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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".

Sapporo Beer Museum is a must-visit. It's one of the Hokkaido Heritage sites and is an amazing architecture in itself. Unfortunately the guided tour is only available in Japanese, or we would have learned so much about the history of beer in Japan. Although we don't speak the language we still enjoyed the exhibits and the beer tasting a lot.

We had a light lunch at the Garden Grill restaurant in the connected Sapporo Beer Garden, but it didn't stop us from having a second one at the Genghis Khan Hall immediately afterwards — the mutton BBQ was simply irresistible! If we ever go there again, we'd try the all-you-can-eat dinner!

With a full stomach, we walked to the Sapporo Factory, which isn't really a factory but a large shopping and entertainment complex constructed on the former site of Japan's first beer brewery. Other than the huge pet shop, we didn't find any interesting shops (or we weren't in the mood for shopping) so we just chilled out in the atrium for a while.

On our way back, we passed by the Sapporo Station and breezed through the Paseo food court on the B1 level. The number of food stalls, the variety and the beauty of the food was mind-blowing. Too bad we were still full from the double-lunch and only managed to eat a Taiyaki. 

The food coma was kicking in so we returned to the hotel to take a nap before heading out for an authentic Sapporo miso ramen at the famous Ramen Yokocho, the ramen alley in Susukino. Each shop there was very small and we picked 味一番おぢぢ. The ramen was good but we honestly couldn't tell the difference from those we had in HK. To top it off, we stuffed a few donuts from the nearby Mister Donut and headed back happily.

After the extremely short trip to Tokyo back in June, we decided we had to visit Japan again very, very soon. Unfortunately we had to wait until mid-October to do this because the office renovation, the big move and a few client projects in between had kept us really busy in the last three months.

We found a Sapporo Package on CX Holidays website that fit the bill: neither of us has been to Hokkaido before, we can go to onsen in a nearby city like Otaru, and the flight schedule is flexible enough (departs every Wed/Thur/Sat/Sun). The only challenge would be the 9 am departing flight.

With a bit of luck, we made it on time and the 4.5-hour flight was very enjoyable. Compared to our experience on United Airlines for our SXSW trip earlier this year, flying on CX was like heaven.

Sapporo's New Chitose airport is as nice as HK airport — modern, efficient and has tons of shops and restaurants that could easily make you forget the time. The signs are every where and well thought out so we made it to the airport JR station effortlessly. 

It took around 40 min to get to Sapporo station from airport by JR, and another 10 min to our hotel located near Nakajimakoen (中島公園) station by subway. This Best Western hotel is awesome — designed in an understated chic style, free Internet access, 24-hour convenient store downstairs, huge room with full amenities and a view of the Sapporo TV Tower and the Norbessa Ferris Wheel.  

Understandably we were starving by the time we arrived so we went out to hunt some food immediately. It turned out our hotel was just two blocks away from Susukino, a red-light district with tons of restaurants. We picked one (魚活鮮とあぶり焼き 海へ) randomly and as expected, we were not disappointed (never been in Japan, really) and ate way more than we should!

After this very satisfying meal, we took a stroll on the famous shopping street Tanukikoji 狸小路 and got fascinated by the interesting stuff carried by many of those shops. Our last stop of the night was the huge entertainment complex Norbessa which houses the Ferris Wheel we could see from our hotel room. 

There aren't many tall buildings in Sapporo so the view from the Ferris Wheel is actually quite impressive and definitely worth the 600 yen if you haven't seen it before. On our way out, we saw this huge arcade on the 5/F and picked Silent Hill (a zombie shooter) just for fun. It's 100 yen and we ended up playing for 20+ minutes and killing hundreds of zombies and busting up our fingers on both hands! Good exercise but it made us wonder why the same game in HK would only last for 5 min given our "skills"?

