Bretteee

Do you mean Singapore KRIS miles (51,000 miles)?

shuigao

Hi Bretteee, yes, 51,000 KrisFlyer miles (per person per direction). It's quoted as 60,000 on the website but you get 15% discount at check out if you do the redemption on-line.

shuigao

Off to Tsukiji Market we go! Thanks to a pretty late sleeping time the previous night (due to robot restaurant ending relatively late), we decided not to do the whole, 'wake up at 3am and queue for auction' nonsense. In fact we couldn't even be bothered to wake up early enough to do the 3-4 hour queue for the "big 2" sushi shops 寿司大 (Sushidai) and 大和寿司 (Daiwa Sushi). Of course, the fact that we had already visited those in previous trips might have also played a part

Write-ups of previous trips a few years ago here if you're interested:

Dai: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2011...ai-tokyos.html
Daiwa: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2011...iji-tokyo.html
Auction: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2013...hree-days.html



Anyways, we've noticed in our three trips to the market over the last 3-4 years that the tourist popularity has gone through the roof. In our first visit only the "big 2" shops had long queues; now it seems every single seafood place in the inner market has a queue:



Not wanting to bother with a queue of any sort, we head to the outer market instead to try out a shop named 築地虎杖 魚河岸千両 (sorry I don't know what the english name is).



Their specialty is the ひつまぶし海鮮丼 (hitsumabushi kaisen don) which is "three-ways" seafood rice bowl.

1st way: seafood with rice like a normal kaisen don
2nd way: stir like crazy until the uni's 'melted' and 'dissolved' into the rice, making everything yellow, sticky and sweet.
3rd way: add dashi stock and drink soup rice.



If that's not your cup of tea of course other seafood bowls are available too. Price range: ¥2000-¥4000 (inclusive of tea and bowl of crab miso soup)



We then head to Asakusa, so that our parents-and-brothers can visit the shopping street and the sensojii temple.



My wife and I don't bother with re-visiting the temple, though; we're here just for our favorite melon pan of all time from Kagetsudo Asakusa 花月堂. If you're planning a trip to Tokyo, you'll probably be visiting Sensojii. If you are, make sure you seek out this shop and order and eat a freshly baked, hot melon pan. It's fluffy, warm, soft bread with a sweet, crisp cookie dough top layer. Possibly the best melon pan in Tokyo.



Depending on your pace, you might have a lot of extra time here to slot in something extra -- for example, maybe a side track to ameyoko (another shopping street not too far away), or the Tokyo Sky Tree (also quite nearby). But for us because we started the day late, and spent a LONG time shopping in tsukiji's markets, it was already late afternoon and time to head to Tokyo DisneySea for our starlight (after 6pm) entry ticket.



TDS closes at 10pm; so the ticket only allows 4 hours to explore the park. It's not worth the travelling time and entry cost, in our opinion; as you can't take advantage of fast passes for the popular rides, so you end up not really riding that many rides. If you want to come Disneyland/Disneysea you should really do an entire day.



Hilariously, their "Halloween special event" is ... *drum roll* ... fireworks with 'scary music' playing over the loudspeakers. Like really?!?



Anyways, our main objective really is to pick up a couple (ok, a whole suitcase full) of a prime example of Disney Japan's superb marketing skills: Duffy and Shellie-Mae teddy bears (sold ONLY in TDS, nowhere else in Japan).



The wife, like thousands of other japanese girls and ladies, is a huge fan of these bears and does the whole "pose and take photos and post on instagram" thing. You can check out her teddybear photo account here:

https://instagram.com/chiaki_bear/

~ Day 3 end ~

TravisMT81

Your wife needs to put some clothes on Duffy and Shellie May. And the Halloween entertainment. "Villains World" takes place during the day on the harbor. Great report so far!

shuigao

Blogpost Format here with full review/photos and location maps.

Before moving on the Hokkaido, just a short recap of 4 of the more decent meals we had in Tokyo (cheap to moderate price ... this trip we had no budget for any michelin star food).

Hitsumabushi Bincho (ひつまぶしびんちょ)
What: Nagoya-style Charcoal-grilled Eel on hot steamed rice
Where: Ginza. 12th floor of the Marrionnier Gate mall (next to Printemps)
Price: ¥3,150 and up




Yotekkoya Ramen (よってこや ラーメン)
What: Kyoto-style Tonkotsu Ramen
Where: Odaiba, Ground floor of the Decks Mall (facing the street)
Price: ¥1,000 and up




Tsukiji Itadori Uogashisenryo (築地虎杖 魚河岸千両)
What: Sushi and Hitsumabushi Kaisen Don (Seafood bowl)
Where: Tsukiji's Outer Fish Market area
Price: ¥2,000 and up




Torikizoku Yakitori (焼き鳥 鳥貴族)
What: Yakitori (charcoal-grilled chicken skewers)
Where: Shinjuku, a few blocks away from Golden Gai
Price: ¥1,500 and up

shuigao

Our short, 3 night in Tokyo done, we check out of the hotel for our journey to Sapporo on JetStar Japan!

