Spacestardom x Pinkyniakoh - Singapore's Lifestyle & Travel Blogger: Winter in Hokkaido Self Drive Travelogue Part 4 - {Day 8: Sapporo - Hokkaido Shrine x Beer Museum x Sapporo White Illumination} & {Day 9: Biei Blue Pond x Kumagera x Furano Farm Tomita x Ningle Terrace} & {Day 10: Kani Honke}

Wew my blog is officially dead and this last post of my Hokkaido self drive itinerary took long enough to be out. One of my bff is planning a trip there thus I'm making the effort to churn this post out LOL.

Read Part One to Part three here:

Part I (Day 1 - 3)

Part II (Day 4 - 5)

Part III (Day 6 - 7)

DAY 8

Snowy day so lets settle for some pre-breakfast hot buns at some random roadstalls~

Settled for some CoCo japanese curry which will not go wrong.

My dad is like "sigh, I just want to eat, still need to take picture" *face palms*

We ordered fish fillet, pork cutlet omelette, fried chicken & potatoes curry rice sets which spice level could be set!

Dad & William still prefers this kind of sticky norm japanese curries while I still strongly recommend and love Hokkaido's speciality soup curries which we had the previous few nights ago.

took some ugly ootd wrapped up in a pink dumpling skin & was lazy af to put makeup that day.

the usual haagen dazs icecream biscuit i'll purchase in japan

Hokkaido Shrine

474 Miyagaoka, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 064-0959, Japan

So previously when I went to tokyo with Shan we both drew omikuji which means written fortune in Japanese and she got bad ones so she drew twice.

This time round I got bad ones too so I drew mine twice or thrice as well HAHAHAH

don't believe in fate, it lies all in your hands~

but not bad la I'm recently always 'traveling alone' ;)

anyhoos, off we go tying any of our bad luck away at the temple!

i see the last remains of my brown hair here 2 years ago o.o

Winter sonata vibes

Issit dylan wang & shen yue here HAHA

Sapporo Beer Museum

9 Chome-1-１ Kita 7 Johigashi, Sapporo, Hokkaido 065-8633, Japan

love how the night light decos are in winter-christmas seasons

from what I remembered, the admission was F.O.C unless you want to opt for a guided tour.

and the history of Sapporo beer begins,

don't know what i'm doing here cos i'm an Asahi fan among all the japan beers HAHAHA

why so serious

Our dinner was settled at Sapporo Bier Garden, the museum's restaurant which can host many guests which specializes in Jingisukan.

Jingisukan (ジンギスカン, "Genghis Khan") is a Japanese grilled mutton/lamb dish prepared on a convex metal skillet or other grills. This dish is popular in Hokkaido.

we decided to go for their All-you-can-eat King Speciality (100 mins) which includes free flow meat & veggies for only 2900 Yen per person.

They also had an All-you-can-eat-AND-drink (lol all the Sapporo beers for an additonal 1000 yen)

But honestly, I regretted dining here because there are many more highly reviewed restaurants in Hokkaido which serves Jingisukan. I thought that the food here was just so-so, so I wouldn't recommend this place.

plastic bags if not our winter coats will stink like hell

Ordered some ala-carte Sapporo beers. Unless you are sumo sized, its highly unlikely you can eat so much meat and drink so much beer at the same time because beer is so gassy LOL.

william be staring at me binge drinking

As promised from the previous post, we were here once again at Odori Park at night to sight the annual Sapporo White Illumination!

me kissing Cond*m head LOL

cute japanese babies

snowball flighting..

DAY 9

As my Hokkaido itinerary mostly revolves around the places to go in WEST Hokkaido during the winter season, (the most we covered 1/7 of Hokkaido only - its really BIG part of japan lol)

We had a long road trip day on our second last day traveling slightly further east from Sapporo, to explore some summer sights (which was a bad choice, cause most of the places we managed to visit was either covered or 'destroyed' by the thick snow)

long long day ahead so settled our first meal of the day in the car

mentaiko pasta

parents sit behind everyday shiok shiok while my bf becomes their chauffeur & me the navigator cum tour guide.

After an approx of 2.5 hour drive, we finally arrived at Shirogane Blue Pond.

Biei Blue Pond

Shirogane, 美瑛町 Kamikawa District, Hokkaido 071-0235, Japan

here to catch a glimpse of the extremely famous man-made blue pond in the prefecture of Biei.

You know the commonly sighted blue pond picture which can be found in many computer as the screensaver?!

walked a long way expecting...

this... (picture credits to Wikipedia)

only to find out that the cold weather has transformed the pond into this boring dull white sight since the water was almost fully frozen & thick piles of snow has formed over the pond.

cries

luckily the pond was barricaded by these wooden barriers, if not you can't even differentiate the ground from the pond.

being a super asian chinese who still want to take pictures here just cause I'm already here despite the fugly view LOL

what to do leh

Okay la, kudos to us, still managed to get a pretty shot here.

