Japan Hokkaido - 18 May 2015 (Day 2)

Mornings are usually spent on charging of devices, a cup of coffee and a hot water shower. Day 2 was planned to be free and easy, and to explore the sights of Sapporo and its nearby touristy spots. Walking half-day tour, if you may. The target was to do at least 10,000 steps per day.

wifi router rented from Changi Recommends

The weather was good. Bright and sunny, with a nice blue sky. Headed towards Sapporo station underground and just followed the signs. Surface up to view the interesting buildings.

Former Hokkaido Government Office Building

nice line of trees

Clock Tower

It was lunch time, and was thinking of what to eat. Just continued walking and ended up at the TV Tower.

TV Tower

There's a beer garden there with nice aroma from the sizzling pan. Took some pictures and wondered if I should go up the tower. There's a western restaurant at the TV Tower and the lunch set was quite tempting. There's also a souvenir shop, so convenient.

Tawakkie or also known as Terebi-Tōsan てれびとさ - mascot of TV Tower

Walked the around the area and found a stall that sells corn. Since most travel blogs say that corn is one of the must-eats, so I got one roasted corn. The lady was asking me something but I couldn't understand. Ended up with shoyu corn. She was probably asking me the flavour that I wanted? Either way, managed to get one hot piping corn. She even stuck a toothpick onto the plastic bag, and gestured that it is to clean the teeth after eating. =)

corn - one of the must-eats in Hokkaido

shoyu roasted corn @¥300

Was hungry, so sat down at one of the benches at the park nearby. The corn was sweet, and nice but a tad softer than I imagined.

After that, headed to Odori Park and there were more stalls selling corn and ice-cream.

Odori Park and TV Tower

Quite a number of people at the park, just sitting around and enjoying the weather. Lots of elderly folks too. I sat along with them, and watched. There was a film crew walking around, probably looking for people to interview.

Finding targets to interview

statue of the poet Takuboku Ishikawa - he has a main-belt asteroid named in his honor (4672 Takuboku)

pink flower tree

After spending some time up in the surface and absorbed enough sunshine, headed back down to the underground.

Passed by some amazing looking shops such as Ishiya Cafe, Sapporo Sweets, Ginza Lion Beer Hall but decided not to dine there. -_-''' Kinda regretted it, on hindsight. Could've just ordered steak and beer!

Explored Pole Town and Aurora, and somehow ended up in Susukino. Great! Now I can look for my Ebiten Bunten and Ramen Alley.

Didn't check beforehand, the location of those two places but knew it should be nearby Susukino Station.

at Susukino

nice view

Unfortunately, took me quite a while to look for Ramen Alley. Or wait, was it the Ramen Alley? It was kind of small, but it did have a few ramen shops with signs outside its shop stating which TV station had visited before. The time then was 2.30pm and I guessed it was way passed lunch time. No other customers except one shop with a lone diner. Hmm, decided against it as the weather was hot and not in the mood for ramen.

Walked somemore and finally found Ebiten but it was having its mid-day break. Ok, ended up at Sushizanmai instead. It was rather late by then. Read about the experience here.

After that, to Tanukikoji Shopping Alley also known as 狸小路. A straight line of shops and eateries.

Tanukikoji

shopping time

restaurants

with a skull, scary!

There's also a place that sells owl taiyaki and one could sit in-front of that shop to view some owls perched indoors. Cute.

owl available

Went into one shop that sells groceries and bought some stuffs. There's also drugstores in Tanukikoji, so went in to grab some facial cleansers and moisturizers. Definitely cheaper here than back home.

drug and cosmetic

ferocious bears guarding the shop?

cross the road for more shopping

At one end, there's Nijo Market nearby. It was already late so most shops in Nijo had closed for the day.

outside of Nijo Market

Ended up without lunching, and headed back to the hotel with tired feet. Walked more than 20,000 steps that day. Probably 5000 steps was due to being lost somewhere at some point in time.

Dinner was packed food from the department hall.