Otaru - Sushi

After walking the full length of the main shopping street, we decided to look for lunch. We didn't want anything touristy, so we venture further, and even off the beaten path up the slope towards the hill. It was almost or close to 2pm, when we stepped into the above sushi shop. I can't read the name, so the photo should help explained the name and where to find it. It's a small shop with a middle age sushi chef inside. It was almost end of lunch time crowd, so not many people were inside. In fact when we left, they close the shop for the afternoon. 

 

This is what the counter looked like. We sat at the counter and ordered our food and beer. As you can see, they have other sushi menu on the wall as well, with the prices indicated on them. Interestingly, those items were not in the menu! So this is when reading Japanese really helped.

The above was my husband's sushi set. He also ordered a Sapporo beer which we shared. 

Above is my set. I always go with the most variety as possible. Incidentally, having sushi is recommended in Otaru. Apparently because it is closed to the sea, the sushi at Otaru was highly recommended. I wouldn't know. This was only my 2nd time in Otaru. But I did enjoy this meal. 

I ordered a crab miso as well, and this was what it looked like. There weren't much meat in it, but the soup was really crabby. LoL.

So as I was eating my sushi, I was trying to read the menu on the wall. And I saw selling there was Otoro, or tuna belly. I love tuna. And otoro was considered a premium cut of the fish. In fact, it was the most expensive sushi on the wall, costing me 700yen! I ordered just one. Sushi chef made me one and grumbled. I didn't care. I couldn't afford more. It was delicious! Melted in my mouth with all those fats! And that one piece, was what made this whole meal memorable. And so we rightfully end our blogging on Otaru day trip. 

Next topic: Noboribetsu!

Otaru - KItakaro

Kitakaro Patissier is another another shop that was on my list of places to visit when I was in Otaru. You must be wondering why the label for this post includes "Photography". Its because for some reason, the photo of this place were so beautiful and artistically taken that I feel that I should tag it as such to give it justice. All photos were taken with my HTC phone. It would be the angle, the lighting, the backdrop and colour of the shop that made all the following photo just picture perfect. I'm so glad I finally found the time to publish these on the blog. The colour orange seems to make me happy today for some reason.

So here is the main entrance to the shop. They sell cream puff, soft serve ice cream, and other type of cakes and pastry. The front of the shop was magnificent looking, and really felt like it was meant to be there. When I research this shop from the internet, they always say that it was crowded. Perhaps coming here in winter, and especially after a blizzard does help ease the crowd for us. 

Here again, a different angle, showing the beautiful soft serve that they sell. We just came from the LeTao Tea salon, so we were't really hungry. But this shop looked so pretty that we just have to step in and browse around.

This is one of my favourite shot. The snow and the tree behind really made this shot awesome. Plus the orange sign of course. Everything just look so clean, simple, and right. 

Inside the shop, all the cakes are wrapped individually and you can buy them back if you like them after sampling it at the shop. They also have a lot of seafood type of cracker cakes which I got for myself. 

Even the samples of the shop are arranged like a Christmas tree. The size of it was also quite generous.

There is a section where you can watch them make the baumkuchen right in front of you. The counter itself looked like a stage, and the baker the performer. I don't know why this cake always cost so much. It's basically Kueh Lapis to me. I always think it was German or some european origin cake. But apparently the Japanese bakeries always sell them. You can find the more generic one from the convenient stores as well. 

As full as I was, I bought myself a cream puff. It was the least I could do. Totoro immediately climbed inside and took a selfie with it. 

I bought some scallop cracker/snacks back for Baby Yoda, and he was rather excited and climbed all over it. Bakery in Japan are just magical!

Otaru - LeTao Bell Tower

This post is picture heavy. Photos taken here was from our climb up the LeTao Bell Tower. Access is via the LeTao Tea Salon, and it just says follow the steps to find something wonderful. Yup, gotta climb those steps. Below are the pictures on the wall as we climb the spiral stair case, up and up we went.... The messages on the picture made no sense, but then again, this is Japan....

Finally we reached the top, and screaming in from every direction was the Hokkaido sun, brightening up the bell tower. And in the middle of it was of course, the bell. 

