Sending fish to Saitama

On the morning of the day when my brother and sister in law returned to Saitama, we also went to the fish market to buy sea food to send to relatives in Saitama and other parts in southern Japan. A lot of hokke, dried squid, and scallops were bought. After that, I had to rush to another part of the city to do a magic show for a big group of kids, and the others went to the airport.

Magic Bar Twister

Me working

On my brother's last night in Sapporo, we went to Magic Bar Twister. I performed for a groups of people sitting in the sofa seats while my brother and sister in law saw the other two magicians perform for them at the counter. I also performed for them later, and luckily two other guests showed up and sat next to them at the counter. For my relatives, I have performed most of my material already, since they ask me to show them magic every New Year when we meet in Saitama.

Preparing for the night by eating nikuman

Our magic bar also serves some food, mainly spicy chicken. My brother and his wife ate some of the spicy chicken and thought it was very good (which it is). There is also the option of "Russian Roulette" on the menu. This means that among the five or six pieces of chicken, one or more are not just spicy but extremely spicy. And you cannot tell by looking which one it is. The bad ones are filled with a very hot sauce which I think is called Mad Dog's Revenge, though it may be a different but similar product. Anyway, even for people who are immune to spicy food, this physically hurts for about 20 minutes or so.

My brother does not eat food that is that spicy, though his wife orders super spicy food quite often. After some tries from me to get her to give up the idea, she got her will through and we ordered a Russian Roulette set with only one super spicy piece of chicken to use for the three of use. I was hoping I would not get the spicy one, since it makes it hard for you to speak for 20 minutes or so, and that makes it difficult to perform magic. As luck would have it, my sister in law got the super spicy piece in her first draw. She is much more resistant to spicy food than I am, but she kept saying it hurt on and off for 20 minutes or so.

She also thought that the magician Tsubasa should stop referring to her in the way he did, which was implying that she was older than him. As it turns out, Tsubasa is actually 9 years younger than her, so that was not that strange after all... He just looks like he is older than she is. She thought that was the most surprising magic of the whole evening.

When things calmed down in Magic Bar Twister, I took the rest of the night off and we went to Trick Bar Twister (the other magic bar in our chain) to meet my other magician friends. They also showed us some magic, and since every magician has his or her own style, it was nice to see both "mysterious" magic, "funny" magic, "lewd" magic, and magic "that makes you angry", haha.

My friends also thought it was great to get to speak to my brother about all the weird things I may or may not have done when I was younger, and to my sister in law about life as a Japanese living in Sweden etc. We also met lots of people I know, like some people from Bic Camera, and other regulars to our magic bar.

On the way back to the hotel, my sister in law commented that "you know so many people here!" Which my parents also said when they were here, since we kept running into people that came up and said: "Ah, Jonas. Long time no see" etc. But that week I had many more random encounters with people I know than normal. This time, we did not have that many, I thought. I protested and said that it was not strange to meet lots of people that know me when we were in a bar where I work, since everyone that comes to that bar can be expected to know me. As I was explaining this, a woman came up to us and said: "Ah, Jonas. Long time no see!"... which kind of made my argument seem unconvincing.

Blue food and red clothes

My brother likes Uniclo, which is a cheap but nice brand of clothes here in Japan. We went shopping there and I bought two t-shirts, one with some "tribal" designs and one with Monsters INC (or Monsters University, perhaps?) characters. I like the movies, and the shirt was cute too.

I also bought a pair of shorts. Since we did not have that much time, I just picked a pair in size L, which is usually something I can just about get my thighs into (Japanese men apparently have no leg muscles and no muscles around their shoulders, based on the size of clothes in this country). This usually means they are too wide around the waist for me, but not that bad. This time, it turned out that size L was huge. You could almost fit two of me in these shorts...

I also found some strange food in a souvenir shop. It is a curry dish, but it is blue. The idea is that it should look like drift ice, as this is the big tourist attraction of the north-east part of Hokkaido and people go there in the spring to watch the ice flakes come drifting from the north. The curry also comes with some white food to put in it, to make the dish look like blue sea water with ice floating in it.

TV Tower and breasts

After seeing Otaru, we returned to Sapporo. The plan for the evening was to go to the magic bar where I perform, but we had two hours or so to kill before the magic bar would open. We decided to go up the Sapporo TV Tower and check the view from there. I have been in Sapporo for a total of eight years now, but this was the first time I went up to the top of the TV tower (I have been to the restaurant floor once, though).

The TV tower is not that high, so the view is not that great. But the tower is located in the Odori Koen park, which does give you a nice view of the park.

You can also see both the hotel where my brother was staying and my house from the TV tower.

As in all Japanese sightseeing places, there was also a souvenir shop in the TV tower. The sold the typical Hokkaido souvenirs. I found some "oppaido" cell phone straps. These are shaped more or less like the island of Hokkaido, but also made to look like a female torso with large breasts. The souvenir name sounds a bit like Hokkaido (which means the "Northern Sea district") and translates to something like the "boob district". I am not sure if this is just a "it sounds a bit like boobs, lets make boob souvenirs" thing, or if Hokkaido for some reason is famous for big breasts. As far as I have noticed during my eight years in Sapporo, Hokkaido women do not have breasts that would warrant making large breasted souvenirs.

