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.