It's quite a surprise to see a working chocolate factory in an airport, and Chitose Airport in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, has one: the Royce' Chocolate Factory. You can view the process from finish to end along the stretch of the terminal. They have recently renovated the terminal and it looks like a small amusement park. Aside from the chocolate factory, they even have a Doraemon Park.
Royce' was founded in Sapporo and they're known for making very good quality chocolates. I first encountered Royce during a visit to Hong Kong, and I've always managed to bring some home. They're popular in Asia. But since then, branches have also opened up back home in the Philippines. In fact, they have also very recently opened their 1st US store in New York and a second shop in Russia.
My favorite is still their Classic Bitter Nama Chocolate made with dark chocolate. Each box comes with a small spatula used to lift each piece of chocolate from it's casing. The chocolate pieces are also sprinkled with powdered chocolate on top. Aside from the usual milk chocolate and white chocolate flavors, they also have Maccha or Green Tea flavor. Their Nama chocolates are also available in chocolate liquor versions.
Some other unique items included their chocolate covered potato chips or some with strawberry or lemon fillings.
Curious at the clear tube of yellow balls that looked like a can of tennis balls, I had to get one of these interesting Hokkaido desserts. I was on my way back home, and was at the Chitose Airport when I saw this in one of the refrigerated shelves.They had two different flavors available: one was white pudding and the other was cream custard with egg. Apparently, the company also produces a chocolate one but they didn't have it in that store. They offer a cooling bag if you wanted, but I figured I'll be eating it soon anyway.
But I got back home after about 8 hours, and I suddenly realized that I had this tube of cream custard in my bag. Oh no! I might end up with a melted lump of cream! But it was still in good shape, phew!
Now, how to eat it? There seemed to be some kind of balloon on each ball, sealed with a pink clip that can't easily be removed. No instructions apparently in the packaging either. Hmmm, what should I do? I asked Google, LOL! See the video link I found below.
And true enough, there's a special way to open it. I had to use a sharp needle or pin and pinch it slightly on the balloon. Pop the balloon and out emerges a bouncy ball of custard ;-)
As I took my first bite, the creaminess of the custard filled my mouth. The best thing I liked about it is that the creaminess didn't overpower the flavor and it remained light and not too sweet. I think the nearest thing I could compare the taste and texture to would be the Italian Pannacotta.
This may look like a typical outlet mall in the US, but this photo of a mini food truck was actually taken in Chitose, near the international airport in Sapporo, Japan.
Most of the shops are actually Western brands and thus the look of the US outlet malls: Lego, North Face, Columbia, Samsonite, Gap, Claire's and so on. Prices are actually quite good, considering they're imported.
There are only a handful of shops that are local, one of which is a big one-stop shop for Hokkaido souvenir and food items, great for some last minute shopping before you head out to the airport, which is just 10 minutes away, and serviced by a regular shuttle bus.
Another shop worth visiting is the puzzle shop which sells good quality unique miniature piece puzzles that are only made in Japan. Aside from them being postcard size puzzles, they also use the petit pieces that are sized like half of your fingertip. Most of the designs are Disney, but they also offer other ones like a Mona Lisa. Another unique find there are the stained art puzzles, which looks like small stained glass windows.
This winter, the outlet grounds had a small snow covered slide where kids can do some sledding. Christmas trees and igloos were also set up.
There was one amazing exhibit where a working maze was set up using empty cardboard boxes, courtesy of one of the shops called The Box Outlet. Kids can crawl in and enjoy.
If you have a few hours to spare while waiting for your flight, it's worth a visit.
As we drove past one of the streets of Sapporo, red light flashed, and we stopped at an intersection. I was panning my camera and suddenly stopped when I saw this interesting looking window. I was trying to figure out what they were from afar, but eventually figured out when I zoomed in, that these were fishes being hanged out to dry (himono).
Drying fish is the oldest preservation method and it not surprising to see this in a country that has abundant seafood. Traditionally, these are sun dried, but modern technology has used fans to dry them. Experts have of course claimed that the traditional method is still much better.
Living in Asia, dried fish is no stranger to me, but there are all kinds of fishes and many more kinds of drying, salting and fermenting fish. Some are of good quality while others are not. Some are dried wide open and some whole. I always remember my mom searching for a good quality dried salted fish when she travels.
Imagine the smell! But I have to agree, the taste and flavor, when eaten, makes it all so much worth it, haha!
While I am more used to dried fish being deep fried to that ultra light and crispy level where the bones are already edible, we noticed that in Japan, the dried fish are served grilled, either over the traditional charcoal or an electric grill.
Typical fishes use are mackarel (aji), smelt, herring (nishin) or even flying fish (tobuio) which are popular for supplying the orange roe (tobiko) that we see in our sushis.
Note: This highlight also appears in AFAR Website
I love going to shopping streets around the world and in Sapporo, they have Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade, which is a ten block stretch of covered pedestrian passageway surrounded by stores, restaurants, clubs, amusement centers and even a capsule hotel.
I usually like to shop in places like these. It's a little bit different from the usual mall shopping as you'd usually expect to find more unique items being sold here, like these colorful looking floor mats made of scrap cloths. It could actually be used as a decor too ;-)
A very unusual item I bought here was actually some Japanese digestive medicine from one of the local drugstores here, called Wakamoto. It's a popular and effective digestion medicine that I could buy back home but of course, would cost me a fortune with all the embedded taxes and import costs. Where best to buy it but from where it was originally made :-)
I also managed to step in one of the amusement centers. If you're familiar with those claw machines in circuses or carnivals, where you try to grab a stuffed toy with a mechanical claw but fail immensely 99% of the time, then this is the place to see. They've got hundreds of them in these centers and I dare not spare a dime as this could be really addicting, haha!