Park Guell, Aquarium, lunch with Sangria, afternoon nap on the grass, Japanese dinner

The Born area is lovely and I guess we still have a lot to explore. We're just unlucky that the apartment above our hotel room is being renovated and the on-and-off drilling noise in the morning is a deal breaker. So we found the Market Hotel near St. Antoni still available for the next three days per the recommendation of our guide book and got it right away. The Market Hotel has everything we asked for: hip, free in-room wi-fi, conveniently located and surprisingly affordable. 

After we checked in this noon, we worked a bit and caught the all important England vs Slovenia game in a very cool bar called Betty Ford in Raval. Luckily England won, or I wouldn't have any mood to visit the Picasso Museum afterwards. The dinner is an interesting experience: we were looking for some Chinese comfort food and went to this WOK restaurant nearby. It turns out to be an all-you-can-eat buffet that's more about getting your money's worth rather than quality Chinese food. We have given up the idea of finding decent Chinese food in Barcelona.

Running out of time and too hungry to walk around any further, we made a second visit to Sandwich&Friends (yes, their sandwiches are that good), then we picked up our GoCar near Santa Caterina Market to begin our adventurous tour on this yellow cute thing!

It turns out that the GoCar is actually a scooter with a car-like shell, there is no steering wheel at all. If you have experience driving a scooter you'd feel at home. Control is pretty simple and the staff is friendly and helpful. The built-in GPS guide is what makes GoCar tour a unique experience - the comforting female GPS voice tells you exactly where to go and it is OK to make mistakes (and we did, a few times). You will be brought back on tour easily or you could drive to wherever you like. 

We were a bit nervous in the beginning but after a short while we began having some great fun. The roads in Barcelona are easy to navigate, parking slots for scooters are plenty and free, and people's driving attitude is very safe and polite. After following the uptown tour a while, we fell off the tour near Sagrada Familia, and headed to the wrong way which led us to Camp Nou - The Barcelona Football Club Stadium, which we have already planned to go.

It was a fabulous drive to Camp Nou, we didn't realize it would be so easy and exciting! The Camp Nou Experience is totally worth the euro 17 even if you are not a football fan like me. The whole presentation of the Club's history and culture, its importance to Catalonia, and the Stadium itself all made the experience very memorable. As a geek, one would also be fascinated by their giant interactive audio-visual touch-screens in the museum. Simply awesome.

After the GoCar tour, we headed back to the city but it was too late to visit the Picasso Museum but bumped into a very cool cafe Lilipep nearby and spent a very relaxing time sipping coffee and reading there.

After staying in the old walk-up apartment in Rambla del Raval for a week, we decided it's about time to "upgrade" our experience and try out a different neighborhood. Our Insight Guide recommended a few ones so we went on Trip Advisor to narrow down our searches based on budget, user reviews and availability. As always, research pays off. We booked for this Chic & Basic Hotel in a century old building in Born and checked in today after brunch at Sandwich&Friends to receive a series of pleasant surprises. 

First off, it is as chic & basic as it claims. It's so stylish but affordable and every detail is well thought out. We love the 22 feet high ceiling, the color curtains and LED light system, the crystal shower ... and of course the free, in-room high speed Internet access. What a real treat after the past week of iPhone tethering and using paid wifi in eateries. 

In the evening we caught the Spain vs Honduras World Cup game at a nearby Mexican restaurant La Hacienda for a much-needed break from Catalan/Spanish food, and on a stroll after dinner we discovered so many cool restaurants in the area that we can't wait to try out. Sorry London, we will have to see you a few days later.

After more than 6 hours of walking in Plaza de España, Montjuic, Port Vell and Barceloneta on my flip flops today, I imagine if I come across a foot massage shop I'd be willing to pay as much as euro 100 for a massage! Glad that there isn't any such shop and we have spent the money on a seafood dinner at Barceloneta restaurant instead. The constant noise from the Harley-Davidson riders around the city certainly made today special, but if I were to choose a vehicle to tour around Barcelona I would pick a GoCar over a Harley on any given day. Maybe it would be .... tomorrow.