DiStar Wears The Rose: Chapter 13 - Sapporo (Northern Japan)

Sapporo City: Tuesday 8, Friday 11 - Monday 14 October 2019.

Post writing disclaimer: this one is mostly about what I have been eating, sorry about that to any hungry readers waiting for lunchtime!

I love the city of Sapporo! Ol' Typhoon Hagibis meant we had to pitch up longer than planned in northern Japan, missing out on spending my final days in Tokyo.
But that's ok as Tokyo to me was just an anonymous, shapeless metropolis that didn't really warm me ol' cold heart. I missed out on some crucial Tokyo sightseeing like err, some gardens and a palace, but I think I have had such a great time seeing similar things in Japan's other cities. I will do some last minute shopping in Tokyo, before heading to the airport to fly to Singapore.

So on to Sapporo! We spent one night in the city before travelling to the mountains for two days (see: Chapter 12). That first night I dumped my bags and headed out to eat on my own. I wandered around the Susikino area, but Sapporo isn't that huge, so all of it's eating, nightlife and shopping is pretty much on top of each other. Not long after I hit the streets I passed a Mexican bolt hole, a tiny restaurant full to the brim. I am a sucker for Mexican food so I didn't even made a conscious decision, I knew I would be eating there. I went for a walk, had a Tom Collins in a bar, and looped back to the Mexican place called "Viva Mexico". I had the best tacos (shrimp) I have ever eaten outside of Mexico (and I have barely been to Mexico!). Over margaritas and tequila I made some new friends, and experienced how it is always possible to communicate, even if you don't speak each other's languages.

A couple of days later we were back in Sapporo but this time knowing we were going to stay an extra two nights to avoid Typhoon Hagibis down in Tokyo. We visited a sake museum with the hope we may learn something about sake and taste it. But that wasn't so successful other than it sold sake flavoured soft scoop ice-cream, so we tried that. We headed to the rope way in Sapporo.

Advertised as 'one of three most beautiful nightscapes in Japan', and given how we enjoy a good cable car experience, we went to Mt Moiwa, which is located south of Sapporo city. The city is surrounded by mountains or the coast. The ropeways consisted of a cable car and then a funicular to get to the summit. We ascended at night to 531m, so the city was lit up with the orange glow from sodium lamps while the surrounding mountains and water created blackout spots. It would have been quite eerie if it hadn't been so busy! On our descent, I kept feeling like the car was going to plummet due to my experience earlier in the week riding rollercoasters (gulp)!

After the mountain, we went in search of some British food. We had casseroles, bangers and mash, gravy, pies on our mind - and didn't find it (I am still craving mash and gravy with sausages). We did find an Irish / American sports bar, where we watched the Australia v Georgia match. A lot of smoking goes on in pubs / bars / restaurants here, despite not being allowed to smoke on the streets (there are special designated smoking areas on the streets), it gets quite annoying especially because the smoke feels more acrid than I remember it being back in the UK days of smoking indoors. Just a little irritation I feel in Japan!

Fried spaghetti snack, weird but good.

My teeth started to hurt after a while.

Paul and I have been saying how we need to be adventurous and not keep going to pubs, and that instead we need to go into the bars that are in the upper stories of buildings. So we tried to do that but kept walking into brothels*! Turns out we had picked the red light area to try this out in 😂.

*Not really brothels, but bars where 'entertainment' is provided by women to patrons. It is the oldest profession in the world, who am I to judge it! I do wonder if they are unionised in Japan and protected, as it is hard to think that women would be disrespected in Japan when everyone is so polite. All the bowing, gentleness and kindness is probably a great big facade!

The following night I did go to bar in the upper stories of a building, ten stories to be exact. So I achieved my goal. I drank this 'Coriander Black' beer which is brewed locally in Sapporo. It wasn't as good as the coriander seeds I love to eat but it had an unusual, not unlikeable, flavour to it!

Sapporo is a big brewing city, with lots of craft beer popups too. It is also a winter / ski season city, and within a few weeks it will get busy as the skiers / snowboarder arrive, including many from Australia and New Zealand.
What I really like about my time in Sapporo is that I have barely seen more than five Westerners out here, and this has really immersed me into making Japanese connections out here.

In fact, I popped into another restaurant my new Sapporo friend Kazuhiro owns - Always Hawaii. I ate the best battered fish (mahi-mahi) on this side of the Pacific. Sitting at the bar in that restaurant, and being introduced to Kazu's regular patrons, made me feel like part of a community. It was awesome.
The locals continue to be excited by my participation in the Rugby World Cup. I whipped out the Eddie Jones and me photo again and it caused a bit of a hoo-ha of excitement.

During the day I had found my happy place, aka my happy pancake place, at 'A Happy Pancake'. It is the same chain as in Osaka, this time I ate the special edition pumpkin pancakes.

Then, the next day, I went back to eat the cream cheese and blackberry compote pancakes. I cannot get enough of these bad boys!! Souffle pancakes, made to order and cooked to perfection.

I also took a day trip / afternoon trip outside of Sapporo to the town of Otaru. I thought Otaru may be the equivalent of a British seaside town based on the marketing leaflets, but it was mostly just the equivalent of Grimsby (not a diss to my Grimsby peeps, you know I love it up there!) Otaru had a good sake store listed on Google so I walked there and finally got to sample some sake to understand why it is I like some sake over other types of sake. Turns out I have expensive tastes because the more expensive sake (meaning the rice has been polished for longer, meaning the end result is smoother) is my preferred sake (jyunmai ginjyo sake). I also sampled plum wine, which everyone knows is just delicious (oiishi)!

Disused rail line in Otaru and the Sea of Japan

Japan v Scotland was on for my last night in Sapporo, also marking the last match of the pool stages for the tournament. It was a crunch match, and we pitched up in a Japanese bar (not an Irish one, finally!) to support the Blossoms. It was such a thrilling match and the atmosphere was electric, the Japanese supporters are entertainment in their own right for their gasps, squeals and excitement. I was watching the last few minutes through my hands and quite short of breath. But alas, Japan beat Scotland and all was right in the world.

Japan v Scotland Bar - 'Rugby Bar Sapporo'

The tournament now moves onto the knockout stages, with four matches to be held next Saturday and Sunday. England v Australia, New Zealand v Ireland, Wales v France and Japan v South Africa. I will be in Singapore, watching on near enough local time, sweating (and likely, swearing) it out in equitorial heat.

Speaking of climate change, I was on Typhoon Hagibis watch all weekend and this image caught my attention. Doesn't she look sweet and innocent from this angle?