Off to the Big Smoke... For a Bite to Eat.

31st July, 2010 - My first full day in Japan for 2010, and we wasted no time. Off to the city to do some shopping for a new camera at Yodobashi - one of my favourite stores (for those that don't know, Yodobashi's a great electronics store in Japan - and very big).

And whilst we were in the city, a quick bite to eat in a nice little izakaya (Japanese pub cafe) called Marumiya on the western exit of Sapporo Station - on the way to Yodobashi.

T-chan selects from the menu. The good thing about a lot of cafe's and izakaya in Japan is that many have menus with pictures (or they might have the plastic food models out front). Makes food selection so much easier - and you don't need to wonder what's it going to be like. Of course, a lot of the food is fairly standard (and today was some old favourites)

Some yummy Japanese beer... there's never a bad time for this.

Some delicious ton-katsu (essentially a Japanese pork schnitzel)

Whilst T-chan had a Ramen Salad... Hmmm.. scrumptious.

And they all came with a lovely soup... in a cup.

And lets not forget the onigiri, or rice balls. Those these are just a little fancy...

The atmosphere inside is quite nice... clean and simple, but I loved the walls'o'sake (above) and the cozy little booths as well. Actually, I'm not sure if this is still their current decor, as they appeared to be renovating the whole area when I was there a few weeks ago.

And the other thing I had to get used to was the coffee cups that always come 3/4 full (unlike here in Australia, when you ask for a coffee, it's normally near over-flowing). The first time I went to Japan I was quite surprised at how small the coffees were for the price. But over the 8 years I've been going, the price of coffees like much in Japan has remained relatively static, whilst the prices in Australia have been getting progressively more expensive.

Actually, I don't tend to take photos of food... we tend just to enjoy simple meals in Japan, and they're not really photo worthy. I guess today I was just in the mood of taking photos...  and one of the things that I've always enjoyed in many other peoples blogs are their photos of food. So I thought I'd try taking some food photos with our trusty (but old) Lumix FS7 ultra compact digicam. Little did I know then just how things would change when we stepped up to the world of DSLR's...

Actually... not only did we buy one camera on this trip, we bought two... let's just say digicams are our curse...

But that's for another time. Right now, I'm getting hungry.

Day 6 - Sapporo (Hokkaido)

5th February, 2003 - Departing Tokyo late in the afternoon, we arrived in Sapporo's New Chitose Airport around 8-9 pm. We decided to take the train from the airport to Sapporo - takes about 40+mins as Chitose Airport is in the MIDDLE OF NO-WHERE. In fact if you were thinking of plonking an airport to support Sapporo - Chitose is about the best place NOT to put an airport. However - it does give you a chance to enjoy the scenery... if you were arriving in the day time.

My memory of arriving was this. Cold. It was about -15 degC when we arrived in Sapporo. That's cold even by Sapporo standards. After arriving in Sapporo Station, we changed trains - but not before catching up on some important business. Yes - back in those days I was a smoker... and Japan was smoker's paradise. Nowadays - things have changed a lot. And I quit smoking before the birth of my son (and a good thing too).

The other strong memory was arriving at the local station, and climbing up the stairs to be greeted by T-chan's mother (okaasan) and father (otousan). Yes - i was going to meet the family for the first time. That was a weird feeling.... but made much nicer by the fact that they are really great people, and I felt at ease with them instantly!