Sunday, July 14, 2013
Japan July 2013 - Day 6 (Otaru)
After the Furano trip yesterday which was a trip highly dependent on train scheduling, today's is much more relaxed as there are many more trains travelling between Sapporo and Otaru. The train fare between Sapporo and Otaru is 620 yen and takes about 30 mins.
We arrived in Otaru rather early, around 0930 and as we exited the JR station, we happened upon a rally and my mum was also given a flyer for the candidate campaigning, lol.
The main plan is to visit the Otaru Canal, and Sakamachi which seems to bring you round to quite a few attractions. It's actually not very far from the JR Otaru station to the Otaru Canal and further on to the sea. Along the way we passed by an old railway converted into a small relaxing area and pathway.
The Otaru Canal used to be a means of moving goods much like the Singapore river, but is now disused and pretty much tourist attraction. There are scores of people milling around for photos at the photo spot. Everyone who comes to Otaru drops by just to grab a shot here, I think.
After the canal, we walked along Sakamachi... which is basically a tourist street, kinda like Chinatown but much less seedier. You have shops selling glassware, music boxes and omiyage (souvenirs for the gluttons). You definitely have restaurants selling seafood all over the place, after all, this is Hokkaido.
One thing is that there are many rickshaw pullers here and if you compare them to the trishw uncles in Singapore, they are definitely much younger.
My mum wanted some tea (she needs hot ceylon tea daily, which can be tricky in Japan) so we started looking for a mac's. However we passed by a restaurant and she was tempted by the menu so we went in there instead. I had the salmon and ikura bowl and she had the crab,ikua, urchin, salmon bowl. My poor wallet :( Although this meal was less of a good deal when compared to the dinner we had on the first night in Sapporo, it's still great when compared to Singapore in terms of freshness. The two bowls cost about $65.
After lunch, we continued along the street and I got distracted by this cafe called LeTao. promised Chocolate lol, so I went in and had a cake and tea. I didn't really like the tea though, the tea is not bad but I don't quite like florals.
Whilst in the cafe, I heard drumming going on (hearing drumming while in Cafe LeTao?? hahahaha) and hoped thatby the time I finished my cake, I could still catch it. After the cake, we went up to the observatory platform on the 3rd floor. On this floor, you get a pretty good view of Otaru, so if you are in Otaru, I would recommend that you come over here to take a look as well as take some shots.
By the time we got down to the ground floor, the performance seems to have started up again and so we spent some time enjoying the free outdoor performance (baking in the sun). They did a drum number, 3 dance routines (simple dance where they invite people to join in) and finished with a 10 min drum piece. So glad that I managed to watch the performance!!
After baking in the sun for about 30 mins (actually we've been baking for days now) we finally moved on to the Otaru music box museum. It's basically one huge floor of merchandise, one floor of museum displays and the 3rd floor is for you to customise a music box. A great place to be if you want to buy some souvenirs back home.
Along the way back to the station, we dropped by thge Venetian Art Museum but I decided against going up into the museum since you need to pay an admission fee and I felt that it was probably better to go to Venice itself :D Whenever that happens.
We then slowly ambled our way back to the station, but along the way, we stopped at a shop and bought some tidbits which excited my mum cos they consisted of scallops.
Tomorrow, Sapporo.
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We arrived in Otaru rather early, around 0930 and as we exited the JR station, we happened upon a rally and my mum was also given a flyer for the candidate campaigning, lol.
The main plan is to visit the Otaru Canal, and Sakamachi which seems to bring you round to quite a few attractions. It's actually not very far from the JR Otaru station to the Otaru Canal and further on to the sea. Along the way we passed by an old railway converted into a small relaxing area and pathway.
The Otaru Canal used to be a means of moving goods much like the Singapore river, but is now disused and pretty much tourist attraction. There are scores of people milling around for photos at the photo spot. Everyone who comes to Otaru drops by just to grab a shot here, I think.
One thing is that there are many rickshaw pullers here and if you compare them to the trishw uncles in Singapore, they are definitely much younger.
My mum wanted some tea (she needs hot ceylon tea daily, which can be tricky in Japan) so we started looking for a mac's. However we passed by a restaurant and she was tempted by the menu so we went in there instead. I had the salmon and ikura bowl and she had the crab,ikua, urchin, salmon bowl. My poor wallet :( Although this meal was less of a good deal when compared to the dinner we had on the first night in Sapporo, it's still great when compared to Singapore in terms of freshness. The two bowls cost about $65.
Whilst in the cafe, I heard drumming going on (hearing drumming while in Cafe LeTao?? hahahaha) and hoped thatby the time I finished my cake, I could still catch it. After the cake, we went up to the observatory platform on the 3rd floor. On this floor, you get a pretty good view of Otaru, so if you are in Otaru, I would recommend that you come over here to take a look as well as take some shots.
After baking in the sun for about 30 mins (actually we've been baking for days now) we finally moved on to the Otaru music box museum. It's basically one huge floor of merchandise, one floor of museum displays and the 3rd floor is for you to customise a music box. A great place to be if you want to buy some souvenirs back home.
Along the way back to the station, we dropped by thge Venetian Art Museum but I decided against going up into the museum since you need to pay an admission fee and I felt that it was probably better to go to Venice itself :D Whenever that happens.
We then slowly ambled our way back to the station, but along the way, we stopped at a shop and bought some tidbits which excited my mum cos they consisted of scallops.
Tomorrow, Sapporo.
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