too fast.. Danny then told us that Japanese are buried standing up vertically when they die.. He told us that it was so tiring to be a Japanese as even after death, one still cannot have a rest lying down.. Quite sad eh?

Finally after almost 2 hours of driving, we reached the seafood market that had a huge bear and salmon on top of it.. The bear again is hand crafted..

This is actually a spinning dryer.. The locals clip the fishes on it and the spin dry the fishes.. Cool..

Look at all the crabs! They're so huge lah!

And this is the huge fish head.. It's even larger than my grandma's head.. Even the meat is huge..

The fish monger were holding up some live shellfish and scallops for us to buy.. Quite expensive as they were live and huge..

Look at this huge crab! Danny said we could all order the seafood from the market as an addition to our lunch.. This crab costs 13000 Yen in total.. Shared the costs and the crab with another tour member, Bao Ling & her mum.. So it costs us 6500 Yen each pair.. Still not cheap though.. 13000 Yen = SGD 175..

Some of the live seafood on sale that day.. All were like so huge and fresh lah.. But at the same time, it was too expensive so we all just settled on the crab..

So this is lunch.. Steamboat! My favourite! The soup was like so great lah! Forgot what flavour le but it was good good good! Bao Ling's mum brought some chilli padi along with the trip and she gave me some.. Hehe.. My life saver.. I was craving for it all the while..

And this is the ingredients.. The crab came complimentary.. Hairy Crab with lots of rou in it..

And this was the star of the day.. The live crab we brought from downstairs.. That's only half of it cos the other half was shared with Bao Ling & her mum.. It may look small here but it really took effort to eat it.. We're supposed to eat the pincers raw.. I couldn't bring myself to eat it and ended up cooking it instead.. Haha..


This is some type of BBQ service provided by the seafood market.. Much cheaper than live seafood..

I look like a crab cos I'm red too.. Haha..


The Sapporo Tower! I forgot how much it is to ride up liaoz.. But we didn't in the end cos it was not in the itinerary.. Just passed by it.. It was surrounded by a big park called Odori Park but again we passed it by..


We then proceeded on to the next attraction, Tokeidai or 时计台.. A clocktower from the past.. The wooden planks on the floor still creaked as we walk on them..

Say cheese! It's 2.58pm! Dunno what this pic was for anyway.. Haha.. Just to showcase a big clock..

Hehe.. This pic look so cute lah.. A modern kind of tricycle.. It fetches people for 5oo Yen I think.. And a horse carriage in the city.. Poor horse must be so scared out of its wits.. Imagine the cars going by honking and zooming here and there.. At least the weather was cool enough.. In New York, horse carriages are banned once the temperature reaches 32 degrees celsius..


The poor horse was so tired.. It was sleeping when the rider was loading people onto it.. However, at least it was healthy.. No obvious injuries.. You should watch Miami Animal Police.. They go to places where animals are mistreated.. You should see the horses.. Super horrible condition..

Ok.. I drew this map out because of some stupidly funny incident that happen while we were on our way around the place.. This is the thing that still makes me laugh up to now.. Lemme explain..

Danny wanted to bring us to visit some underground shopping place.. So from the clock tower, we crossed the streets up and right to reach the horse carriage (follow the red arrow)..

Shortly after we reached the horse carriage, the tour guide said he brought us the wrong way.. We laughed it off thinking that it was ok since we could take pictures with the horse but at the same time thinking, does he know the way? So we continued to walk down to the entrance (Yellow Circle) of the underground shopping..

Upon entering, we realised that the shops were all closed due to the fact that Japan was having their Golden Week (an entire week comprising of 5 PH).. What a bummer.. At that time, all the tour members were already laughing at our dumb luck of walking 1 big round only to find the shops closed..

