It’s a beautiful, bright and sunny day in Sapporo today. We’re going to be meeting our friends Photos and Dessert fiend at the Sapporo Beer Museum in the afternoon. So the Sister and I have a bit of time this morning to slowly make our way in that direction. We scope out a sushi restaurant near the Sapporo Beer Museum. To get there we need to take a bus so we start to make our way to the bus station, enjoying the clear sunny day.
Furry Get Together
On our way to the bus station the Sister and I start to notice some pedestrians in costumes roaming the streets. The closer we get to the Sapporo TV Tower we start to see more and more of them! We decide to follow the crowd a little and discover that there is a small get together happening for furries at the TV tower. Apparently people from different Asian countries will come, dress up and meet up. While we didn’t stay too long, it’s not something either of us expected to see on our trip and its kind of neat to see right after the Snow Festival.
711 Smoothie
After a short 10 minute bus ride we arrive near the restaurant only to find there’s a multi hour wait. We decide not to wait and head into the 7-11 next door and contemplate our next move. Fortunately, this 7-11 has one of the new smoothie machines which is becoming very popular on social media. The Sister and I both partake in a smoothie while we contemplate new lunch plans. The smoothies themselves are actually pretty good. They’re real fruit in single serving cups and there is a machine that blends it right in front of you. It’s a pretty cool concept and something I really wish exists in North America!
Orso
After a little googling we find a small Italian restaurant nearby called Orso. We make our way over and find this quaint restaurant that has a large wood fire oven that probably warms the entire restaurant. Between the Sister and I we pick some “Italian” dishes with their own Japanese flair. Like a Tuna and Corn Pizza and a Spaghetti Bolognese. Looking back, I’m really glad our first choice restaurant ended up being full. It allowed us this opportunity to try something different. I’ve read that the Japanese do other cuisines very well and Orso allows me a glimpse into it!
With our appetites satisfied, The Sister and I take the short walk over to the Sapporo Beer Museum where we’ll meet up with our friends for the rest of the day!
Sapporo Beer Museum
If you are a follower of this blog, you’ll know that I have been to this museum before. So to revisit is a unique feeling and its nice to get a sense of familiarity with the grounds. We spend a little time exploring the museum grounds outside and also duck into a little cafe to partake in another helping of Hokkaido milk ice cream. We then head into the museum section which isn’t hasn’t changed too much since my previous visit. We spend a little time exploring the history of Sapporo beer and eventually meet up with our friends Photos and Dessert Fiend!
Sapporo Beer Garden Poplar Hall
One thing I didn’t get to do on my previous visit is to do a proper “Genghis Khan” meal. This time with The Sister and our friends, we have a booking to do it! We head to one of the restaurant buildings and are promptly seated. Genghis Khan is a lamb/mutton barbeque type meal. The cool thing is that the food is bottomless and once we are seated we start ordering and cooking!
Now this isn’t our first rodeo when it comes to barbequing food. Back at home we have all done this before at various restaurants. But the more and more we use our grill the more “gross” it starts to become as burnt elements of the food start to cake onto it. As we start to look around at other tables we notice that they don’t have the same problem that we do. We’re starting to wonder if there’s actually a method to the madness and in our “embarrassment” start to observe how others are doing it. We realize that there not only needs to be the grilling part of equation but also an almost steaming element. We notice that many are almost insulating the meat with the vegetables and that seems to prevent the meat from burning on the element.
Once we realize the proper way to do it, things seem to progress much better. Not only does our grill look much better, the amount of food tends to “cover our shame” and our last few rounds of Genghis Khan go by much better than the first.
Parfait Sato
After dinner we all hop on a bus and make our way back into city centre. On our minds is to find a place that serves parfaits. Sapporo is known for their parfaits and so we want to see what the hype is about. We find a cool spot called Parfait Sato nearby and make our way over. When we arrive the first floor is pretty empty except for a few customers buying goods to take home. When the staff recognize that we’re here to sit down and try the deserts they have us wait by an elevator. Once ready we’re instructed to enter the elevator which takes us to the second floor and the main dining room. There are two large tables in the room that everyone sits around. The tables themselves have very cool and interesting art and animations that are projected on which makes the space very vibrant and dynamic!
It’s an awesome vibe! And after spending a fair amount of time admiring it we start diving into the menu and order parfaits to share. In fact it’s so good that after the first round of parfaits, we sheepishly ask the server for the menu back so we can order a second round. We end up staying a little longer than expected but all in all, I think its safe to say that Sapporo’s Parfait scene certainly lives up to its name!
After devouring our parfaits and enjoying the time together, we make our way out of the restaurant only to realize that we are incredibly lucky to have got the seats we did. When we arrived there was no line up in front of the restaurant. But upon exiting we see one that stretches down half a block! We really lucked out with this spot!
Good Bye
After exiting we realize that this is likely where we will all be parting ways. Tomorrow the Sister and I will be flying down to Tokyo as we start to wind down our trip. Meanwhile Dessert Fiend and Photos will be flying to Osaka since they’re still at the start of their trip. So we say our good byes and head our separate ways into the lovely Sapporo evening! The Sister and I head back to our hotel where we need to do a little packing and get ourselves ready to head to the airport in the morning.
Those parfaits tho 😍