The Insignificance and Vulnerability of Simplicity

Wednesday, January 28

Just as the norm of most free and easy trips..

There bound to be a day where you’d overslept.
This was the day.
In fact my body clock was totally tuned on this seventh day, and I was already awake 6-7 plus I think.
But I was waiting for that alarm..
It did not come.
When I finally could not stand it, woke up to find a thin trail of bright light peeking in through the curtains..
It was 8 plus.

Gosh..
Today was the day that we had two places on the itinerary..
Quickly washed up packed up and we did away with the breakfast.

I was waiting with the luggage and dear went to drive the car over.
He halted while walking towards the lots.
There was NO walking path to be seen.

LOL

Snow was as thick as fresh cream..
He turned around to face me with a questioning look..
Where was the curb and which was the road..?

White is my ultimate weakness.
I couldnt stop hitting on the scenery.
Snow landed on the bare tree branches very nicely..
Half covered just like icing on a cake.
Again I saw those similar hot red cherries that we saw in Showa Shinzan on a white pale tree..

Nature is so unfair in Hokkaido..
In autumn, colorful leaves are abundant, the rich greenery is incredibly authentic.
In winter where the colors are gone, Nature replaces it with white icing and bestows a grayish mystical landscape..

Ooooh..

Played with the snow..
And I made compact snowballs without much effort =p

Snow was very soft and so powdery that it stuck onto the tree bark like flour would stick to wet surface.

The car came after a long time..
He had difficulty sweeping off the thick cake of snow.
It was just a night of snowfall..
But snow on the car top was piled to around 20 cm??!

As we began to drive out..
I couldn’t resist asking him to stop the car..
Got down to take a picture of this..
The road..

It says OUT alright
But the road was nowhere to be seen..

*****

After a two hours drive from Niseko, we finally reached the port.
The longest drive ever..
The dense and packed houses signified that we had arrived at Otaru port town.

Otaru or 小樽

A port town on the coast of the Sea of Japan, northwest of Sapporo.
The town was obviously populated by the number of houses situated very closely to one another.
Otaru is well known for its canal that runs through the town.
We briefly drove past the canal, a popular tourist spot, where camera flashes are never ending.

Stomachs growling fiercely, plus there was no parking space for our next destination.
Going in circles, we finally found a parking lot which we thought it was meant for our destination.
But alas, the guard told us that belonged to Victoria Station.
If we wanted to park there, we had to dine in.
Just nice, we need food badly.
And damn..

The menu in the station was huge with so much varieties of appetizing food that our poor stomachs became chaotic.
Tough choices.
With a continuous flow of patrons into the station, it seemed like the dining place was a famous one..
Its chain of restaurants include Big Boy restaurant and Milky Way..

The food took forever to arrive.
Nothing much we could do..
So the consequences shalt end as these..
Give me a camera, my patience shalt be stretched..

LOL

But could see Jeff san could not take it le..
Bleahz..

He ordered chicken steak and lobster..
I ordered chicken and tamago porridge.
And OMG, not forgetting the desserts..
The authentic Japanese red bean on green tea ice cream that I loved so much..
Just that had it in Japan this time round =)

After lunch, went straight the Music Box street..
The Victorian buildings were all situated in weird angles..
There was no sequence in the Music Box Museum Hall 1, Hall 2 ecetra..
You just have to walk the streets in random to locate them.
And the entire street was filled with sweet crystal clear music that seeped out from the Music Museum and the DIY shop =)

Fairy tale clock houses, European feel..
Imagine walking down an open air street that is so creatively designed and enriched with dream-like musical touch..

Popped into the Character House / Sound of Dreams.
There you would find many popular Disney characters whom accompanied you through childhood.

We saw the DIY shop notice in one of the shop houses.
After getting our directions right, we set off to accomplish another task.
That is, making our own music box =p

The DIY shop was packed with small decorations..
And the few music box creations greeted us the minute we stepped in.
Sweet!

It was a tough time deciding the theme of the music box..
Plus we did not have much time for 2 music boxes because for fear that Ishiya Chocolate factory would be closed by the time we reached there.

