Hokkaido - Day 3
Before we left Sapporo for Otaru, we dragged ourselves out of bed early to visit the Nijo Market (二条市場) to have a fresh seafood breakfast. It's similar to the Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場) in Tokyo but much smaller. I ordered a rice topped with crab and sea urchin in どんぶり茶屋 and finished it within 15 min.
After we finished breakfast, we walked around the market and saw that every shop sells crabs, salmon eggs, sea urchin and fresh fish, they all looked so beautiful and yummy ... I have never seen so many huge King crabs, Snow crabs and Horsehair crabs before. I wasn't sure if the prices were good because I never bought these crabs before, and it seemed too much of a hassle to carry a big box with us for the remaining of the trip so we left empty-handed.
To burn the calories we just consumed, we walked around Odori Park and visited the Sapporo TV Tower briefly. We enjoyed the walk (including the visit to Citibank for some extra cash) but we had to head back sooner so we could leave for Otaru on time.
After checking out, we went back to Sapporo JR station and bought the JR tickets to Otaru (小樽), a small harbor city 30 min from Sapporo by train. There was still some time left so we went up to the T38 Observation Deck on top of the JR Tower and had a breath-taking, 360-degree view of the Sapporo City.
The train to Otaru was smooth and we arrived at 宏楽園, a Japanese-style onsen hotel just before 4 p.m. After changing to Yukata, we went to the private onsen and spent a full hour relaxing and appreciating the view outside. Dinner was served in our room and it was like "wow" after "wow" when the hostess put on each dish — every dish was like a piece of art and of course they all tasted awesome.
The food coma caught me again so I just passed out after the big meal and didn't make a second trip to the onsen this evening. I love sleeping on the Tataimi, but felt a bit weird about eating and sleeping on the same surface, and having two hostesses make my "bed".
