Hokkaido

Hokkaido

About Hokkaido

I LOVE Hokkaido! The air is fresh and clean, seafood tastes great, and it’s big!  I have been there once on a family trip, back in elementary school, and once again, with my SO the summer of 2017. Unlike the other places, I traveled when I was younger, the memories from Hokkaido stuck with me. And, the new memories just made the place better.
Travel Season: Summer
Transportation: Car

Top 3 Foods:

1. みどりや (Midoriya)

Midoriya is a place I found on the internet when I got hungry while in the Yoichi area. The day before I had a disappointing bowl of Uni-Ikura Don in Hakodate, but wanted to end the trip on a positive note. As I looked for a place that was close and had decent reviews, I found Midoriya.

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This was the highlight of my travel, and my partner and I still talk about it all the time. Everything tasted wonderful, and none of them had that unpleasant smelly taste of unfresh seafood. There were some uncommon sushi and very fatty good tops, and I was very impressed.
If you like sushi and enjoy trying new fish, definitely try Midoriya.

2. だるま (Daruma)

A Hokkaido famous cuisine is Jingisukan. It is like a mutton BBQ, on a special half sphere shaped grill. You are to put a piece of fat on the top of the grill, and it slides down the sphere, helping the meat from sticking to the grill and giving the vegetables sitting on the bottom, some flavor.
When people hear of mutton, there is an image of smelliness, and commonly there are herbs used to get rid of this smell. However, with Jingisukan you don’t use herbs and instead, Daruma offers a soy sauce based sauce in which you can add as much garlic and  Japanese chili.

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 Daruma is a famous restaurant, they are all over the Hokkaido guidebooks and internet posts, so when we arrived at the restaurant, there was a pretty long line. However it didn’t take as long as I expected, and the food arrives very fast. I tried another more highend Jingisukan restaurant, but enjoyed Daruma better. It was a great start to my Hokkaido trip.

3. サッポロクラシック (Sapporo Classic)

This is the Sapporo beer. It is served in restaurants in Hokkaido, and can also be found in cans at the convenient stores there. This is another thing that my partner and I talk about all the time, and if any friend goes to Hokkaido, I always make sure they get enough of it.

This is a picture of my last meal in Hokkaido. You can see I never got enough of it, and I am not embarrassed to say, there were still another 4 cans in my suitcase I brought back to Oita with me.

Activities:

1. 旭山動物園 (Asahiyama Zoo)

I went to Asahiyama Zoo back in elementary, and I still went back as a 20-year-old. It is one of the best zoos I have been to and I would still go back again. There is a wide range of animals including penguins and polar bears that are not very common in many zoos.
Even if you’re not an animal lover, it’s worth giving a try.

2. The road trip

In Hokkaido, most of the time is spent on the road. Long drives are tiring, but they’re not all bad. If you take a break and step out of the car, many times you can find some nice scenery, and the fresh air always just makes thing better.

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