Otaru canals and Naruto chicken

After eating way too much free chocolate, we finally reached the canals. Otaru is famous for having canals, and for having buildings that "look European" near the canals. Having lived 30 years in Europe, seeing European looking buildings is not exactly the most exciting sightseeing I can imagine, but for Japanese domestic tourism, this is "a thing".

The weather was not great, so the canals look a little more boring than on a sunny day, but this is about what you get when sightseeing in Otaru. During the winter they have a snow lantern festival where the float candles on the canal and place ice lanterns and snow lanterns all along the canal, which is actually very beautiful.

After seeing the sightseeing spots, we went on to our main goal in Otaru: the restaurant Naruto. They serve all kinds of food (even for a Japanese restaurant they have a very wide spectrum of dishes, including ramen, seafood, and chicken). Naruto is famous for "half chicken". You get half a chicken that they deep fry.

We ordered two halves, and since it was lunch time they came with soup, rice, sushi, and all kinds of things too. We also ordered fried octopus and a piece of fried salmon that turned out to be extremely good. The chicken was of course very good too.

To much chocolate and cakes at LeTao, the backwards Otaru

Anywhere you go in Japan, you will find souvenir shops that sell local sweets. Sometimes they just sell sweets that are good, and sometimes they sell sweets that are themed to some local product. The latter are often not very good. I have for instance had soft ice cream with shredded wasabi on top, which was not a good mix. Lavender taste ice cream near the lavender fields of Furano was also pretty bad.

In Otaru, you find LeTAO (which becomes "Otaru" if read backwards in Japanese). They make cakes and chocolate. The most famous product they have is the LeTAO Double Fromage cheese cake, which is excellent.

Many souvenir sweets shops (and department stores) have people giving you free samples of all kinds of things to try. When we entered the biggest LeTAO shop to buy some cheese cake to send to relatives in southern Japan, there were lots of young girls asking me to try various chocolate products and cookies. These were all great, but I think I got enough free samples to add up to a small lunch...

To get free shipping you had to buy a certain number of products, and we were one product short so I bought a thing called "LeTAO Sensation" that I had never seen before. It was deceptively small, but turned out to be very heavy. It was like eating thick chocolate with a spoon. Good, but heavy.

Poseidon jokes, puns in Japanese

We passed a place in Otaru that served seafood donburi (donburi are Japanese dishes served on top of rice beds in bowls). It was called Posei-don, with the "don" part being the kanji for donburi. A very clever name.

Nantaru, and Swedish things

My friend from Otaru suggested taking the train towards Otaru but getting off at the station before the Otaru main station. This station is called South Otaru, or Minami Otaru in Japanese. Japanese people like contractions and my friend kept referring to it as "Nantaru" ("nan" is another way to read the kanji for south, and "taru" is the last part of Otaru). From there it is about the right distance for a walk to get to Otaru station, and during that walk you will see all the famous things Otaru has to offer (which is mainly some souvenir shops and the canals).

We did as suggested and when walking towards the canals I noticed a shop called "Kinderlieb". This is the place where all the games in the snack bar Ropossa (that we went to the first night) come from. We took a look inside, and they had lots of interesting toys there. They also had Swedish made table cloths and things like that, with a certificate in Swedish!

When we left the store, I took a photo of myself in front of the building and sent a comment to the Ropossa mama saying: "At Kinderlieb now". Before I could push the button for attaching the photo too, there was a message from her to me saying: "You should visit Kinderlieb, it is right where you are!" She had seen my Facebook update that we just got off the train at Nantaru. Synchronicity.

Blond Japanese speaking Swedish

The second day of my brother's Sapporo visit ended with a stop at One Star Bar. One of my friends works there, and when my parents visited Sapporo, he secretly learned enough Swedish to talk to them for a minute or so, just to surprise them and me (which succeeded).

"Actual blond people speaking to a fake blond person", was the caption of this photo when I found it.

Now, he does not remember that much Swedish he said, but he did say a few sentences in Swedish. Since my brother speaks better Japanese than I do, the rest of the evening we spoke Japanese. We had a lot of fun. We also asked my friend, who is from Otaru (a smaller city close to Sapporo) for tips on what to do during the day the next day. He suggested some things to see and eat in Otaru, which turned out to be nice.

A delicious present

When my parents visited, my friend had prepared a famous cheese cake from the LeTAO sweets stores (which are based in Otaru; LeTAO is Otaru read backwards in Japanese). This time, he said he had prepared another food present but since we had just had extreme amounts of sushi, maybe we would not be interested. He then produced leftovers of cheap sushi from a convenience store, and his boss said: "That is just the stuff you left when you did not want to eat more when you ate your cheap dinner earlier tonight!"

