Part V - Sapporo Day 3 {Travelogue} - Sapporo Seafood Market, Clocktower, Nanda Seafood Buffet, Sapporo Shrine

[Link to Part IV - Otaru]

I thought that four days would be plenty in Sapporo, but with our flight back being canceled and us being put on an earlier flight, we were cut down to three days and one morning. So, for our final day, we stayed in the Sapporo area. We started our morning by traversing through the 2-3 feet of snow that fell overnight to the JR station to wait for the shuttle that would take us to the seafood market. One quick ride and we arrived! Again, we were overwhelmed with how much there was. This market was bigger than the one in Otaru, too.

Crabs for days!

Scallops, scallops everywhere!

I think next time I will buy one of these to eat by myself.

Kegani - horsehair crab. Very stabby if you touch it with your bare hands. When we ate them, I used gloves so avoid chafing. And yes, I am using stabby as a real word.

Snow crab legs. These are much sweeter than anything I've had before.

One of the workers was using the heater to also cook his crab and warm his coffee. I dig.

Had to take a picture with the crab statue!

There were a ton of samples. Great sales tactic. I ended up buying a ton of kewpie flavored salmon skin, and some fried scallops because the samples were so good!

Fresh Hokkaido corn (also famous) grilled with Hokkaido butter.

As we walked around all of the glorious seafood, the snow continued to fall.

Free refrigeration!

The snow did not faze anyone.

Although, after walking around for a while, we decided on finally giving in and eating some delicious buddies. The seafood market we ate at was the biggest one, and also has a shuttle that takes you from the JR station to the market.

Of course, I had to have more scallop. Cooked with some konbu. Good, but I prefer the butter.

Have you seen tuna belly this beautiful before? I haven't. Not until this moment. I've had my share of really amazing otoro, but this was the fattiest, steakiest, marbliest looking otoro I've ever seen. It was so buttery and thick. Hands down, the best I've had.

It was so hard to order. I wanted everything. Especially anything I can't get in the States or anything I had never seen before. I watch a Taiwanese show called "Super Taste 食尚玩家" and in one of their episodes, they go to Hokkaido and they eat a strange looking fish with big sharp fins called 八角. No idea at the time what it was in English. It was a fun game of using Google Translate to turn the Chinese into English and hoping that it made sense. And of course, it didn't. When I Googled 八角, it translated it to star anise. Just as an FYI, the actual name is sailfish poacher.

Our lovely spread. Chirashi bowls, otoro, mackerel, scallops, and poacher galore!

My friend's lovely bowl of goodies.

This crab miso was a bit disappointing after Otaru. I recommend eating seafood in Sapporo first and then going to Otaru. It wasn't bad, but the flavor just wasn't as full and crabby. And the one in Otaru had a lot more crab in it.

They told me that this fish is a Hokkaido native, so of course I had to jump on it. This guy is a Kinki, otherwise known as an idiot fish, or as a shortspine thornyhead. It apparently has a lot of names and is on the endangered species list. I can see why. The fish is delicious. The meat is nice and fatty and is perfect grilled. I could imagine myself eating this at least once a week with a nice bowl of rice.

Useful little map to show where the different creatures all come from. Kinki fish just below:

Closer view of the idiot. Each one was about ¥8800‎JPY, which is just under $80USD. Pricy, but worth the experience!

Sailfin poacher before it became my meal.

Snowy wonderland. Maybe after a few months of this, I would get tired of it. As it was, I loved it. So peaceful and quiet, and basically like I was thrown into a PS4 game I was playing (I am Setsuna).

(Screen grab of one of the opening scenes from I am Setsuna)

I was very interested in seeing the Sapporo Shrine. And, I really do think most things look more beautiful in the snow. I was not disappointed.

PSA - this water is FREEZING. But, it's customary to cleanse your hands before going in, so I did.

We saw a couple getting their engagement pictures. I decided then and there that some day, I want photos in the snow like this. For this shot, the photographer wanted someone to test the light. The groom/groom-to-be went out into the snow by himself so that his bride/bride-to-be could wait under the cover until the photographer was ready.

They were laughing and having a blast. Congrats strangers! I truly hope you maintain the joy throughout your marriage :)

This guy was working hard. Each time he cleared it, the snow would cover it up and the vicious cycle would start over again.

In case you weren't sure just how snowy it was, here's us through the sleety snow. And below is how covered my camera got. This is even after my constant wiping. This camera is seriously heavy duty and it's why I hardly ever touch my D700 now:

After the shrine, we went to the clock tower, which is another famous site.

With the snow falling constantly, and us walking around all over the place, we figured we had worked up enough of an appetite to eat at Nanda - a buffet known for their crabs.

海鮮バイキング難陀 NANDA

北海道札幌市中央区南五条西2 サイバーシティビル

Japan, 〒060-0004

I just want to preface this by saying there were a lot of blogs out there that said this was a good buffet. I'm not huge on buffets because they typically forgo quality for quantity. I went under the assumption that because Hokkaido has such plentiful quantities of crab that it wouldn't be an issue, but it is. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't recommend coming here. It feels like a waste of the crabs. All of them are frozen so hard that there are bricks of ice on a lot of the meat (this goes for the scallops and other seafood items also). I'm sure they do this because there is a time limit on how long you can eat there. It does take a long time to heat up because it's just that frozen. I ended up just eating them cold just to eat them, and honestly, it was a little sad. The best part was the meat, but it felt like again, a waste of crab to focus on the meat instead of the crab. So, if you are looking for just eating a TON of crab, this would be a good option. Just know that the taste is not comparable to any random street corner in Otaru where they grill it fresh.

If you order the all you can drink, it does not include anything good like this, or the Hibiki pictured below. Be ready to drink a lot of weird mixed drinks or beer that isn't even from the neighboring Sapporo Brewery!

This took forever. I ate through half of a set of King Crab legs while waiting for that scallop to cook.

After our huge meal, we thought we would take that as an opportunity to check out the Sapporo's White Illumination. In case I somehow forgot to mention it, Sapporo has a great underground walkway for those rainy or super cold/snowy days. To me, it was too hot (everyone else was fine), but we got there much safer than walking on the icy sidewalk. Again, everything was just so Christmas-y and festive. It's really been that long since I felt the holiday spirit this way.

We came upon the German Christmas Market, where there was a mix of Japanese and Germans manning the stalls. It wasn't a huge market by any means, but they were all so small and cute that we took our time drinking our Glühwein and browsing the shops.