Day 28- Nijo Fish Market & the Beer museum

I slept through my alarm this morning so I had a pretty lazy start. I got up around 10 and had a coffee with Jenny (the girl I met last night).

Hokkaido is famous for its seafood so around 11 went to Nijo fish market. The Taiwanese girl I met the day before had told me about a really good restaurant near there, so that was my plan for lunch. I walked around the market for a bit before heading to the restaurant.

I ordered a set meal because it seemed to have a bit of everything.

Tuna, Prawn, Scollop, Sea urchin, salmon sashimi and crab

It was amazing. The sashimi was really good but my favourite has to be the crab. I’ve never had crab so sweet and fresh.

After lunch I walked around for a bit, eventually getting to another market which had really strange things like an owl sanctuary.

Anyway, I went back to the station and headed for the Beer museum. Outside the museum they had a massive container, which was used for boiling the ingredients.

On the sign next to it, it said: this is not an unidentified flying object.

Because obviously that was first assumption. It made me laugh.

The museum was pretty cool, although a lot of the signs weren’t in English so I just guessed what most things were.

When you got to the end of the route, there was a tasting area.

Black label, Classic & Original recipe

The portions were larger than I expected because it was only 500 yen.

After the museum, I went to a supermarket to pick up stuff for my family before heading back to the hostel.

I packed up my stuff and then hung out with Jenny for a bit. Around 7 we went to the supermarket again, she needed to buy stuff and I had forgotten green tea (my sister would have killed me).

The shopping trip turned out to be longer than expected because at check out, the cashier tried to give Jenny 10,000 yen back when she needed 1 yen. I think the cashier had forgotten to take the 10,000 yen note of the machine from the last customer.

It took a long time to explain but the manager was so grateful to us afterwards.

Around 8, I went to go and get dinner. Sapporo is supposed to be famous for soup curry, so I found a restaurant that did it.

You had to choose, from 1 to 10, which spice level you wanted. I chose a 5 and the waiter tried to convince me that it would be too spicy. He even brought out a chili for me to eat because he said this is how spicy it is.

I stuck to my guns and ordered a 5 anyway. It was nice to have something spicy, the food in Japan tends to be very mild.

The soup curry was delicious.

I then went back to the hostel and hung out with Jenny and the Canadian guys till about midnight when I finally decided I should go to bed.

This is the end of my trip and I’m so sad to leave. The time has flown by.

Day 27- Sapporo Beer Garden & Mt Moiwa

I arrived in Sapporo at 6am, nothing was open so I slept for a couple hours in the train station.

At 8, I put my luggage in a locker and headed for Odori park. When I got there, there seemed to be a beer festival being set up which I wasn't expecting.  On each block they had a beer garden for a different brand of beer. It was so cool.

I walked through the park till I got to the old courthouse.

 

I went into the garden and relaxed there for while.

I then walked back till I got to the TV tower, I decided not to go up because I'm going to get great views from Mt Moiwa anyway.

I then went to the botanical gardens, they were really beautiful.

Around lunch I went to the beer garden. I thought I'm in Sapporo, the home of beer in Japan, my Dad would be disappointed in me if I didn't have a beer in the Sapporo beer garden. I also ate lunch there.

 

Sapporo Beer, Yaki Soba, Squid in a yummy sauce

After lunch I headed back to Sapporo station to get my luggage, and then went to my hostel. I got so lost on my way to the hostel, but luckily a really nice man walked me there.

Around half 5, I went to Mt Moiwa. I wanted to see sunset from the top of the mountain and get night views.

It was beautiful.

I met a girl from Taiwan and hung out till it got dark. The night views were amazing, my camera couldn't capture it so here's a picture from google:

I then headed back to the hostel. On my way I went to find somewhere to eat, I was about to give up and get something from 7/11 when I found a tiny little restaurant.

The menu wasn't in English so the owner and the couple sat next to me ordered for me. They found it hilarious.

The couple were so lovely though , they barely spoke English but we managed to communicate. She offered me taste of everything she ate.

They also thought it would be funny to order Natto for me. It actually wasn't that bad, I probably wouldn't order it again but I was expecting worse.

Natto wrapped in egg

They also bought me a drink and a couple of dishes. The drink was so strong, when I got it, Yumi told me to take alternate sips with water.

I was pretty tipsy after.

All of the food was delicious.

After dinner, I headed back to the hostel. There were bunch of people playing Jenga so I joined for a while. We then all went to a pub. It was really fun.

I got back to the hostel around 2am, that's why I'm writing this today.

I leave tomorrow and it's quite late so I'll do todays post tomorrow.

Day 26- Back to Asakusa and off to Sapporo

I'm writing this on day 27 because I took an overnight train last night, so I didn't get a chance to do it.

I woke up a little stressed this morning because I wasn't sure how exactly I was getting to Sapporo in the evening. I also didn't know how much I would have to pay because it's an overnight journey. Some wanted up to £100 which I wasn't expecting. So I decided to go to a JR ticket office and just sort it through them.

I had absolutely nothing to be stressed about, it took 10 minutes to sort out and I didn't have to pay any extra. My JR pass was enough.

I then headed to Asakusa to do some souvenir shopping. Anna (who I met in Kyoto) recommended a shop behind the temple,  and it was brilliant. I got some great stuff for my family.

After Asakusa I headed to a supermarket to buy dinner for that evening and food to take back to England. I then went back to the house and attempted to pack everything. My bags are so full now.

