We ended the year 2014 with a blast! My Father-in-law graciously sponsored the whole family for a trip to Hokkaido, Japan! It was totally like a dream come true, because ever since Secondary School, I had always wanted to go to Japan! Especially for those of you who are like me (loves Anime, Manga and Games
Jap Girls), I am sure you will know what I mean =)
It was totally freezing over there! the coldest it got during our stay at Asahikawa and Sapporo was like -10 degrees! But the most important thing that we are glad for, is the snow! At first we were worried that during our stay there, all we will be able to experience is snow/ice covered grounds... but thankfully NO! It was really really snowing! ^^
Wifey and her sisters all going crazy over the snow hahaha.
Our attempt at building a snowman lolxxxxx, and OMG.. if you see on TV those really huge and round snowman... it is either machine-made or it probably took the person 1000 hours to build it! It is really not as simple as it looks lor T_T
Ta da~ Our final product LoLx with Ben's toy Monkey looking a little bit intimidated by the "huge" snowman.
Perhaps the most glorious moment upon the completion of our snowman =) Sweat, blood and body aches went into building this little dashing snowman.
At Hokkaido, you
MUST eat these things:
1. Their
EGGS!!!!! OMG!!!! Absolute freshness! It totally made eggs from Singapore taste rotten! (no kidding), when we came back from Hokkaido, We had breakfast at Changi Airport and I sincerely thought that the egg in my bowl of Mee Siam was spoilt! Because it tasted very "mushy", but the eggs in Japan is so dam fresh that you can really just consume it on its own!
2.
Potato! It is unimaginable how they are able to produce such soft, sweet, fragrant potato in Hokkaido! I am not a croquette person but the croquettes in Hokkaido were just so so so amazing that I kinda became a convert! =D
3.
Corn! Whether is it Corn Soup, Corn Cob, Corn Chips ... Corn whatever~ it will definitely not disappoint! Just like the potato that i mentioned earlier, their corn is simple fantastic! Wifey literally had at least 1 corn soup every day!
4.
Pumpkin ^^ (*see top left corner of the photo) , I am also not a pumpkin lover and if you noticed, the chef left the skin of the pumpkin intact and it is definitely not because he was lazy lol. The meat of the pumpkin, including the skin was cooked to perfection! You could put the whole thing into your mouth, yes, including the skin.. and it will MMmmmeeelllltttTTtTtTT in your mouth! And imagine this, It taste totally like SWEET POTATO! It is just that SWEET!
5.
Dairy Products! Milk and Cheese will never go wrong at Hokkaido! And O-M-G... this slice of absolutely heavenly delicious amazing outstanding WTF-why-so-nice Cheesecake from Le Tao is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Our first bite into it and we immediately looked at each other and we all gave the super duper happiness feeling kinda expression to each other wahahahahHAa. It is THAT GOOD! If you love Cheesecakes as much as i do.. you simply haven't had a real Cheesecake in your life if you have not tried this Cheesecake from Le Tao. Trust me... *True Story~*
6.
Crabs! Nobody in this world will NOT know or heard of Alaska King Crab, but apart from that, in Hokkaido there is also a "Snow/Winter Crab" (so sorry i couldn't remember the name) that is only available during the winter season, and it tastes absolutely GREAT! MUST MUST MUST try! (more photos, details on where we ate and went will be in my subsequent posts, because there's simply too many things to talk about and i really really want to start of by introducing the MUST try/eat stuff in Hokkaido).
7.
Kobe Beef!! I really can't think of another expression other than this plate of beef, will BLOW YOUR MIND! This beef/cow was raised on Beer and given routine massages since young! Our tour guide told us that if we humans and even animals are under stress, our body will give off some kinda toxin. Hence the Beer and Massage treatment for these cows totally made their meat OMFG SUPER DUPER TENDER! The term "Melt in your mouth" is absolutely accurate for their Kobe Beef! I mean.. omg... i can't stand to eat other beef after i have eaten this plate of absolute goodness! T_T What am i gonna do from now on???!!!.. By the way, Japan has a culture that i simply love. They take care of their own people really well in the sense that they keep all the good stuff for their locals and export the "not that good" products to other countries. Hence eating Kobe Beef at Japan itself is definitely an experience like no other! This plate of Kobe Beef is 300 grams and cost about $170 SGD which in my opinion is absolutely worth it!
You must really come to Japan and try their Kobe Beef! Spare a portion of your shopping budget for this beef! You will NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!
In case you are wondering, we booked a tour from CTC Holidays instead of the usual free-and-easy that me and my wife like to do. It was pretty tiring i must say, morning calls at 6am and we depart from the hotel at 8am almost everyday and everyday we had to check-in to a different hotel for the 5 nights that we were there. But it was a pretty good choice to go on a tour package for Hokkaido though, because the public transport at Hokkaido is definitely not as robust as Tokyo, or the other major cities of Japan. Coupled with the fact that it is winter, without proper planning and experience, we would have ended up stuck on traffic jams every now and then! So overall, I would recommend CTC Holidays for your Hokkaido, Japan trip^^
The moment we touched down, we were brought to a penguin park to see the cute penguins and red panda!
I heard from Elise that these cute little Red Pandas are about to be extinct. So happy to be able to see then real life! Hopefully their extinction will never happen...
Where's the fish? heeee~ super cute right! =)
Super failed jump shot by Elise whahahaha~ She didn't had another energy to jump because we were having Snowball Fights earlier LoLx.
Finally~ A much better shot hahAahA
We were totally starving after all that running around and playing in the snow and it is now times to FEAST! Our very very first authentic Japanese meal!
The curry rice here is no joke! Almost everywhere serves delicious and affordable curry rice!
Check out that perfect egg! And the this little beef bowl IMHO, is to die forrrrrr =D~~
Simply meals like Chicken Karaage with rice is also amazing! I mean.. there's simply no food that could go wrong in Japan!
Buckwheat Soba Noodles! Firstly, the soup base is fantastic! It is not like those ramen store in Singapore where they put a lot of msg into it. The soup broth is really tasty and it is such a great comfort food during winter time! The Buckwheat Soba Noodles were also cooked to perfection! It's so Q and springy! And from what i've heard from our tour guide, many Japanese eat this for supper because it's a much healthier choice and you won't gain weight from Buckwheat Noodles!
As mentioned earlier, the corn soup and potato croquette here in Japan, especially Hokkaido is amazing. You must really really try it!
Perhaps I am the one who ate the most ice-cream in the whole tour (we had 20++ pax in our tour group) hahaha but trust me, it is not "siao" or crazy to eat ice-cream during winter. In fact, you MUST eat it! the ice-cream here is so so so good! (remember i said that all dairy products here is a must try?!). And it kinda makes you not feel so cold as well! LoL, try it! I did not take any photos of this but.... you must try their Melon flavoured ice-cream! Its.. heavenly! ^^
The rest of the day was spent sight-seeing around the hotel that we stayed at. Check out the lovely streets and scenery. Snow is definitely beautiful and breath-taking~
The weather got much cooler as the sun sets~
I really don't know how they do it but.. ya... the locals here can actually ride bicycle on the snow covered grounds. LoLx~
How can we not explore the convenience stores in Japan! Check out the variety of food!
All kinds of drinks and juices to go with your meals! And the packing is simply all too enticing!
It was a long day for us because we touched down in Asahikawa, Hokkaido Japan at the wee hours and immediately started sight-seeing. But nonetheless it was great fun and all of us couldn't wait to continue touring Hokkaido!
Stay tune for the next update on our tour to Hokkaido! This post is toooooo long ahhaha =)
