Part III - Sapporo Day 1 {Travelogue}

[Link to Part II]

I love going to new places. I am super thrilled that we ended up going to Sapporo and not doing the same ol' thing that everyone else does. Everything about Sapporo just seemed perfect for all of us. We all love seafood (Hokkaido is known for their crabs, scallops, and uni), we all love ice cream (Hokkaido is known for their cows/beef, milk, cream, and butter), at least two of us love beer (Sapporo is the oldest brewery in Japan), and it's Japan! What's not to love? 

Upon much research based on price and location, I went with the Hotel Monterey Sapporo (ホテル モントレ 札幌). It's a short walk from the Sapporo JR station and was reasonably priced, which would have been nicer if it hadn't snowed so much during our trip. Normally in Sapporo, the snow doesn't fall until later on in the winter season. We were there early December, so it should have been either sunny or rainy. Instead, we were treated to full on winter weather. I was actually pretty excited about that as I had not seen real snow like that in YEARS (it snowed two feet overnight). Pros - made the city beautiful. Cons - difficult to walk and made it pretty cold (which I was ok with since I overheat easily, but not all of my companions were ok with it). 

Each person had their own sleepwear. The only thing missing was the Scrooge hat! Sadly, we were having too much fun and forgot to take a group picture wearing our pajamas.

In the maze that is the behemoth Sapporo JR Station is a Mister Donut. The winter special had cream filled Snoopy heads. We didn't know. My friend did the research by getting it all over her mouth.

The first thing we did after checking in and dumping our stuff of at the hotel was head over to the Sapporo Brewery. Reservations are recommended if you plan on having the Genghis Khan BBQ. Also note that there is a time limit. If you can eat a lot and enjoy (or don't know yet that you do enjoy) lamb, this is a good option. I had Daruma bookmarked, but this way, all in one location, we were able to taste some Sapporo beers, eat Genghis Khan BBQ, and check out the beer museum. I was honestly even happy just being outside. It finally felt like Christmas to me, a feeling I hadn't had in a solid twenty years. The snow, the lights, and the gigantic tannenbaum. It just felt like the beginning of something magical.

After touring around the museum, we made our way to the beer. We had about half an hour to kill before our dinner reservations at that point, so we figured why not? The tasting that I did cost about 9-10USD and came with three decently sized beers to try:

Black label, classic, and kaitakushi beer. The classic is what pretty much everyone has access to outside of the brewery. I have seen the black label around also, but it's not my favorite. The kaitakushi was a pilsner and I found it quit pleasant and flavorful for a pils. 

After the beer, of course it was time for some food.

Funnily enough, not everyone in my group noticed that the steel grill was made to be in the shape of Hokkaido. The grill itself is supposed to be shaped like a Mongolian's helmet, which is what they were purported to using to cook their mutton, and now it's a thing in Hokkaido.

Our first round, they brought out butter for the grill, frozen lamb and fresh lamb, some kabocha, bean sprouts, and cabbage. There is an option to do all you can drink, but my thinking was that I wanted more space for food. It goes so well together though, that it wouldn't have made a difference. The next time I go, I will get the all you can eat and drink combo.

We were instructed that butter goes first, then veggies, then the meat. This way, the meat cooks down and the veggies get that delicious meaty flavor (not to mention butter!).

Once we finished our 90 minutes of meat and beer, we thought it would be time for some ice cream. Back in the main city area of Sapporo, we found the famous intersection that has the Nikka Whiskey signage. I may have been the only one to care, but that's neither here nor there. 

I had Milk Village (アイスクリームBar HOKKAIDOミルク村) saved, so we thought it would be a good place to start. What I didn't know, and didn't find in my research prior to going, was that space is very limited, and you can't just order ice cream. We were given some cushions and told to wait in the stairwell. Yes, the stairwell. It looked like we were on time out. We didn't feel like going anywhere else because we were so tired from our long day of traveling so we waited patiently. When it was finally our turn, we gave the cushions over to the next group who had to wait and went into the dark and cozy shop.

(Side note - smoking is allowed indoors in most locations so bring a facemask if you don't want to blacken your lungs for someone else's enjoyment!)

We tried ordering just ice cream, but were instructed that we had to get the sets. Each set comes with ice cream and your choice of alcohol topping. None of us really wanted any with our ice cream, but we discovered that if you pick more expensive liquors, you can "waste" your picks. With the four of us, we would have had to pick 4-8 each depending on our sets, but since we went with Blantons, Strathclyde 31 year old whiskey, Ballentine's 30 year old whiskey, and Louis XIII cognac; we were able to eliminate many of the other options. Of which there are many. Pages and pages. 

Strathclyde 31 year old whiskey with a tiny spoon to dab it on your ice cream for flavor.

Louis XIII

Ballentine's 30 year old scotch

Blanton's. Had to find out what the fuss was about in John Wick!

With everything laid out in front of us - we really just enjoyed the ice cream. Neat note - when you finish your cup of ice cream, you can get one free refill!

My set came with a coffee in this tiny bear head cup.

Some sets come with cookies. I liked the weird little snowman.

It really was super dark in here. And noisy. I think people were able to get drunk off of their 1oz of liquor or something!

Well, that's it for this "brief" part one of my Sapporo adventure! Stay tuned for the SEAFOOD portion in Part IV!