(Do pardon the lack of any actual JetStar aircraft in this photo)



Narita Airport Terminal 3 has one of the weirdest setups I've ever seen in any airport. For one, there are no taxi, car, train or bus drop-off and pick-up points. All transportation drops-off/picks-up at T2 instead, and you need to either take the (not very frequent) airport shuttle bus, or walk 20(!) minutes to T3.

Good thing, then, that Japan's airlines (even budget ones) typically close baggage drop only 30 minutes before scheduled departure for domestic flights.

Our JetStar flight cost ¥18,220 return/pax, inclusive of 25kg purchased baggage. Flight was pretty par for the course for short haul budget airlines. They have a published 7kg carry on weight limit which they announce multiple times pre-boarding, but don't seem to actually enforce at all.



Our hotel of choice for the night: Richmond Hotel Sapporo Odori, us$97/night not including breakfast.

The room is big enough (for Japan), and has all the expected 'business hotel' amenities: internet access, shampoo, shower, soap, combs, toothbrush & toothpaste, and slippers and pajamas so you don't have to use/bring your own.



Of course, the bathroom has a bidet with a high-powered, anal-probing jet of warm water ensuring your large intestines are clean after a number two.



We chose to stay at this hotel (instead of the other Richmond location next to the Sapporo station) because it's all within walking distance of Susukino (the nightlife / entertainment / food / red-light district), Pole Town (underground shopping alley linking Odori and Susukino subway stations), and all the department stores -- we recommend the Mitsukoshi, which has an amazing two-floor depachika full of fruits, groceries, sweets, confectionary, etc.

Anyways, we head to Susukino for some lunch at the nearby Ramen Alley. Hokkaido's stereotypical ramen: miso-based butter corn, although most shops also serve shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce) and/or tonkotsu (pork bone) broths.



Our bellies filled, we hop on the Sapporo streetcar/tram (¥170 per ride regardless of distance), hopping off at the ロープウェイ入口 ('ropeway iriguchi') stop. Close by there's another stop for the (free) shuttle bus which brings you to the ropeway station proper.



The ropeway+mini cable car to the summit Mt Moiwa costs ¥1,700 for a return trip for adults.



It feels cold up top; the combination of incessant winds and slightly higher altitude makes it feel probably 10°C colder than at the foot of the hill.



Views of the city aren't too bad; I let you decide if they're worth the time / money spent.

aeroman380

Wow these photos popped out on my phone. The HD quality is so amazing it is like the food is right in front of me to gobble up. Great read and pics!

Thunderroad

I'm not quite the foodie that you are, but I still love the food photos and all the rest.

Having flown the 380 suites with my wife (and planning to do so again early next year), I think you captured the pleasure of the whole experience admirably. Thanks for sharing all this.

shuigao

Thanks for the support

Since I last booked Suites I've gotten enough miles for another one way. I'm really torn between redeeming 2 tickets for my mum & dad (it'll be his 70th b'day soon) so that they can enjoy it too ... or for another 2 tickets for my wife and I :P :P :P

I kid, I kid. Let my parents enjoy first, I'll have plenty of opportunity later on

AirPanda

Nice Job on the Trip Report. I am looking forward to more installments of it.

too2early

Looks like it's going to be a delicious report. Nice photos too.

shuigao

After we're done with the night sights ... it's only 6pm (October after all, sunset is early) so we head down the mountain to get some dinner.

We decide on Kani Honke in Susukino to sample the three kinds of crab that Hokkaido's famous for: Snow Crab, Hairy Crab and King Crab!

Full write-up with costs, descriptions, more photos.

shuigao

Hokkaido is "seafood" (among other things), so for breakfast we're hankering for a bowl of 海鮮丼 ('kaisendon' i.e. raw seafood on warm steamed rice).

There are two morning markets in Sapporo. The more convenient one is Nijo Market (5-10 mins walk from Susukino); but the better one is apparently Curb Market (or Crab Market depending who you talk to), which is a 10 minute subway ride followed by a 20 minute walk.



