We lugged our luggage to Toyoko Inn Kitaguchi (north exit), but the reservation desk lady couldn't find our reservation records. After verifying online I realised that we were supposed to go to the branch at Minamiguchi (south exit) instead. So it was another long walk. This time everything went smoothly until Grace suffered abrasion on her right arm when the chef accidently banged the kitchen door against her. After some profuse apologizing and a lot of "daijobu" from us, we left the hotel in search of food.
We went to Daimaru lvl 8 to scout around. There were plenty of restaurants offering seemingly delicious food but a tad pricey. We shortlisted a famous omolette rice restaurant with sets at about 1300~1500+ yen, and another western restaurant about the same price range. But after prancing about the entrance of "The Buffet" restaurant and taking a peek at the spread (and the snaking queue outside), we grudgingly decided (after much mental struggle) to settle for the second buffet in two days. The price was really attractive - 1420 per person, even less than our choice of restaurants. And the spread turned out to be really great, with whole sections dedicated to appetisers, pasta and pizza, maindishes, fried foods, salads, soups and desserts. And almost everything was surprisingly delicious. Grace was under a lot of stress as she was torn between the urge to eat more and the concern of getting fat, so she used plenty of S-word to express her anxiety as she gulped down plates and plates of "sickening"ly delicious food. We went for several rounds of the maindish and pasta section as the spagetti was really great (all 4 varieties) and the meat section offered generous amounts of beef, chicken, fish and sausages, which both of us carnivores adore. Even the icecream section was interesting - there were bubblegum flavor in blue color, chocolate flavor with plenty of choco chips, mango/jackfruit and the usual strawberry and vanilla. We totally adored the dessert section, and made our own special redbean-mochi-blueberry-yoghurt-almond-jelly-softcream, which turned out to be a heavenly combination. We left the restaurant satisfied and happy, and partially carb-overdosed (so we napped a while on the train to Otaru).
Great weather at Otaru too, and it was especially enjoyable to walk in the cool breeze down a stretch of road with good view. We went to the famous Otaru canal, a beautiful canal with a rich history and nice adjacent buildings. We also saw a huge crowd gathered near the entrance of a temple-like structure, and thought it was a special event or something; but it turned out to be a personal performance by a haggard-looking man who was soaked completely through by the time we arrived, apparently done with his performance. The crowds clapped but didn't seem to give too much money, and Grace dragged me away before my waves of sympathy could sweep my wallet away.
We went to the seaside to take pictures, but there was some structure further out in the sea to protect the shore from wave erosion, so the view was not fantastic. After getting some directions from the local tourist information officer, we went in search of the musicbox museums. It was a long walk but there were plenty of nice little buildings by the roadside, and we grabbed a three-flavored icecream waffle cone (rockmelon, lavender and vanilla) at 400yen. We both loved the rockmelon, the vanilla was better than the usual kind, but the lavender was a tad disappointing. It tastes fine, but more of honey than lavender, and quite sweet too. Pales in contrast with the rockmelon flavor.
Then it was the musicbox museum, the XXX Emporium (I can't really remember the exact name). It was flooded with Taiwanese and HK tourists, who aside from being loud, were also rather rude. Almost everyone of them picked up a music box off the display shelves, wound the knob and pressed the box to his/her ears, totally oblivious to the arrangement of the display items or the signs that read "please do not touch". The museum sounded more like a fishmarket. It was a pity because the museum was actually quite classy and tastefully decorated, with a myriad of music boxes that could easily sweep a girl off her feet. We didn't linger for too long, thanks to the tw/hk tourists, and went into the Antique museum instead, where ancient pieces of music boxes were on display. We narrowly missed the traditional music box performance, so we just took a walk around the museum. Some of them looked really creepy, as they were designed in the forms of dolls that resembled in those in horror films. And there was a group of cats playing instruments, but whose eyes appeared to follow you regardless of where you are, a fascinating yet hair-raising experience.
We grabbed some cheap groceries from a supermarket, and set off to the JR station. Minami-Otaru station was so small, old and run-down that we almost missed it. We went to catch the limited express train, and decided to hop down at Otaruchuko, where a outlet mall was located. Unfortunately, the mall directory didn't have any English, so we didn't really know what was available. We walked around aimlessly for a while, and both seemed to have lost our interest in shopping (there wasn't that much to begin with), until we saw "Right On" which had great bargains. Grace grabbed a cute cap for barely 300yen (usual price was 2400yen), and I grabbed a two-piece orange long-sleeve for 700yen. There was also fireworks that night by the sea, but Grace complained of fatigue and not having bathed for almost two days (we only wiped down on Cassiopeia as the showers would have costed us 1000 yen), and we went back to Sapporo.
Our shopping trip around Sapporo ESTA basement was a nightmare. Our beloved 95yen rum puffs were sold out, and our second favorite C-Cups were sold out too. Disheartened, we only got a 320yen small bento for Grace, who gets full easily and hungry easily too. After this rather miserable dinner, we drifted off to sleep.
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