The train ride to Sapporo from Morioka’s station was about 6 hours long and the first thing on my mind was to ask random locals what was good to do in Sapporo.
Errr did I mention that I did not do any research on what to do in Sapporo?
Yeah, I figured it was a top spot to go to and all else would be an adventure of discovering what to do.
My rough plan for my time in the Hokkaido region was to try out some spectacular sushi and snowboard lessons in Niseko, everything else would figure itself out.
As soon as I dropped my bags in my hotel room, I hit the streets in search of Sapporo’s beer museum for some tastings, my first tip from a local. I walked 45 minutes to this place, only to find that is was closed for reconstruction. Yeh!
Serious hunger was catching me at this point, so I caught a bus back to the city in search of Sapporo’s famous miso ramen and what I got was this:
Many times, people tend to fail at getting the perfect balance of a peppery dish right. I do not believe many people order the *hot variation of the miso ramen, so that may be why he felt the need to ‘impress’ me by trying to sear my tongue off. The pepper was so much that I could not taste the actual dish. This was a big fail in my opinion.
I love my food hot and spicy, and the best kind is when the flavour is so rich that an extra kick of pepper takes it right to the edge without going overboard. The dish ignored flavour and did a marathon into a sea of pepper.
Out of anger, I finished the food because he kept teasing me that it may be too spicy for me. I have issues.
After my late lunch, I decided to walk around Sapporo for the sights and a bit of exercise post meal.
Met some tourists that suggested I check out a bar that catered to expats, and that was where I met 3 English teachers living in Japan.
One of them, a brit, who was pretty much a local and seemed to like random dodgy places. The other two came from a different town for a couple of nights in Sapporo and were just like me, but could speak Japanese fluently. All four of us decided to check out Sapporo’s night life and…
The pictures are pretty tame because I did not want anyone’s problem. There were quite a number of strip clubs and places called Kyabakura where a woman sits on you and some petting action takes place. There was so much information to process that my camera would have gotten into the way of taking in the most random of experiences.
We ended up at ALife club, it was 2 in the morning and after taking in different sights of Sapporo, it was time to call it a night/morning and find my way back to my hotel. The party life is definitely not my cup of tea, but it was a nice change of pace.
Thanks to my tour guide for the night, I got to see the unexpected Amsterdam flavor in Sapporo.
My second day in Sapporo was dedicated to day trips; Otaru and Yoichi – separate post.
In the evening, I decided to try out the local beef, Wagyu
After a not so satisfying dinner, I decided to give miso ramen another try by asking someone else for their favorite miso ramen place to eat at. Of course people had to be queuing to get in, it took 30 minutes wait time to get in.
This was an upgrade from my first try the day before. This time around, I added pepper to it myself and I got the balance I needed.
The next morning marked a near end to my time in Japan; off to the last overnight stay before heading back to Nigeria. But before heading out, I had to try out the Sapporo’s popular uni. And boy did I get into it
With the last lick, I got my backpack on and headed off to Niseko for a whole different sort of adventure.
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