Backdate: Japan Hokkaido Jun 2025 Day 1 & 2

10/6 - 11/6/25 Tues - Weds: PotaTOHs took the MRT to Changi T2 and arrived at 7.20pm. Saw LL and Dexter, and my in-laws came soon after their dinner nearby. By 8.20pm, we were at gate E8 waiting to board ANA NH844 to Tokyo at 9.40pm. *round-trip tickets were about S$960 per person* I was already sleepy not long after we boarded, but I just cannot sleep well on red-eye flights with the noise and snorings, not to mention LL and Dexter needs the toilet at times. *Not blaming anyone but like Potato said, probably we should just take day flights in future~*

 ANA does their snacks’ packaging quite nicely. For "breakfast" (served at 3+am Japan time lol~), I tried the ginger pork slices with tofu. It was a bit on the heavier side but not bad. The appetiser was good. LL and Dexter, MIL & Potato had western meal. 

Arrived Haneda at 6.05am. We cleared customs pretty quickly in 10 mins phew and walked over to the gate for NH053. I was at the customs when the Japanese immigration officer took a while to "marvel" at my stamps... he mumbled words like "whoa Bhutan", "New Zealand" in Japanese accent but all I could think of was "could you let me pass, faster..." lol~

There were so many people at the waiting area, most of them looked like working businessmen... way more than the flight to Tokyo! At 7.35am, we boarded a boe-ing 777, which was bigger than the Tokyo-bound 787!

Arrived at Chitose airport at 9.30am. Then, we were on the way to our TIMES shuttle bus after Potato spoke to their staff at the airport. It was a cooling morning too.

It's LL and Dexter's first trip to Japan. After a five minutes shuttle bus ride, we reached TIMES rental at 10.40am and retrieved our Nissan Serene 7-seater! *S$1.6k for nine days~* Managed to fit in four luggage behind and FIL took his small one with him to the middle seats.

I was monitoring the weather advisory and it was said to be foggy for a few days and when I lifted my head up, I could’t even see the plane clearly in the sky la. The touch-screen panel in the car was cool though. We drove off at 11am to Sapporo, toll was 1,330 yen and the subsequent parking was 660 yen.

Headed for lunch at Ganso Ramen Yokocho alley. There were about 20 ramen shops there. Too bad the Teshikaga Ramen we wanted to eat at was full and had a long queue at 12pm, so we randomly found Ichikura ramen with seats. 

They took the counter seats while LL, Dexter and I shared a table. LL and I ate shoyu ramen (950 yen), which I thought was only okay. Dexter had the roast pork one and he liked it a lot. Their gyoza (550 yen) was okay too.

At 12.40pm, we left for Sapporo Beer Museum, since it was still too early to check into our Airbnb. We got there 20 minutes later but it took him a while to find one parking lot near the exit that was big enough for our car at the carpark at Sapporo Beer Museum... 800 yen.

It was free entry into the museum. The boiling cauldron we saw inside was damn big. Also went around looking at the models of the factory and museum but I could not pay much attention to their history because I was tired from not having enough sleep. Wasted but what to do?

Saw one of their ads used to promote their beer in the past haha. Then, we queued up at the vending machine and bought tasting portion of Sapporo beer! My in-laws took the tri-flavour one (1,200 yen) while Potato had the non-alcoholic beer (200 yen) because he's driving haha~

MIL and I liked the classic flavour while FIL liked the Original Kaitakushi beer. After an hour there, we still had time, so we walked around Ario mall for another hour till 3pm. We were mainly in their supermarkets.

The clam was so big Potato joked he can make huge vongole pasta for us lol. Their prawns were also plump. Then, it was a 10-minute drive to our Airbnb, slightly north of Sapporo. We loved the huge 2-storey Airbnb with six bedrooms and four toilets for three nights (S$1400). The living room on the first floor was spacious and the dining lights were pretty. 

Four of them slept on the first floor. while Potato and I had the entire second floor with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, two toilets to ourselves haha. For the three nights, I really enjoyed their shower while Potato indulged in the bath haha.

Rested till about 5.30pm and I took a nap. We drove out in the rainy afternoon at 5.30pm to Susukino street area and parked at Urban Parking for 1000 yen.

It was the chain Japanese restaurant Ian brought Potato to at his old place in Tokyo last time, but because they do a lot of sashimi, LL and Dexter went eslewhere for dinner.

They had some starters for us to be grilled. The shishamo, fish cakes and prawn balls were all good. FIL wanted sake so he ordered a small bottle. I had unagi don, which was a bit heavier taste-wise, but the unagi was so yummy. In-laws ate fish sets while Potato downed his toro and niigiri don very fast haha. Spent 7,100 yen at that one-hour dinner.

From 7.30 to 8.30pm, we walked to Don Don Donki and some cosmetics stores for shopping. I thought lots of thoughts were put into even the designs of the bottles for their alcoholic drinks in Donki lo. *I spent 11,857 yen on salon pas, eye masks, eye drops etc!* 

MIL saw the colourful ferris wheel and she liked it a lot. We drove back to our Airbnb and passed by the Sapporo Clock Tower~ I just took a snapshot of it lol. Back at 9.10pm and we tried this fried shrooms’ snacks from Donki, but I found the shroom flavour too much. The melon alcohol (198 yen) was not bad though.

MIL was coughing quite seriously since before the trip, while FIL, Potato, LL and Dexter were also coughing a bit... I thought it was a matter of time I'd catch the virus too. Anyway, Potato loved this auto “tub-filling” bath function in the Airbnb.