We chose a box structure
Then a melody..
Did away with the base.
Then we spent a long time deciding the decorations.
After payment at the counter, the staff passed us a tray, the glue, the sweets..
Satisfied with our music box, we handed our music box to the counter who asked us to return in 30 minutes time =D

During the 30 minutes of waiting, we took off to the Otaru Music Box Museum Number 2 Hall Antique Museum.

The rich history of the various musical instruments were on display.
Especially the structure and the various types music boxes..
These were extremely pretty but the prices were scary.
They were meant to be admired as a whole, not purchased.
In there, the music filled museum soothed our minds and calmed the restless souls..

Perhaps it’s the music, perhaps it’s a port town, perhaps it’s the weather or perhaps it’s Hokkaido..
The ambience that existed was one filled with extreme warmth..
One that promised relaxed peace as everyone walked about with childlike ease..

*****

The Ishiya Chocolate factory was a 20 minutes drive away from Otaru.
Situated at the edge of Sapporo, we saw the huge Victorian-like building the minute the GPS announced Sapporo.
It’s awesome how the different areas of Hokkaido gave us different emotions and sentiments the minute we stepped in the borders.

Sapporo or 札幌

The capital of Hokkaido
A place that is frequently visited for business meetings
Famous for its brewery and chocolate factory.
And being one of the few metropolises in the world with such heavy snowfall, Sapporo holds the popular snow festival every Feburary.
We decided to give the brewery a miss..
He had to stick to the no drinking rule.

The Ishiya Chocolate factory was hard to miss.
Prominently perched in its conspicuous architecture
I thought it the Disneyland style structures were similar to the buildings in Otaru..

We bought our tickets quickly for a tour in the factory.
They gave each ticket holder a chocolate 白い恋人 =)

From the restrooms, to the litter bins scattered all over the premises
Designs, sculptures and paintings are tastefully and exquisitely choosen to give an ancient feel.

We proceeded to the Shiroi Koibito production line..
A rare sight nowadays especially in this metropolitan city.

Suki-san, this was where your cookies came from =P

Then it was time to grab the goodies =)

This was at the shop.
Chandeliers are indeed abundant in Hokkaido.

Shiroi Koibito or 白い恋人

The two ultra thin butter cookies with rich white or dark chocolate in between is somewhat the trademark of Hokkaido.
At the shop,

We saw the local Japanese grabbed the boxes and piled them in the baskets like they were free of charge.

I grabbed some myself and proceeded to the counter for payment.
The ladies at the counter took delicate effort to paste a small flower on each and every box with the Ishiya logo.

In fact, we thought that the best part of Ishiya Chocolate factory was the cookie shop.
It was a tour alright, but if time is tight, we thought most tourists can give this a miss.
Nevertheless, it was awesome how the Japanese takes pride in their jobs and creation..
They actually built a musuem to house their chocolate prouducts and to retain its history.

*****

Hotel Monterey Edelhof was a choice of spontaneity.
We thought after a few days of Japanese ryokans plus the scarcity of ryokans in Sapporo, we tuned to this Vienna-themed accomodation.
The hotel gave a wholesome finish to our tour in Sapporo..
It was a city that had a warm European feel..
Or at least, this was the image of Sapporo that I had =)

Took a stroll out into the cold night..
Realised we both forgot our gloves.
Thought that we could do without them, but we were soooo wrong.
It was drizzling again, the temperatures were actually on par to that of Niseko.
The hand holding on to the umbrella was frozen beyond feel.

The Xmas lightings lit up the blurry night streets pretty well..

Added more zest of life to the existing vibrancy in the city.

These lightings were sponsored by the various companies in Sapporo.

It was a kind of advertisement for them, creating awareness in the gloomy economy.
That explained why each and every "wall" of decorated lights was made with good dedicated effort.

Sapporo is somewhat similar to Tokyo, just colder.
And every underpass seemed to be a refuge for us.

Passed the TV tower, walked about randomly till we found the entrance to the Sapporo station.
Settled down for some decent meal..
The cheese croquette was sinfully tasty!
And this, shalt be our last night in Hokkaido.

After our meal, made our way back to the hotel for packing.
Rain by this time had ceased completely.
And we were able to have a superb view of the TV tower =)

*****

irony @

10:29 PM