Japan Day 5 - Yuki Matsuri Susukino

Our second day in Sapporo, we walked over to the Susukino site. It was about the same distance from our apartment as the Odori site. In that way, our very last minute, overpriced apartment was quite convenient.

This old man inevitably got bored everyday, and would wander over to parked cars covered in snow and tag his name on some part of their vehicle. We are pretty sure his mug shot is hanging in more than a few koban (police boxes).

Helping the locals keep Sapporo in order

The signature opening ice sculpture, a replica of a historic building in Sapporo. Please note my smashed (from my ski cap), neatly parted hair, right down the middle (a la Kim Jong Un). It's a hot, sizzling look for such a cold city.

 

Susukino, the second site of snow/ice displays, was laid out with all of the ice sculptures in the center median of a road. They were a bit larger than the usual ice sculptures you'd see at a swanky hotel's holiday buffet, as well as quite detailed up close.

I believe this entry was from a seafood restaurant showcasing the different types of food they offer.

We got there quite early (9am is pretty early in Japan aside from convenience stores, believe it or not). This meant we got to see a work crew clearing off the night's prior snowfall from each sculpture, as well as steaming each sculpture by hand to make them go from dull/opaque to sparking and clear.

I'm not sure why, but halfway through the walk through Susukino, we detoured over to a couple of temples in the distance.

Hawaii's entry!

 

Hard to see at this angle, but two massive, detailed swans.

After walking the much smaller area of Susukino (easily done in 30-45 min), we set off in search of the acclaimed Ramen Alley. But first we stumbled into this restaurant, a clear rip off the Cheesecake Factory (even the font was the same) called The Fruitcake Factory. We couldn't resist sampling their luscious and delicious cheesecake and pastries!

Shortly thereafter, we located Ramen Alley for lunch after chatting with a couple the day prior about it (they also told us where to go to get great Hokkaido ice cream). It was indeed, a very narrow alley filled with ramen shops lining both sides of the 'street'. We selected our restaurant based purely on whether they could fit five diners, as most only sat 4-8 people at a time and were all full. Our choice ended up being a good one, despite us being crammed in like sardines with. For starters, unlike many of the other trendy, newer shops, this one was old. Really old. Which meant it had long withstood the winds of whimsy and change. With so many loyal customers, it clearly allowed the owners to shun any cosmetic updates in which to lure customers. It felt a lot like eating Hamura's on Kauai (a legendary saimin shop).

Despite a very shabby, aged appearance, the walls were filled with autographs of famous Japanese and western celebrities who had each made the pilgrimage to their shop. We each had a bowl of ramen and some gyoza, which were fairly inexpensive ($8 ramen bowls with the freshest noodles you can ever imagine, and about $4 for the gyoza).

We took the train back up to the Sapporo train station so that we could do some shopping at our beloved Daimaru at their 'depachika' (ground floor offering up endless food options). We have all been introduced to the great love that is Daimaru by my SIL and her boys (my two nephews), as she literally grew up next door to one of them. It's a tad upscale, bue like most other higher end department stores, they have a great 'depachika' (basement level featuring amazing delicacies that are still somewhat reasonably priced compared to restaurants). We got chocolates for our family, Shiroi Koibito cookies (again, if you know, you know), okonomiyaki for us, musubi, sushi and nigiri for my dad, etc. We were also on the hunt for signature Hello Kitty attire for my nieces, and got a few things there as well.

The colorful bento on the right is only about $11.50 with the exchange rate, which ends up being cheaper than most sit down restaurants. Not to mention that you could never cook up such a variety of food for that price! Depachikas are a great way to sample the foods of Japan without breaking the bank.

What better way to send out birth announcements for little Kenji or Sachiko than with a pricey bag of rice? I can think of no other. This actually reminded me of the Chinese tradition of announcing events like marriage or childbirth with generous gifts of food to the community.

I was told, as I often am in department stores in Japan, not to take any pictures. Of anything. Ever. But because I am a customer (and noooo one tells me what to do when I'm not hurting anyone, wink wink), I have perfected the fine art of 'Better to apologize later than to ask for permission,' and am pretty quick about snapping a few pics.

I'm now super motivated to make musubi more often for the family! I had one nearly daily that was barley with edamame noodles.

As it was early evening at this point, we all trudged home to drop off a very tired set of grandparents and a grandson. But not without a snow angel in the best snow angel powder, ever!

Rich and I headed back out to town after a very brief siesta to meet up with my sister from another mister, Yuri, for a delicious dinner. I see her every week (she's a dear friend and run partner), and even though we live a mile apart, we met up in Japan in Sapporo and Tokyo! Unlike this dumb-dumb, who speaks Japanese at a 2-year old level, she's brilliantly bilingual.

After dinner together, we decided to do a quick walk though the Odori site again (since we ate underground of the Sapporo TV Tower and were right there) to set it all lit up at night. We weren't sure if it would be worth my family coming back out to see it, but we decided it was a totally different visual experience and suggested they come back. Huge credit to them for getting all suited up again in their winter gear after thinking they could retire for the night! Poor Ryan was in his pjs and just put his snow gear on over it all!

We suggested they come back out, as one of the larger sculptures there was running a light show (reminiscent of a Disney Fantasmic production) every few minutes, and we thought my parents and Ry would enjoy it. Here's a brief snippet of the two-minute show:

It was another perfect day in Sapporo, but this time, with clear blue skies all day (day one was overcast/gray all day, but with the heavy snowfall, so we didn't mind). We couldn't have hoped for better weather, and were so glad we'd seen both of the sites we intended to see (we skipped Tsudome, due to the long lines for winter activities and lack of winter art) without any issues.