There's lots of fresh and frozen seafood here: crabs, crabs, more crabs, ikura, melon, etc. Some of the bigger shops even have delivery service: You can freeze and order a whole king crab and have it sent to your home country (limited locations, naturally).



Oh did we mention melon? Typically ¥200-¥500 per slice. The Hokkaido 'red' melon is supremely sweet and juicy, but lacking that unique aroma that the green musk melons have.



Similar to other morning markets there are a lot of shops serving up various seafood rice bowls. ¥1500 and up. We chose this shop entirely at random and thought the bowls were pretty good.

For me, the two must-order ingredients in a Hokkaido rice bowl are Scallops and Uni (Sea Urchin). Other things like salmon and salmon eggs are quite easily obtainable in some other asian countries -- specifically for me in SG, the salmon/salmon eggs aren't significantly better in Hokkaido.



Slight side track: If you're wandering the Pole Street (the underground shopping alley linking Odori and Susukino stations) make sure you stop at Kinotoya Bake and try their soft serve and cheese souffle tart. They're both to die for if you're a fan of dairy products.



Anyway we spend the rest of the morning browsing the shops around the Tanukikoji shopping alley. It's a LONG pedestrian street -- maybe 6 or 7 blocks -- and has all sorts of shops including restaurants, fruit shops, UFO catchers, pharmacies, even a Don Quijote discount store.





Lunchtime: A Sapporo specialty food, and one you probably won't get anywhere else: soup curry.

There's multiple shops around town, but we head for one of the quirkier (decor-wise) ones: Dominica.



Yes ... it's exactly what you think: a mixture of soup and japanese curry cubes with your choice of meat and rice.



If you come from an Asian upbringing, spice level 3 is probably what you'd consider "not very spicy;" probably quite safe to bump it up to 4 or 5.



Overall the wife and I both agreed that it was a little "meh." We love soup and we love curry, but having both of them in the same bowl wasn't all that interesting, to be honest.

Aventine

Love the photos and look forward to seeing your LeTAO day!

shuigao

Anyway after lunch, it's time to pick up our rental car! There are many different rental car companies; for no particular reason at all we chose Toyota Rent a Car, and got a Japan-model 1.8 Allion with only 500km on the clock (super lucky, almost brand new, even got that new car smell!!)

Some few notes on renting car and driving in Hokkaido:

1. International Drivers Permit is mandatory
2. Other than the highways/expressways, speed limits are super low! Think long, long stretches of 50km/h, 40km/h limits, that kind of thing. I really couldn't take it and drove 15-20km/h above those limits everywhere. Time will tell if I got caught out by any speed trap lol.
3. If you will be using a lot of expressway (e.g. go otaru, go hakodate) it might be cheaper to rent the Hokkaido Expressway Pass (fixed fee by # of days). For us, we calculated up front that we will need ¥11k-12k in tolls if we paid 'ala-carte,' whereas the 9 days pass was only ¥8,700.
4. Navigation is super super easy. GPS is in English and you input all locations using either map code (sort of like post code) or telephone number. Very accurate.
5. Parking is expensive. In Sapporo and Otaru it's easily ¥500 per hour at the convenient parking places. Also, many of our hotels charged extra ¥1000 per day for parking.



First stop: Shiroi Koibito Park, which is on the way to Otaru. It's basically a factory ... that's been upgraded over the years as a rather pleasant tourist attraction:




Entrance to the 'museum' is ¥600/person and starts off with a few rooms and exhibits of the history of cookies/chocolate in general (rooms with centuries old chocolate packaging, etc etc).



Eventually you get to the factory to view the entire production line. We're actually quite surprised that there's so much disclosure ... can see whole biscuit being made, they have lots of info on how long the cookies are baked, and at what temperatures, etc etc.




The 'museum' part exits out to the main hall where you can eat ice cream, chill out, and of course -- buy lots of shiroi koibito cookies and other Ishiya goodies.

Note: While you can buy ... there really isn't that much reason to do so here. Nowadays Shiroi Koibito cookies are EVERYWHERE. Throughout our trip at least 10 different places we went had souvenir shops that stock up the cookies. Heck, even Narita (Tokyo) airport has them now ... in our opinion no need to buy here unless it's the tail end of your trip.

Having said that, there are some special, seasonal cookies/etc that they will label "not available at narita aiport." These won't be available elsewhere either so if they're interesting then you should buy here.



Oh, there's also a cute "DIY your own cookies" bakery, which can be huge fun if you're a couple and/or if you have kids of the right age. Not too expensive -- around ¥1,500.