Hokkaido still in progress

It's taking me an awful long time to complete my entire Hokkaido blog. Plus my mouse is giving me a hard time. It keeps on double-clicking when i meant for it to do a single click. Idiot mouse. I really don't like electronic stuff, they are just soo unreliable. Eew.

Day 4

Day 4 in Hokkaido, i must say, is the most wonderful day i had in the whole trip. There's lots of shopping, sight-seeing and most important of all, eating. In Otaru, in this little pastry shop called LeTAO, i had one of the best cheesecake i had ever tried. The cheesecake is really light and yet it packed alot of cheese in it. I don't know how they do it. But i think it has to do with the quality of the cheese they used. The cheesecake comes with a layer of thick buttercream and is sprinkled heavily with angel cake crumbs. Yumm. haha. I was so blown away that i forgot to take pictures.

The Lunch. Dancing abalone.

To be barbecued.

Apart from the abalone and the unappetising seafood collection, we also had the kobe beef. That steak was so so good. It rocks even harder than wagyu.

At Otaru, by the canal.Architecture as you can see in Otaru is influenced by different cultures.

A souvenir shop.At Otaru Music Box Museum. They produce all sorts of music box, from the traditional lacquered box ones to the novel ferris wheel ones.

After more shopping at this underground shopping mall, we had ramen dinner and headed back to the hotel. Apa Hotel & Resort Hotel Sapporo. Don't go there unless you can't help it. It's a money sucking, chinese-modelled lousy place.

End

Coffee Liqueur Drizzle Cake

My baking experience needs to be catalougued, my uncle says. So here it is, my first blogged about cake.

It's Feb 24th, 9pm. I am acting like a pregnant woman. I have this super insane craving for a cake. Nevermind what kind of cake. I just to sink my teeth into something sweet and crummy. haha. So i spent like 40 minutes (preparation) plus another 45 minutes (baking time) on this Coffee Liqueur Drizzle Cake. It turned out pretty well although it was a tad too sweet for my liking even though i cut the sugar from 150g to 100g. Cookbooks can't be trusted.

Yumm?

A slice of heaven. And it gave me indigestion for the whole night. End

Hokkaidoo~

Hello people. My Hokkaido trip continues.

Day 3

Woke up early again to make way for our long journey down to Sounkyo. On the way at Oketo, we had tempura don and hot soba noodles at Inadaya Soba Restaurant.

This is it. On your left, that's the tempura don. And on the right is hot soba noodles topped with fried bits.

I saw this in the restaurant. Supersized teapot!

After lunch, we were kindly invited to this wood handicraft shop. And i bought my first japanese bento box. Haha. Look below, cute but completely unnecessary.

Fine handicraft.

We got back on the coach and travelled to this winnery which produces sour wine. Eew.

Wine production. This person looks like he's sleeping. And i don't blame him. His job is to sit in front of the light and make sure every bottle passes through is pink.

This is what they did back when electricity wasn't available.

Wine storage. Optimum temperature is around 18 to 19 degrees celsius.

The Sour Wines. A purely made for tourist production.

How cool is this. The entire waterfall is frozen. We're at Mount Daisetsu.

Yeah. Snow rocks. Snow gives botak trees.

Looks like marshmallow on rocks. This is really cool because these rocks are capped with at least three inch worth of snow. And it doesn't melt. And it's beautiful.

After a huge snow fight, I look like I've got dandruff. Haha. And it's frigging cold cause my brother bloody dumped snow into my back. Arghh!

At Sounkaku Grand Hotel. This yellow yukata is the best hotel provided yukata I've ever worn. It's thick enough and looks quite good too. The sash is good too.

Japanese style room. At night, a kind ojiji came to push the table aside and lay out the futons for us. Futons make the best sleeping material. I speak from experience.

This is dinner. A very salmon themed dinner. We had grilled salmon, steamed salmon, miso salmon and salmon potato gratin. I get it. Hokkaido have such an excess of salmon that they have to come up with different ways to cook it, even if the salmon taste weird after that.

Dinner on the floor. Haha. It was abit embarrassing cause the seat was a little bit too small for me. I need to loose some weight.

After dinner, we braved the sub-zero temperature (-10 that night) to see the snow festival. The Japanese call it bing ba. That is Mr. Onigiri smiling at you.

This is the cheeko oji-chan we met at the snow festival. He insisted to shake everybody's bare hands and wouldn't let go unless you tug politely. Haha. And his wife was watching. He's cute, isn't he.

End

Still in Hokkaido

Day 2

Woke up at 6 in the morning, which translates to 5am singapore time, to give ample time for travelling since heavy snow impedes movement. It's a first for me to wake up so early in a long long time. "A" levels seems prehistoric now.

See these beautiful crabs. That's our menu for lunch.
More crabs.
That's a tuna head. Baa!

A wonderful thing about Japan is their fish markets don't smell. Their fish is either alive or all wrapped up nicely. These are ebi. Sweet shrimp.

Look at the seafood. They don't smell either. If there's a smell, it would be called "freshness". These seafood smells absolutely fresh. Just look at their colour.

We get to pick our lunch, down to the specifics. That's a potential candidate.

Seafood nabe. That's hairy crab with a whole lot of vegetables. This is provided by the tour.

We dumped everything in the above into this pot. Hence the Japanese calls it seafood nabe or hotpot.

This we have to pay ourselves. The extra big crab we picked and scallop sashimi.

Bon appetite!

The restaurant has these stuffed animals at thier reception, and i couldn't resist. Haha.

Next on the itinery was the Kitsune Fox Farm. These little weirdos were supposed to be at their most beautiful. Because of the weather (it's winter), their fur should be in full bloom. Can you imagine what they look like during summer. Think molted feather duster, that's what the tour guide told us.

This one eating is one of the leader of the pack. Munch munch.

Beautiful, isn't it.

Covered in snow is an understatement. In Hokkaido where winter lasts for about 5 months, drowned in snow should be a better term.

At the hotel's ski fields after dinner. This was taken before my brother and his friend decided to ambush me with snowballs. Needless to say, i emerged victorious even without the use of snow. Yeah.Snow.

The bathrobes the hotel provided are so cool that i had to pose in it. Haha.

Nightly facial exercise. (it's an excuse to try to act cute before you sleep.)

My lovesick brother. Hahaha.

End