Sapporo JR Station is the central railway station of the city of Sapporo. We stayed in a hotel near this area, so it was really convenient.
JR Tower sits at the top of the station, which houses one of the best observation decks to see Sapporo at night. It also houses one of the two famous Ramen places for which Hokkaido is known for, the other one is Ramen Alley in Susukino, 2 stations away. Here in the Sapporo JR Station area, you can choose one of the Ramen places at the 10th floor of the Esta Building and get a great view of the city at night. Esta Building is interconnected to the JR Tower at the basement level. Aside from the popular Ramen restaurants, there is a large Japanese electronics chain named Bic Camera, for the tech-lovers.
Interconnected also to these buildings from the inside are the Stellar Place and Daimaru. Stellar Place is a shopping center which houses a variety of restaurants at the 6th floor and lots of the local retail chains, including Uniqlo and Muji. Daimaru, on the other hand, is one of the popular Japanese department store chains.
Make sure you drop by the basement floor of both Daimaru and Esta, which sells all sorts of food and delicacies, and best of all, offers free tastings, so that you can taste before you buy. This in itself is a very interesting and popular attraction common to the Japanese. Be ready cause it's always crowded and full of people; but very interesting things to see, even if you don't intend to buy anything.
One of the popular dishes that originated in Hokkaido is the Jingisukan, which is lamb bbq or mutton bbq. Instead of the usual open grill on charcoal used in western barbeques, the Japanese use a non-smoke pan like the one in the photo, sometimes also come in a convex version.Jingisukan, or otherwise translated as Genghis Khan, came from the belief that lamb was a favorite dish of the Mongolian soldiers and they used to cook it using their helmets. Interesting :-)
Having the grilled meat paired with beer is perfect combination. You can have it dish in many places in Hokkaido, but the popular Sapporo Beer Garden offers a delicious meal combined with the original Sapporo beer, oldest and most popular beer in Japan.
There are two restaurants in the Sapporo Beer Garden, the Genghis Hall which has the noisier beer hall type environment, and Garden Grill, which is a more relaxed family oriented environment.
We chose the Garden Grill so that we can have a relaxing conversation during dinner :-) We had a plate of delicious lamb bbq, some wagyu beef and a glass of Sapporo Five Star, a beer that you get to taste only the Garden since it's a limited edition beer that was sold only in the 70's. The lamb was tender and fresh, flavorful yet rid of the gamey smell that are sometimes found in lamb.
In the same complex (used to be the old Sapporo Brewery) is the Sapporo Beer Museum. And nearby is also the Ario shopping mall. It's approx 20 minutes from Sapporo JR Station.
http://www.sapporo-bier-garten.jp/foreign/english.php
Note: This highlight also appears in AFAR Website
Coming from a tropical country, it was interesting for me to explore the unfamiliar world of winter sports in one of the actual Olympic sites. Mt. Okura was one of the venues for the 1972 Olympics and home to ski jumping events. Today, it holds an observatory at the top (300meters) where you can get on a lift from the base of the ski jump, which runs parallel to the ski jump. So you can see each section of it, including the audience area, the judge's station and the giant scoreboard. At the top, you can get a firsthand view of where the skier jumps take off as well as get breathtaking views of the city of Sapporo.
Down at the base, there is a Winter Sports Museum, where you can experience the world of winter sports through simulators. I got to try the ski jump, and bobsled and speed skating. Information about history and records are also available there.
Lucky for us as we were about to leave, there were a couple of ski jumpers doing their practice jumps. It was a whole lot different to see it in person than just trying to visualize in our minds how they do it :-)
http://www.sapporo-dc.co.jp/eng/okurayama/index.html
Note: This highlight also appears in AFAR Website
In search for the perfect ramen, we journeyed into Susukino district in Sapporo, despite the snow, to find this small little ramen place in the corner that sits about 20 people max.
We think we know ramen, with the loads of authentic Japanese restaurants run by Japanese themselves in my home country. But that's nothing compared to the real ramen in Japan, and especially Hokkaido where ramen first originated.
The noodles were cooked perfectly, al dente! - even more perfect than the perfect al dente noodles I've tasted before :-) The broth is miso based and it's the type of ramen broth that's famous in Sapporo. Apparently, other areas of Hokkaido serve the other types: shoyu (soy-based) and shio (salt-based).
So I tried the miso ramen, with some thin slices of beef, corn & a slice of butter. Sounds weird? Well, it's weirdly delicious as a matter of fact ! I also noticed that the chasu beef slices were just put on top cold. Apparently, the beef is already half-cooked, and the secret is the hot broth will heat it up to a just-right level w/o overcooking it.
We also tried the gyoza dumplings which is yummy too.
The place is really small, it's a bar type eating area, and seats surround the open kitchen counter where 2 gentlemen do their ramen magic. On the walls around, you'll see signed tiles from famous people, which also included culinary expert Anthony Bourdain.
It's easy to find, near the Susukino JR station, and it's the 1st restaurant as you enter Ramen Alley.
