From Takino Park, we continue our drive to Jozankei onsen town.
But we make a few pit stops along the way. 1st stop was at Makomanai Takino Cementery. There are this row of huge Moai replica near the entrance. The area was still under construction when we were there. Apparently there are many other famous replicas in there, we just drive slowly 1 round in the area. You can read more about the place here: https://hokkaidoguide.com/makomanai-takino-cemetery/
Cold wind blowing on a sunny day.
2nd stop is the Pink Moss garden. We saw this area with lots of Pink Moss, Shibazakura flower, just by the road side. Apa lagi, wajib la singgah sekejap tangkap gambar kan. The perks of self-driving.
On Day 2 of our trip in Hokkaido, we rent a car to go outside of the city. Our 1st destination for the day is Takino Suzuran Hillside Park.
Takino Suzuran Hillside National Government Park is the only national government park in Hokkaido. Within the 400-hectare grounds, there’s a colorful flower garden, large playground equipment, three waterfalls, and a forest that’s perfect for a stroll.
We only visited the flower garden.
Opening hour:
April 20 - May 31, September 1 - November 10: 9:00 - 17:00
June 1 - August 31: 9:00 - 18:00
December 23 - March 31: 9:00 - 16:00
Fee: Adults (15 years old and over) ¥410, Under 15 years old are free, Senior (65 and over) ¥210
Nothing much to say, we just enjoy the view and the fresh air there, very relaxing and refreshing.
The entrance and ticketing booth, buy your tickets from the 4 machines on the right side.
After resting in the room for a few hours, we went out for dinner and sightseeing.
Our destination is to Susukino area. Susukino is a red-light district in Sapporo. There were so many restaurants around the area and many people too. Not sure what and where to eat, we just walked around. Then suddenly we saw this one familiar restaurant, Gyoza No Osho. We used to dine at their branches in Kyoto and Osaka. So we went inside, there was a short queue, we waited for a while for our table.
Sadly we could not find our favourite mushroom and pork dish on the menu. Maybe the mushroom dish only available during Autumn. Nonetheless, we had a good meal of ramen, egg rice, fried chicken and gyoza.
After dinner, we continued browsing around the area before we call it a day.
The Sapporo Streetcar (札幌市電, Sapporo shiden)
Sapporo city tram, mesti mok tangkap gambar ni.
That’s how we spent our Day 1 in Sapporo. Sweet memories indeed.
From The Former Hokkaido Government Office, we continued our walk to Odori Park. The weather was so good, at 15 degrees, cool breeze blowing to your face. We just seat there for about an hour enjoying the views and fantastic weather. ohh I really miss those moments.
There are many benches provided around the park. I imagine sitting there with a book in my hand, and maybe a cup of good hot white coffee, I am sure I can stay there for hours. For now, let just paint that image in my head.
Japanese school uniform
Flowers every way.
After Odori Park, we walked to the Clock Tower, took some photos, and went back to the hotel for checkin.
We reach Sapporo early in the morning on 29th May 2019.
After leaving our luggage at the Nest Hotel Sapporo Ekimae's lobby, we immediately start off our seeing around the city on foot.
1st destination to The Former Hokkaido Government Office. On the way, we stop by for our early lunch at the House mall, it is a small size mall cum office building. Most of the people having lunch there are office workers. The restaurant, Teishuko Style, is located on the lower ground floor of the Mall.
We had a Grilled Salted Mackerel rice set, Fried Pork Loin rice set, and 2 Fried Chicken sets.
Lunch was good, and we continue our journey to our next stop.
Since we are not able to travel at the moment, let just relive our memories through previous traveling photos.
I am going to post my past traveling photos which I didn’t get the time and energy to do so before.
Ok, back to the grilled pork rice story. On our last night in Sapporo, on 2nd June 2019 to be exact, we went out to look for a dinner place, we wanted something special, partly of coz is to close our holiday and partly to finish up our Japanese Yen.
So we took a stroll to Sapporo Station, we know that there many high-end restaurants there.
We thought of having a good local beef meal, or maybe some Kaiseki. During our holidays in Osaka, we ended our last meal with a great beef meal.
After strolling around in the mall, we saw there’s 1 particular restaurant that had a long queue outside, and the smell that coming out of that restaurant was really good. We went to see the menu and decided to put our name on the waiting list.
Ez vina was here.
They do provide chairs for customers waiting outside.
After waiting for about an hour, we finally got our turn. Took our seats the browse through the menu. I like the customizable menu. Make our order and we waited for about 10 minutes for our food to arrive.
So good.
This shop only offers grilled pork on the menu. They are using charcoal to grill the pork. The pork they use is domestically raised in Hokkaido primarily, and 100% of the rice they use is also from Hokkaido.
The restaurant is located on the sixth floor of Stellar Place Center, directly connected to JR Sapporo Station and Sapporo subway station.
They are using a hairdryer to blow the charcoal fire. Very creative.
I finally went to try this halal Japanese Ramen restaurant in Padungan area, Kuching. We have heard so much good reviews on this always packed restaurant. We went there a few times at around 10-11am before but there's always a long queue outside the shop, so we had to change our plan and went to other places.
Finally, last December, we went to try our luck again. We make sure we arrived early. Reach there at 9:15am, there's already queue outside, but not too long, waited for about 10 minutes and it was our turn to get into the restaurant.
Service was fast, as not many seats available in the restaurant. We ordered Gyuniku Shoyu Ramen (Beef Ramen), steam rice water cake and a refreshing lemon drinks.
The steam rice cake was ok, the drinks were really good.
So here's the long wanted Beef Ramen, the broth are dark brown in color and the noodle looks a bit too thick.
Honestly, I am a bit disappointed with the ramen It tastes more like a beef stew with noodle added to it. The broth is too thick to my liking with lots of herbs and spices taste. No, I don't mean that it is spicy. I would prefer a clear soup base with lots of flavor from the bones, not from the meat. If you know what I mean?
Well, maybe my expectation is a bit different from the rest. I have tried many various types of Japanese ramen, locally, in Singapore, and in Japan. I have never tasted anything similar to this. But then of coz, I have not tried all the different variants, maybe this is authentic to certain places or groups in Japan. If anyone knows, do let me know.
I am not saying that it is bad, I am sure many people love it, as you can see from the long queue daily. I am just saying that this is not my cup of tea.
Price:
Steamed rice water cakes RM1.10 each
Gyuniku Shoyu Ramen - Superior Beef Broth, slow Braised Australian Beef, Vegetable of the Day (long beans). Mayu. RM16.90
