Winter in Japan Part 4: Food and Snow in Hokkaido

Hi everyone. I am still here *waves*!! So sorry that I disappeared for so long. For those of you who don't already know, I recently moved from Australia to Malaysia and I spent most of my last days in Melbourne packing, cleaning, partying and catching up with friends, hence my temporary disappearance from blogland. 

To be honest I am just happy to make it back here in one piece being so late to the airport coupled with my vastly overweight luggage. 

Most of my things are still in disarray so I thought I shall continue with part 4 of my trip to Japan earlier in the year. You can see part 1 HERE, part 2 HERE and part 3 HERE. 

The first thing that caught my eye in Hokkaido at the airport was the sora-ben (bento/lunch boxes you can find at the airports. The ones in train stations are called eki-ben which are station lunch boxes). Ikura (salmon roe), uni (sea urchin) and crab meat are 3 of my most loved seafood on earth and when I saw one bento that houses all three on a bed of lovely japanese rice, I had to get it!!!

BEST LUNCH BOX EVER. I loved it~~ it was a lunch box but i had it for brekkie.. breakfast box?

We then went to the Ramen street in Sapporo for lunch. It's apparently a very famous attraction in the area!! We randomly picked a restaurant and it was superb.

Charred roast pork with runny braised egg with bouncy noodles and black bean miso. *drools*

After lunch we decided to go to "Kaitaku no Mura" which is *I think* one of the earlier villages there. We wanted to take a cab but according to the staff at the station, it's a very close walk and up a "small" hill, around 10 minutes. The view was so pretty, I have never seen so much snow in my life~~ I really loved walking in the snow!!

We were still having fun at this point. 

 I cannot stress this anymore. Timberland for the win for walking in the snow~~~

This was the "small" hill on the way to the "kaitaku no mura". Instead of 10 minutes it took us about one and a half hours. I guess the locals must have developed a skill to walk very quickly in the snow without falling.

 But at the end of the day it was all worth it! The village kept so much of the original establishments. There were traditional Japanese houses, businesses as well as buildings with western influences. There was just so much to see~~ They kept most of the interior of the buildings intact too so you can actually walk in and see what it was like back in the days. It was just amazing!!

 Crab banquet. To be honest, I much prefer the famous crab restaurant that I tried in Osaka.

The next day, waiting for the bus to Jozankei for onzen. 

 The entire area was filled with Onzen resorts!!

 Cute and colourful tourist map.

I was determined to look for number 15. Because I think that Kappas are so cute. 

 This ramen is very yummy too. And the old lady at the shop was just the sweetest person ever. She was so cute and bubbly and her husband was just so serious. They are such a lovely couple~~

We walked for ages in the snow *again* and finally found the Kappa family aka attraction number 15. They are a lot smaller than I expected but I still think that they are cute!!

More pretty snowy pictures!!

 Hokkaido is famous for their diary products so I had to try their soft serve ice-cream even though the weather is so bloody cold. it was the creamiest, the milkiest and the smoothest ice cream ever.

Wannabe ice cream commercial. My brother's version was much funnier but I don't have their permission to spread their photos onto the internet. LOL

 We spent the rest of the day lazing around and going to hot springs. It was one of the most relaxing holiday experience ever.

 We had Kaiseki dinner (traditional japanese style banquet the comprises of small dishes utilising seasonal ingerdients) at the resort. This soy tofu appetiser was one of my favourite of the night. I didn't know that bean curd can be so creamy~~

 The freshest sashimi platter.

 Funky prawn with a Mohawk. It's called budou ebi (grape prawn?) and it was so sweet and succulent.

 Another tofu-esque dish that I loved. The colourful bits were crispy and the inside was yet again so soft and creamy. The broth just adds the right amount of saltiness and savouriness.

 Main dish: pork gratin. The pork melted in my mouth. It was so soft that it actually took some effort for me to find it in there.

 Chawan mushi. Loves~~

 Simple and delicious hot pot. 

 the best rice ever. I would give a lot of money to have a big bowl of this right now.

 Remember that I said that Hokkaido is famous for their dairy products? This milky pudding was not to disappoint. My future sister-in-law who isn't normally very excited about food actually smiled after she took a bite. That says a lot about how good this was....

 Fruity soft serve ice cream. Peach and melon flavour. Yumminess even though we were so stuffed~~

And when we got back to the room after dinner, there were futons all nicely laid out for us to sleep. Good night~~

This is it from me so far. I will try to get everything organised asap and hopefully be more efficient in replying to comments and posting very soon. But please bear with me for the time being and please don't abandon my blog.

I love you all~~~

Until next time. xoxo