Ring a few times for happiness! May we be able to return here again in future!

From here you can have a 360 view of Otaru. The view was amazing here, and I'll leave some photos below for you to get an idea of it. I love how you can see all the way to the mountains, as if you only followed the road, you will reach the mountain shortly. Or how close the sea and the ships are. You can see the main road and shop houses, and you can see blue skies and the cold winter sun. Definitely worth the climb.

Otaru - LeTao Tea Salon

Top of my to-do list of Otaru is to have tea at LeTao, a cheesecake shop. The shop was at the main road, but it was kinda hard to spot. For one, seeing how it was so popular in the internet, I was thinking the shop would have its name out front clear and bold. Nope. Almost walked passed it without seeing it. 

Here's one of the shop, it just say Double Fromage, which means double cheese. LeTao is famous for their cheese cake, and one of their signature is the double cheesecake. There was no big letter of LeTao on the shop at all! But the above photo is so nice, reminding you of all those cake shops you read about in romance books or children books. The shop was like it was out of a fairy tale.

One of the shop was actually close or under renovation while we were there. I walked pass the above green shop and finally spotted the name outside. I back track a bit before I came across a small standing sign-board that says LeTao Tea Salon.

The above photo was taken from their menu. We've actually already had breakfast before we left for Otaru and wasn't really hungry. Plus the price was a bit expensive, and we already had a lovely tea at Shiro Koibito park the day before.

Above is the set we both settled for. I order coffee and Chocolate double cheese, and my husband had tea with their signature double cheese. For 972Yen, I guess it was not that expensive, considering we have came all the way and it was on my bucket list. How could anyone say no to cheese and chocolate, and coffee!

The tea salon is on the 2nd floor of the building. The ground floor was the shop selling all their products. The salon was really tastefully decorated like a classy tea house. Everything was made of wood, dark wood that shines from all the polish. The lighting was soft. It was probably only 10am or 11am when we stopped by for tea.

I love my coffee blank, and preferably thick and smooth. I realise recently that I can't stomach sugary instant coffee any more. All the coffee I drink are without sugar. I recently bought this UCC mocca coffee from DonDonDonki because the packaging was so pretty. But after preparing it and tasting it, I had to pour half of it away cause it was just too sweet for me. Luckily for me, there was only 5 packs inside, and I gave one away to my office secretary already. Coffee, black please. I really like the above photo, and it looks like it belong in one of my "Coffee Moment" blog entry. 

Above is our full order, taken here with Totoro. It was lovely to sit there and just relax. You can't do stuff like that when you are on a tour group cause they are always hurrying you on. My holiday are always around things I want to do, slowly and fully. So that you can emerge yourself to the place and the moment.

After staying for around an hour, we actually went and explore the bell tower which is part of the building. Refer next blog entry for that. After which, we went downstairs, and tempting as the cheese cake look, we didn't buy any. If you are reading this from Singapore, you can find LeTao at Orchard Ion. They have all their signature products there, at maybe double the rate. Here's an artistic shot I took before leaving this post. Wish I could go back there one day in the future.... what a wonderful memory that would be....

Otaru - Interesting Characters Around Town

We saw some of the nicer real snowman in the town of Otaru. Since I don't get to see this everyday, of course I stopped to take some photos. Above is a rather beautifully decorated snowman outside a restaurant on our walk towards the Otaru. 

Here is another cute one outside a shop or hotel. All the snowmen in Japan look so friendly!

Along the main road of Otaru town, we also spotted some very nicely made stone seats with Anmanpan characters on it. They were so well made, and functional too since you can take rest sitting on them. 

Here's another character from the Anmanpan cartoon. Anmanpan actually means "red bean bread man". Red bean is a very popular favour in Japan. It taste nothing like the red bean we get in Malaysia/Singapore. Azuki red bean of Japan can be as sweet as sugar! I do love me a well made red-bean-paste-hot-buns!

Hot sweet potato is also very popular in winter. You could smell the truck way before you can see it. This uncle was doing good business selling these sweet treat. My husband bought one. It came wrapped in newspaper, which is nicer than plastic. But you are given a plastic spoon to eat it. A nice snack to have. Also super sweet!