Otaru

I didn’t think we’d make it back to Otaru. In my mind it’s got shopping and more shopping and how many pretty glass ornaments can we buy?

I’m glad mm insisted to return. After all, it’s only 30 mins drive from Sapporo. We had a great day. Tired from all the walking, but still good. Parking was difficult, at least for the free variety so we parked for the whole day. ¥100 for 30mins, max ¥1,200, we were prepared to pay the maximum price.

No visit to Otaru can be complete without a stop at the canal. I’ve never really gotten why it’s considered to absolutely stunningly beautiful. It’s pretty, but…I dunno.

Early lunch of uni rice at a food stall. We thought the place would get packed later but the crowds never appeared. They must have stuck to the restaurants on the main strip. And what a main strip. Took us the whole day to walk from one end to the other and back. Mostly glassware, music boxes and ornaments. There were repeats which suggested similar sources. Still, the handiwork was impressive.

I didn’t buy much. mm bought sake sets from the outlet, an award winning bottle of sake, music boxes and other souvenirs. We learned something new today at the Otaru Music Box Museum. Normally music boxes are 18-note, so are limited in the range of music they can play. High end music boxes have 36-, 50- and even 72-notes. One of the curators at the museum showed us the difference, and it was remarkable. The 72-note box played Ave Maria with both treble and bass, just like on the piano (same number of keys). Naturally the price increase is exponential.

Food-wise we had a heavenly day. The seafood stall offering grilled scallops on the shell for ¥100 was too good to pass up. We had one each, then returned to have 2-3 each. At Kitakaro where we got a tea set of coffee, ice cream and puff for ¥500 was equally value for money.

Dinner back at the wholesale fish market in Sapporo. By then it was dark and the stalls had closed, but not the restaurants. For this last dinner we totally gorged ourselves, I had the crab set meal and mm had sushi and tempura. The new room at the Keio Plaza was way better, so much so that I was impressed (or relieved) enough to take pictures.