But its a good thing we did a day trip to Furano & Biei region. Because of that, we had one of the best foods in Hokkaido! This beef hotpot place is rank one of the top few on Tripadvisor in the area~

Kumagera

3-22 日の出町 Furano, Hokkaido 076-0025, Japan

They had a few ways of cooking their different beef sets, all explained simply in their english menu!

We tried all the different preparation of wagyu beef served there!

Wagyu Beef Sukiyaki (4600 Yen)

It is similar to Shabu Shabu as both ways of cooking are - using thinly sliced meat and vegetables served with dipping sauce, but Sukiyaki is cooked in skillet which contains a broth with rich flavor seasoned soy sauce and sugar.

Dad loves his beef

Shabu Shabu (3900 Yen)

Whereas Shabu Shabu is the traditional way of cooking soup and ingredients in a hot pot, less sweet but hearty.

Waygu Beef Sashimi Rice (1980 Yen)

We loved this!!

Last but not least,

Wagyu Beef Sirloin Steak (4300 Yen)

Overall a great meal but the portions were slightly small for the price point. Its actually quite pricey here, especially if you're on a budget!

Farm Tomita

Japan, 〒071-0704 Hokkaido, Sorachi District, Nakafurano, 基線北１５号

Dropped by the famous Hokkaido Tomita lavender farm as it was along the way, but it was rather expected, everything was just snow and no sign of lavenders at all hahahaha

Don't know why they are still open o.o

Where them lavenders should be

Since we were here already, we couldn't give the lavender soft serve a miss!

(I already missed my 9 coloured ice-cream in Otaru boohoo)

I usually don't really fancy lavender flavoured stuff but this was actually GOOD.

It didn't taste too funky or artificial for a lavender softie.

Best weather for ice-creams cos you can take a selfie with them and it still doesn't melt HAHAHA

See I had the time to take so many photographs LOL

Staph it gurl~

Bf joined in

found a hidden corner

Before heading back to town, we dropped by the ningle terrace which is a stretch of picturesque timber cottages in the woods selling and showcasing traditional handicrafts.

Ningle Terrace

Nakagoryo, Furano, Hokkaido 076-0016, Japan

Let the pictures do the talking~

Nothing much to buy or see there but its just how the winter weather, snow and lights makes everything feels so magical.

Imagine visiting this place in summer hahahaha sweat to death.

Was trying to take a beautiful photo but bf went to shake the tree branches above me, beautiFOOL indeed.

Hi we are round and fat

After a 2 hour drive back to town (furano & biei area really not that far to cover for a day trip from Sapporo), we settled for some Ippudo Ramen nearby our hotel!

Some seasonal corn broth ramen, remembered that it wasn't that pleasant.

I should just stick to my usual spicy shoyu/shio broth.

had some ippudo icecream where you had a chance to win another bowl of ramen or something from the ice-cream stick!

DAY 10

Also the last day in Hokkaido!! :(

How could we leave before trying the famous Kani Honke Restaurant chain in Hokkaido!?

The first restaurant serving crab cuisine for over 50 years in Japan. In the land of the king crabs.

Had this on the last day because they are always fully booked, so better to make a reservation before coming. We walked in a couple of days ago and they had this last lunch slot for us just right before our departure.

Kani Honke (Sapporo Susukino)

4 Chome-1-3 Minami 6 Jonishi, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 064-0806, Japan

www.kani-honke.jp/en/

Private room

Many different price range and sets they offer.

I can't remember which specific sets we had cause I'm blogging this after almost two years coming back from my trip (sorry I had been so busy HAHAHA)

I think they allow smoking indoors hahahaha cause I took picture of this crab ash tray cause it was so cute!

Walao, my mom wants to take a pic with their vase LOL

Since I can't remember which 4 sets we had, I'll just show you guys the different foods in the set courses we ordered, cause some of the items are repeated, just some different add-ons or specialties in each specific sets!

Crab egg tofu

Seaweed & crab meat (?)

Crab siew mai

HAHAHA okay those I never name I really forgot what the dish is la lol

crab sashimi I'll remember

This one I don't like I also remember HAHAH

some crab glutinous rice ball in thick ginger sauce or what not

I HATE GINGER the only food I don't eat lol

I can recollect I tasted this and gave the yuck face

Yummy crab gratin

tempura snow crab

love this kinda jap appetizers

crab congee

Overall a not a crappy experience but a crabbilicious one HAHAHAH.

My parents enjoyed themselves here as well~

Recommend coming here during lunch cause standard, the japaneses' lunch set prices are always more worth it.

We were quite early to reach Chitose area to return our rented car (with free shuttle to the airport - just a 3 mins drive away - after returning, we decided to roam around the Chitose Rera Outlet Mall next door!

Its an one hour drive from Sapporo to the Chitose airport area.