Well, it was not yet the ultimate.. Danny then brought us up back to the surface only to realise the alternate entrance (Yellow Circle) was just right beside the clock tower! WTH.. Haha.. So we all walked one big circle thru the streets and down an entrance and up another one only to realise that it was just so near from our initial location.. (The green arrow) All the tour members cannot take it liaoz.. We all started laughing like mad people.. Some even could not move.. Just sat there and laugh laugh laugh.. Haha..

The craziest part was that we had a 72 year old auntie that had problems walking so she walked real slowly and in the end, the tour guide made her walk one big round as well.. You could see her daughter's face.. Black Black Black..

But the whole incident was really a good laugh.. Hahahahahahahahahaha..

Ok.. Next up was some shopping.. The first one was SEIBU.. It was something like Singapore's Takashimaya.. A lot of branded goods inside.. Our first stop was Burberry- Blue Label.. All the tour members were like huge fans of Burberry lah.. Didn't buy anything from there.. Not suitable for my age yet.. Hehe..

Stopped at a small cafe for some tea time snack.. My gosh.. Even teatime is expensive in Japan.. This whole thing costs us almost SGD25 lah.. But the cakes were like damn nice.. Hehe.. Totally worth it..

Saw these few Tokyo Disney Resort posters at the train station.. They were celebrating their 25th Anniversary! Yay! Of couse must take picture lah.. Haha..

After teatime, it was time for more shopping.. Found out another location called Loft beside Seibu.. Now that's more like my kind of place.. It's like your average Isetan or Metro in Singapore but lots of things to buy lah.. They even had a whole level allocated to Muji & Kinokuniya each..

Back to the bus.. It was quite a far journey and we almost got lost on our way back.. Worst still, the weather dipped to a scary 10.1 degrees celsius as you can see.. It was even colder than Genting.. And the wind was like frosty scary as well.. Blow and blow and blow..

Next up was to another shopping area.. We headed to Daiso or as people would call it- the 100 Yen shop and 狸小路.. The original Daiso makes the Singapore ones look like crap.. Seriously.. Theirs is 5 stories high and much cheaper than Singapore.. 100 Yen equals to about SGD$1.30.. We pay $0.70 for the same goods in Singapore lah.. Oh well.. The shipping fees goes to that..

狸小路 is a whole row of shopping district.. There are about 9 parts of the road in total.. Means a whole lot of shopping.. We only managed to go up to number 4 and it was time to head back to the bus for dinner..

Dinner! Ok.. As much as I love steamboat, it was too much in one day to have 2 lah.. You could see the look on all the tour members- utter sianness.. Worse still, this was Shabu Shabu meaning that the base was not soup but plain water.. Sian.. But my grandma asked for Chilli Powder so we added it into the water so it was a little better.. All the tour members followed us too.. Hehe..

They had freeflow of meat though.. Hehe.. All thinly cut up.. Perfect for steamboat or Shabu Shabu as they called it..

Next up was the main attraction of the day.. Live Abalones! It was extra expenses on our own.. We ordered one as well.. It costs 5,500 Yen each.. Equivilant to about SGD$70.. Whoa! The boss specially cooked them for us.. It was called the Dance of the Abalone as they were shifting here and there when being cooked.. Haha.. I took one bite of it and that was it for me.. If you know me well enough, I don't like abalone.. Haha.. No matter how nice it is..

Ok.. So this was our hotel for the night.. The Sapporo Grand Hotel.. Wow! The name makes it sound wow right? Well, the lobby and F&B facilities really impressed me and it also had a Starbucks in it.. However, the room was super duper tiny lah.. Even the other tour members agreed with me.. It was just like go in, walk straight and that's the end liaoz.. They even included in a lounge chair for I dunno what reason when we already couldn't walk about.. Geez..

Anyway, this is the 7-11 in Japan.. It's called Lawson.. Even though the night weather dipped to about 8 degrees, I wore slippers out of the hotel and regretted it.. Haha..

Okie.. This Day 4.. About 3 more days to come.. Hehe..