30 Sep. 2016 (From Hokkaido to Honshu)

*All the shinkansen trips have to be planned & reserved in advance*

We checked out early in the morning by just dropping the keys into the box at the counter and took the train from Hakodate at 6.57am to reach Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto in order to ride the 1st shinkansen, Hayabusa 12 at 7.34am in order to reach Tokyo station 12.04pm.

We grabbed Eki-bento from the Tokyo platform before boarding Shinkansen Hikari 473 at 1.03pm reaching Shin-Osaka station at 4.03pm and then connecting Shinkansen Sakura 567, arriving at Shin-Kobe at 4.33pm.

After depositing our lugguage at Hotel 1-2-3 Kobe, we went to meet Mama at JR Sanomiya Station - we planned to have Kobe beef here!

These are 2 of the awards for the quality beef.

Waiting for our Kobe beef to be served.

The teppanyaki chef seared and cut the 5 slabs.

The melt in the mouth Kobe beef.

Part of the course - prawn, scallop, mushrooms, etc.

See the contentment as we wait for the dessert.

Yummy sherbert.

The above ¥7000 per head teppanyaki meal is simply unforgettable as each of us had a 250g slab of special grade marbled Kobe beef, ox-tail consomme, etc.

Here to share the namecard of the restaurant in Kobe - Steakland Kobe which according to the details is open 365 days a year!

29 Sep. 2016 (Hakodate)

After enjoying the soup curry, we walked back to the hotel to collect our luggage from the concierge before returning to catch the train, "Limited Express Super Hokuto 14" at 1.32pm and arriving at Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto station at 4.54pm. Then we JR Hakodate line at 5.15pm and arrived at Hakodate at 5.41pm.

We came to Hakodate for 2 purposes - to capture the "Million Dollars Night Scene" from top of Mt Hakodate and to catch the 1st train out from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto" to Shin-Kobe station on 30 Sep. 2016.

After checking in to Inn Aozora which is very near to the station (3 min. walk), we took the bus up to Mt Hakodate. It is important to take note of the bus timings.

Each of us were braced for the "chill" up on Mt Hakodate as the temperature was expected to be around 8 deg without taking into consideration the strong wind factor. Yet, our tough guy had only his T-shirt. We found only one other guy up there also wearing polo-tee! Everyone else wore wind-breakers, scarves, beanies, pull-overs, etc.

After coming down by  bus, we came to the food mall near the station and had ramen before returning to the inn to rest as we need to wake up early for the 1st shinkansen to Shin-Kobe.

Added the map of Hakodate - so easy to get around!

 

29 Sep. 2016 (Brunch at Sapporo before departing for Hakodate)

On the way to Sapporo station for late breakfast/early lunch, we stopped by the "surprise" food truck selling crepe.

With the fresh cream and fruits - so so delicious! Aleo would not mind having more of the crepes as lunch as there are so many varieties!

A nice option for lunch - the Japanese soup curry. The mild version was enjoyed by Aleo but Aloysius opted for the very spicy and after eating, declared "no kick!" [having gone thru' Level 35 buffalo wings challenge.]

28 Sep. 2016 (pm)

After the scrumptious seafood lunch, we moved on to visit Otaru by going back to Sapporo and then Otaru; all by JR trains using the JR pass which is FREE instead of ¥640 each.

Overcast sky on the way to Otaru.

 Arrived at Otaru station in 30 min. and headed out right into the central boulevard (中央道）which led us to the famous Otaru Canal.

On the way back, we stopped a nice shopping street to rest our feet.

This was something that we must stop for - ice-cream!

So we had the super yumilicious Hokkaido soft ice-cream!

Aleo's face of contentment after his 1st ice-cream!





















We found this dis-used railway track which offered the setting for nice photos.

Back in Sapporo, we went for one of the 8 ramen shop at ESTA which was highly recommended. How did we decide which of the 8 stall? By international norm - we went for the one with the longest Q!!!

.Back in Sapporo, the boys again soaked in the hot tub of fruity bath salt to end the night in Sapporo.

The map to get around Otaru.

28 Sep. 2016 - Seafood day!

We took the train from JR Sapporo to Soen station and then strolled to the central outdoor market a short distance away.

Had breakfast of karaage, gyoza and ramen before going to checkout the seafood.

After visiting several stalls, we decided on these:

This king crab of 1.8kg cost us ¥10,000.

The dismembered crab.

A huge butter grilled scallop each @ ¥300 .

Uni kamameshi @¥500.

27 Sep. 2016 (1st night in Sapporo)

Upon arrival at JR Sapporo station at about 8.40pm we walked straight to check into our hotel at Nest Hotel Sapporo Ekimae which was about 8 min. away. After a quick washing up of our faces, we went back to Sapporo station where many eateries remained opened till 10.00pm - choice at Esta, Stellar Place, Paseo, JR Tower...

Well, for our 1st sit down dinner, we had omurice and hotplate kurobuta (pork) - so so satisfying Japanese meal, comfort food for weary bodies!

Back at the hotel, the boys enjoyed soaking in the hot tub with fruit salt provided by the hotel before retiring to bed. At ¥35,600 for 2 rooms and 2 nights, quite a bargain, though the rooms may be small by Singapore standard.

Perhaps the map of Hokkaido and Sapporo will be useful for my friends (you know who you are) to plan the intended places to visit:

 

See all the available routes covered by Japan Railways - quite extensive, only problem is the frequency.

 

The convenient location of Nest Hotel.

Day 1 - 27 Sep.2016

Came out of the arrival gate at 8.45am and let the boys and their mum pick up some refreshment from the kiosk nearby while I went to collect the pocket wifi from the Post Office on level 4 (actually just a small counter). Mentioned to the PO staff that the vendor was "iVideo" and showed them my passport and in a jiffy was given a docket which contained the pocket wifi, the charger, USB cable, the pouch and the return self-addressed envelope.

As the boys checked and set up the wifi, I went to redeem the JR passes from JR East Travel Service Centre at B1 (Immediately after redemption, we can go straight thru' the JR ticket gate to board the Narita Express):

1st leg from Narita Airport to Tokyo Station (Narita Express 10)
a. ETD 9.15am, ETA Tokyo 10.17am
b. ETD 945am, ETA Tokyo 10.44am
*We chose (b) so that we need not rush as each of us pulled along a trolley luggage.

2nd leg from Tokyo Station to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto (SHH) Station (Shinkansen Hayabusa 19)
ETD Tokyo 12.20pm, ETA SHH 4.34pm [Duration: 4H:14M]

3rd leg from SHH station to Sapporo Station (Hokuto 17)
ETD SHH 4.55pm, ETA Sapporo Station 8.34pm [Duration: 3H:39M]

For the 1st leg, some occurrence caused the train to be held up at Chiba for about 30 min so we ended up with about an hour at Tokyo station before we departed on the 2nd leg. We bought several "eki bento" for our lunch from a huge store there,

We fed on these yumilicious Eki-bento enroute to Hakodate. The prices ranged from ¥800~1200.