Day 4 & 5 Otaru – Sapporo

The next morning we headed out to Otaru to see its famed canal. I was a bit disappointed to find out that the scenic stretch is only about 500m but I suppose it does look postcard perfect. After lunch, we walked the Sakaimizo (?) shopping street towards Minami Otaru station. This is a nice place to pick up local crafts such as glassware, music boxes, woodcarvings and delicacies and all things snow crab which is caught off the Ishikari Bay. It was pleasant walk.

Back at Sapporo, we made a beeline for the main places to find toys, i.e. Pokemon Center, Yodobashi, BIC Camera (all around JR Sapporo Station), Mandarake, Jungle (which is conveniently located across the road from our hotel) and Animate. We were a bit disappointed with the selections but somehow we managed to come away with a second hand Masked Rider bike for a steal and I found a second hand Hijikata Toshizo figurine at this shop called Lashingbang.

After dinner, I had one last mission to fulfill which is to catch a Farfetch’d on Pokémon Go which could only be found in Japan, Taiwan or HK. It had eluded me for the entire four days we were in Japan and I wasn’t going to go home without it. I searched online to find out best places to hunt for it in Sapporo and even found the Japan equivalent of Pokemap. Armed with these, Theo and I set to walk from Susukino station to Sapporo Station and back.

After about walking aimlessly for more than 45mins and having explored most of downtown Sapporo (it is really easy to navigate this city which is essentially made up of gridlines), I finally saw its shadow appear on my sightings. Using the Pokemap, I tracked the exact location and made a run for it. We caught it and it felt like I just won the lottery. I think the construction workers laying the road must think we are nuts.

Unfortunately the night time hunt finally broke the back on Theo’s back and he woke up the next morning with high fever. I was worried that if his fever didn’t dissipate by evening, we would not be able to board the plane home. As such we agreed that he would spent the day resting in the hotel while I ventured around Sapporo alone. Thankfully Theo recovered somewhat by mid day and we could make the journey back to Singapore.

In the end, we unanimously agreed that our bodies were not designed to withstand the cold in Hokkaido and the only time we can probably stay here is in summer. Tabun ne.