Last day in Hokkaido: mmnchua

mmnchua

Last day in Hokkaido

Apr 16, 2007 16:56

We have finally come to the last day of our 9 days (to & fro days not counted) trip to Japan.

We headed to Nijo Ichiba Market, a famous fish market in the city centre of Sapporo after forwarding our baggages to the airport hotel (Mitsui Urban) where we will be staying for a night before departing for Singapore early next morning. I really like this baggage delivery service concept as tourists can now travel really light!

The Nijo Ichiba Market has served local residents since the Meiji era and is a popular drawcard for tourists (and perhaps sashimi chefs alike). There are slightly over 50 stores selling anything from fresh fish and crabs to sea urchins to salmon roes, I say one would probably find in these stores anything the surrounding seas of Hokkaido have to offer. The display of the yummy Hokkaido crabs really made me drool and boy they don’t come cheap! Nevertheless I was contented with the crab lunch we had later in the day before departing for the airport.

Next stop for the day was to Ishiya White Lover Chocolate Museum (白之恋人朱古力博物馆). Anyone who visited Hokkaido is likely to buy at least a box of "Shiroi Koibito", a luxurious chocolate in "langue de chat" cookies which has become synonymous with "Present from Hokkaido". The pricing is controlled, one won’t get discounts for buying more or being charge different prices at different stores; but the good thing is it is available island-wide from sundry store to fish market to airport, so one cannot say they forgot to buy a box of the famous chocolate wafer. Guess what, we bought nearly 20 boxes! The place we visited is not only a museum but also THE FACTORY that produces more than 15 million pieces of yummy wafer per year! The factory line is opened for viewing from a gallery; the workers are very stringent of their quality, seriously I won’t mind chomping on the rejected wafers, my mouth drooled just looking at the assembly line : ) Since it was our last day and also to let Nicole enjoyed playing snow to her heart’s content, we stayed on at the vicinity for a long while as the place also has got a children playground. My hands were numbed by the cold weather while taking photos and video footages of dh and Nicole having fun in the snow.

We have decided to sacrifice shopping time at the Chitose Rera Outlet Mall for longer snowplay time. Nonetheless we still managed to purchase a beautiful Disney Princess clock and two pairs of shoes for Nicole during the last hour before the outlet closes for the day.

That night while tucking Nicole in bed, she asked “mommy can we don’t go home I like to stay back and play snow”. This very sentence echoed how much Nicole enjoyed this winter holiday, its not only her, both hubby and I also love Hokkaido lots. Looks like both of us would have to work hard for another winter holiday in Hokkaido before Nicole starts formal education in 2 years time.

加油! 加油! Another 9 more months to go before 2008!