At 5, I said bye to the family and left for the station. I'm really sad to leave the family, they were so lovely. Also it marks the end of my trip.

I took the Shinkansen to Aomori, then a regular train to Sapporo.

Just to give you an idea of how fast the Shinkansen is compared to a regular train. From Tokyo to Aomori it took 3 hours and from Aomori to Sapporo it took 7 hours.

I had 2 seats to myself most of the journey though so I managed to sleep through most of the night. 

Day 25- Back to Tokyo

Early start this morning, caught a train at 7 to go to Tokyo.

I got back to my host family just after 11. It was so nice to see them again. I then went to meet my friend and his family for lunch. It was pretty hard to communicate because I didn't have wifi but we eventually met up.

When we got there, there was a festival going on. It was pretty cool, they were carrying this through the streets. People were throwing water on them to keep them cool.

We went to a restaurant where he cooked the food right at the table.

I think it was called Monjayaki.

It looked a little weird but it was delicious. We had 2 types, one with cabbage and fish roe.

The other was with meat, noodles and bean sprouts.

 

We also had Okonomiyaki. It was Osaka style, much better than the one I had yesterday, it had octopus, prawns and scallops in it. It was really tasty.

After, we drove to Ueno, apparently it is famous for shaved ice so we went to a restaurant to have some.

I had matcha green tea with condensed milk.

It was so good.

I got back to the house around 6 and planned my journey for tomorrow. Then the mum made me dinner, it was tuna with spring onion and rice. It was good, the mum is so nice.

I've eaten so much today.

I then packed up my souvenirs and got ready for tomorrow. Now I'm going to bed.

Day 24- Tempozan Ferris Wheel

So I had done everything I wanted to do Osaka by today, except the ferris wheel. I had a lazy morning planning the next leg of my trip.

I left the hostel just before noon. When I got to the ferris wheel, I was so happy because it was clear blue skies, meaning I would have great views.

I was expecting there to be really long queues when I got there, but I managed to just walk straight on.

The views were spectacular.

After, I walked around a nearby shopping centre before stopping for lunch.

After lunch I took a walk by the pier which was really nice. I headed back to the hostel at around 4.

I chilled in my room for a while and packed.

I decided to go to Dotonbori for dinner but on my way, I passed a tiny little restaurant which looked interesting so I decided to eat there instead. I had okonomiyaki because it's a speciality here so I thought I should try it before I left.

It was really good, though I prefer Hiroshima style.

I returned to hostel and met some girls from the Netherlands. We hung out for a bit and then I talked to my parents.

Early start tomorrow so now I'm off to bed

Day 23- Nara

Day trip to Nara today. I got there around half 10 and almost immediately met a girl from Germany.

There were so many Deer around and they'd eat right out of your hand. They were a bit cheeky though, they'd follow you around until you fed them.

We headed for Todaiji temple where the big Buddha is.

We walked around for a while before heading to the Earthquake museum. It was really cool, they had a chair which simulated an earthquake.

It was around 3 so we went to go and get something to eat. I had noodles with dried fish, I didn't realise that was what I had ordered.

It was very very fishy.

After lunch, Christine had to go back to her hostel, so I walked around for a little longer before catching the train back to Osaka.

I chilled out in the hostel for a bit before going to get dinner. There menu wasn't in English but there were some pictures so I just pointed at what looked good.

The one on the far left was basically crackling on a stick. The 5th one was chicken and the 6th one was heart. I'm not gonna lie, I have no idea what the rest were but they were really good, except the one on the end. I don't know what it was but it was gross.

I then went back to the hostel and relaxed. It's been a good day, now I'm going to bed.

Day 22- Shikoku Mura

 Early start today, arrived in Shikoku at around 10, after 2 and a half hours of travelling.

Shikoku Mura is in the 3rd island of Japan so it was pretty cool watching the train cross over.

When I got to the station it was a couple minutes by bus to get there. It was a long journey but so worth it. It was really beautiful.

Cool lizard with a blue tail

It was where old families had lived and there were various "factories" which produced sugar, soy sauce, etc.

Processes sugarcane 

Massive barrels for soy sauce

Old houses

The place was empty which was really nice, I didn't see any other tourists.

I went to the water gardens which were really beautiful.

I didn't realise how much I had walked till I got to the top around half 1. I had some amazing views.

I spent the whole day around Shikoku, it was so worth the journey.

When I got down, I went for a rather late lunch. The only place around was an udon noodle shop. It was really good.

I also had some sugarcane ice cream.

At the exit, there was what I think was supposed to be an English style restaurant. It was really funny, there was a telephone box and a mailbox outside.

I left for the train station just after 3, giving me 45 minutes to get to the station. I didn't know what time the buses ran so decided to walk, it was only supposed to be 10 minutes.

That is if you don't get horribly lost.

I ended up at a station, just not the one I was supposed to be at, it wasn't JR. Some school kids attempted to direct me but it really wasn't working. I continued to walk, at this point I was pretty stressed because I had to catch the sakura shinkansen. There wasn't another one covered on the JR pass for another 3 hours after that one.

After asking so many people where it was, I eventually arrived in the nick of time.

I got back to the hostel around half 6 and grabbed dinner from the local shop and chilled out in the common room for a while.

I met 2 girls from Alabama and we hung out for a while, then 2 girls from Australia joined and another 2 girls from France. It was a really good evening.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Nara. Off to bed now.