The night life of Hokkaido city centre!

October 2, 2016 ~ Day 1 in Hokkadio, Japan.

My trip to Hokkaido began bright and early on Sunday, October 2, 2016.  We checked out of the hotel in Hong Kong and went to take the bus to the airport at 6 a.m. so that we could make it for our 9:25 a.m. flight to Hokkaido.

I’ve been to Japan twice before (Tokyo/Osaka/Mount Fuji, and Okinawa) but this was my first time going to the northern island of Hokkaido.  I was so excited and especially since I had heard so much about their milk products and great food.

We had joined a tour group for the 7 days we’d be spending in Hokkaido.  We were already a party of 13 since my grandma, uncles and aunts, cousins, and my mom and I were all going too.  Another big family trip! ^_^

Our plane departed after 9:30 a.m. and I could see the gorgeous blue skies and fluffy white clouds out my window seat.  The perks of flying during the day. 🙂

View from the plane ride to Hokkaido during the day

Lots of fields!

The flight was around 5 hours and went smoothly.  I am so used to flying nowadays that 5 hours flying is really nothing.  I slept soundly in my seat and enjoyed the in-flight meal.

We arrived at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido at around 3:30.  We picked up our luggage, passed through customs, and then went onto the tour bus.

Arrival at New Chitose Airport

Shabu-shabu dinner

It took us straight to dinner which was a Shabu-shabu dinner.  We could have had the choice of adding rare premium beef to it but we stuck to the standard beef, pork, chicken, lamb as well as veggies.  Shabu shabu is a type of Japanese hot pot essentially where swirling beef slices resemble the shabu sound and it’s fun to eat, communal style.

Ingredients for the Shabu-shabu with the raw meat available buffet style for us to gather and put into the pot

After dinner, we checked into our hotel, Mercure (sounds familiar; I’m sure I’ve been to this chain before).  It was such a nice hotel, so modern and clean, huge two beds room, with tons of power outlet space, and fast free wifi.  Yay!  Model hotel. 🙂

We reconvened at 8 p.m. after leaving our luggage and followed the tour guide to walk around the streets of Hokkaido.

Views of Hokkaido night life

Everything was so clean and bright

We walked through a ramen street (where it was unceremoniously empty), convenient stores, dessert shop, and more.  We were left to our own devices and we all explored the streets of Sapporo together.

Hokkakido ramen street

Characteristic Japanese streets!

We walked through the streets, wanted to try a crabs place but they had a 30-minute wait so we left.  We had some authentic takoyaki with scrambled egg and cheese on it.  This was fabulous!  I’m so happy we got to share this ^_^.

Fresh uni from the supermarket!

Restaurant selling Japanese hairy crabs

Gindaco takoyaki

We got the one with the scrambled eggs on top! 650円

We entered the Samurai Pudding and bought some to try.  I loved the fresh milk pudding over the Samurai Pudding one since it was so smooth and milky.  It reminded me of a Chinese steamed milk pudding actually.

So many selections of Samurai Pudding!

Samurai Pudding and fresh milk pudding

Day 1 was fantastic and I was so thankful for the food and sightseeing.  I’m excited for Day 2! 🙂

View the blog posts for Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7 of my Hokkaido 2016 trip!