Friday, 26th December 2008, Sapporo

"Welcome to Sapporo" said the big signboard as we came out of JR Sapporo Station. Earlier, we had baded goodbye to Mr Mori and Muku at Niseko Resort before continuing our 2 hour train journey to Sapporo.

It wasn't difficult to fall in love with Japan's fifth largest city (1东京，2横槟，3大阪，4名古屋 and 5札幌). The well-planned city have what everything Tokyo has to offer. Yet, it have what most major Japanese cities are lacking ~ the crowds. It never get too crowded in Sapporo even during the rush hours. With 3 subway lines criss-crossing the city, it was easy to move around in this relaxed city. I loved their weekends as the one-day subway ticket (donni chika kippu) costs only 500 yen for unlimited travel. On other days, the same ticket was 800 yen.

We met M at JR Sapporo Station on the afternoon of 26th December 2008. M had come all the way to study in Hokkaido and it was great to have somebody who have some knowledge of the city to show us around. Home for the next 3 nights was at Hotel Mets next to the famous Hokkaido University

Sapporo Subway Station Exit

where M studied and 2 minutes from the nearest subway station.

For our late lunch @ 4pm, M brought us to his favourite curry restaurant near our hotel. It turned out to be one of the most memorable meals I had for our 12 days in Japan. The curry, with its generous servings of spices was delicious and the tender chicken leg well marinated. The lunch suited our taste buds who loved to have little tinges of spices in our food.

We had sometime after lunch to explore the Sapporo Station area to take in the "usual" tourist fare - the Clock Tower, the Odori Park and the TV Tower. Nightfall - the temperatures had dipped to an all time low of -8.4 degrees. While freezing in the winter cold, I was glad of this rare experience which we will never ecounter in the tropics we came from.

Shopping at 狸小路 was fun as we had time to uncover certain treasures of Singapore. M brought us to the Singapore Kopitiam for a taste of home that was packed to the brims on Friday evening. The unassuming Japanese owner who knew that we came from

One Day Pass

Singapore took us personally to his 2nd branch in Sapporo, "Geylang Lorong 8".

Apparently, the owner had stayed in Singapore for 3 years and loved our food so much that he decided to open his version of our Kopitiam upon his return to Japan. We had their version of Hainanese Chicken Rice, the Mee Goreng and the Roast Pork. It made us feel at home instantly even though I wasn't missing home- cooked food YET!

Additional photos below

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