Me and my drunk friend

Hokkaido sushi

Mackerel sushi (saba)

Hokkaido has very good sushi. The types of fish you can get are also slightly different from the rest of Japan (since the sea is colder here). The second day of Sapporo sightseeing, we had sushi for dinner. Way too much sushi, but it was very good. And my relatives extremely satisfied (it may have been the best sushi they have tried) and they were shocked at how cheap the bill was when we were finished.

A small selection of all the things we ate:

Crab salad sushi

Slightly grilled mackerel (aburi saba)

Extra fat salmon

Asparagus sushi (limited offer since it is asparagus season now)

Aburi sanma (slightly grilled mackerel pike)

Raw fish eggs

Soup

Japanese sake

The blessings of the north, and Seicomart

Rose hip ice cream

Outside the botanical gardens you can also see the old Hokkaido prefectural office, which is a brick building. Buildings made from brick are very rare in Japan, and this one is thus a common stop for tourist buses. We decided to walk past it since it was so close, and there turned out to be a small festival going on called "The blessings of the north".

Tai-yaki with Hokkaido flour, Hokkaido sweet beans, etc.

People from all over Hokkaido (the northernmost territory of Japan, but very far south compared to Sweden) were there showing Hokkaido grown food etc. I ended up talking to a nice old man who sold buckwheat tea. In Japan people eat a lot of soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat. This was something you could make tea from, and he gave me some tea to try (very good tea!). He also said you can sprinkle it on salads or other things, and sprinkled some on my rose hip ice cream. It was very good like that too, so I bought a bag from him. Very cheap.

Soba (buckwheat) tea/snack

My sister in law had seen some Japanese TV show where the owner of the Seico Mart chain of convenience stores (which are common in Hokkaido but is a chain almost exclusive to Hokkaido) wanted to take a look inside a Seico Mart too. Since there are lots of them all over the city, we walked a block or so to the south and found one. She looked around and was impressed that the quality of the lunch box food seemed better than other convenience stores. For most people living in Hokkaido, Seico Mart is not something you would expect tourists to be interested in, but there you go.

The Hokkaido University Botanical Garden

In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Hokkaido University botanical garden. It has a nice botanical garden and also has a small Ainu museum.

Ainu coat made from birds

Ainu coat made from seals

I had heard that people working at Hokkaido University for free, so I went up to the lady at the entrance to ask if that was true. She waved me away and said in broken English that I should first go buy a ticket in the ticketing machine, then come to her. I asked in Japanese if it was free for Hokudai teachers to enter, and showed my staff ID. She was surprised that I spoke Japanese but complemented me on my Japanese and then said that indeed I could enter for free.

Sapporo sightseeing in Tanuki-koji street and in the Sapporo Beer Museum

In the winter, bears sometimes come into the city, and when hiking they are a real concern I am told

On the second day in Sapporo, my brother and sister in law saw some of the "famous" sightseeing spots. First we took a walk through the Tanuki-koji shopping arcade street. It was just around the corner from their hotel. We also looked at the 2-jo fish market, and they decided to come back on their last day to send some fish to our relatives in southern Japan.

My new yukatas

We met up with one of my friends who once visited Sweden and then became friends with my sister in law. The four of us went to the Sapporo Beer Museum near the ARIO mall. First we stopped by the mall to buy some flowery t-shirts for my mother. We entered a place where I buy Japanese style clothes, and the guy working there recognized me and spoke to us long before we even entered the shop. We found some t-shirts for my mom, and I ended up buying two new yukatas. My brother bought a pair of shorts too.

Beer ice cream

Then we went to the Beer Museum. Just outside, I spotted a place selling "beer ice cream". That sounded weird, so I wanted to try it. I asked if it was good, and the woman selling it said that it was pretty much soft ice cream mixed with beer, and "very good". Since I do not like beer, I was not so sure of that. I bought some beer ice cream and indeed it tasted a lot like beer.

Beer museum showcase of old Sapporo Beer posters

We took a look in the beer museum itself, and then went on to the main event: jingisukan for lunch. Jingisukan is a dish that Hokkaido is famous for (among domestic tourists). It is basically thinly sliced meat that you grill yourself (which is exactly what Japanese yakiniku also is), but instead of pork or beef, it is lamb. In the rest of the country, people do not eat lamb. They think it "smells", and there are no sheep. In Hokkaido, eating lamb is quite common, though, as are sheep. The name jingisukan comes from Genghis Khan, because the iron plate you use to grill the meat looks like a Mongolian helmet.

Jingisukan

My sister in law commented: "I hate people who make that face". Probably referring to me.

We ate lots of lamb, and also ordered some asparagus (it is asparagus season on Hokkaido right now) as well as some seafood mix (Hokkaido is famous for having good seafood).

 "pudding jam" and "wine jam"

We also made a short stop in the souvenir shop. There I found some "pudding jam" and "wine jam" in the jam corner.

Me and my brother posing more or less like the statues behind us, in front of the Sapporo TV Tower

Later, we also took a photo in front of the Sapporo TV Tower, because that is what tourists do.