Backdate: Japan Hokkaido Jun 2025 Day 11

20/6/25 Fri: Woke up at 9am and we checked out by 11am to go to Northern Horse Park before our flight home tonight. Reached half an hour later and the entry fees were at 1,200 yen per person. *Cool... they have jockey statues all around the carpark.* The park was huge so we looked at the map and decided we'll visit the garden first.

It was cooling whenever the wind blew~ PotaTOHs strolled to one corner and saw one of Japan's most famous stallion and racehorse, Deep Impact’s monument. Don't understand why it's shaped that way but as to the direction it faces, it's got to do with the rising sun I think.

Wandered around and we walked to the horse museum next. It shares knowledge of horses in different ways and even racing gears. They have a cute horsey version of pinball game haha.

We walked to a small standalone museum and read more on the history of racing in Japan. There was Zenya Yoshida, the famous founder of Shadai Farm, and the three “original” thoroughbreds thought to have sired all other thoroughbreds in the world!

Also saw these achievements, shared by the owners I believe, from great Japanese horses. We saw a jumps competition ongoing nearby too.

Well and onwards to my main goal of seeing Hong Kong’s pride Golden Sixty! I remember seeing him run and it was just captivating, especially when he won his third Hong Kong Mile in 2022 first-up after seven months... eased down and yet still by 1.5 lengths! 

Anyway, we were somewhat lost, and had to ask some staff on where he was housed at exactly. On the way, we saw other retired Japanese racehorses too. Some were used for leisure riding (which were not cheap) and there was also a golden statue wow.

Finally, I found Golden Sixty under the sun lol. He was just standing there and looked more like "Golden Sleepy/Chilly" really haha. But he was so good as a racehorse and every time he won, fans go abuzz! *His birthday is exactly a week before mine hehe~* I don't think I have been "wow-ed" by that many Hong Kong horses, memory tells me first was the quirky Pakistan Star, who'd always sweep his rivals off their feet last-to-first and then another champion in Beauty Generation. I'd watched Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising win overseas, but my bias is probably Golden Sixty.

I also shared my knowledge of racing with Dexter, who loves horses according to LL. 

He lifted his head up finally for a brief moment haha. I also brought along his miniature that I bought from HKJC (damn expensive... $32) on my laptop bag! Say hi to the real Golden Sixty! Legend!

We left the Park at 1.15pm, and drove to Tamafuji Chitose for late tonkotsu lunch at 1.45pm.

We had to grinding our own sesame seeds and it was fragrant. PotaTOHs' tonkatsu set (4,246 yen for two) had 160g worth of pork~ the furiikake and five grain rice was nice! My red miso with clam had a bitter aftertaste though. For the side dish, the marinated burdock was my favourite, followed by the radish. My in-laws ate the sets with 180g tonkatsu (4,576 yen for two). LL ate the ala carte katsudon (1,451 yen) since she cannot eat so much.

After we finished lunch at 2.45pm, we drove to Aeon Mall nearby and shopped around for two hours till 5pm. Parking was 600 yen. PotaTOHs walked into a CD shop and I don't really see such shops in Singapore anymore.

Also randomly chanced on this dessert place as I craved for ice-cream despite my cough lol. We tried their sesame ice-cream (600 yen) and it did not disappoint! The ice-cream was so smooth and the black pearls were very nice.

Re-fueled for 1,167 yen and returned our car to Times Rental by 5.30pm. At Chitose airport Terminal 2, we bought some tidbits (5,642 yen) for friends before dinner. As we were still quite full from the late lunch, I had one oden and squid. The oden was good albeit more expensive at about 700yen with only five ingredients in the soup.

Our flight NH084 was delayed from 9.20pm to 9.55pm, so we arrived in Tokyo Haneda airport at 11.30pm. Then, NH843 was also delayed for 15 minutes before it took off at 12.55am. Potato bought some more tidbits (4,039 yen) before we boarded the plane and I remember Dexter was just going around to find charging port for his handphone haiz... addicted to screen.

I ate the salmon flakes rice set on board ANA. The salmon flakes were salty but strangely, it went very well with the rice. 

On the trip, my in-laws had been coughing and probably had flu from the start. Potato and I likely caught it too somewhat. I did towards the end because I had cough (that took some months to fully recover) and blocked nose. I don't think I experienced big discomfort when the flights took off, but just when NH043 and NH843 were going to descend, my ears cannot equalise no matter how I tried. Especially for the latter flight, my ears were so painful and for that 20 minutes, I almost couldn't hear anything at some point (imagine you're drowning in water that kind of muffled feeling) and I was so scared the pain would burst my eardrum or what, so I panicked quite badly and just prayed for the landing to be done soon but it was such an agony during the descent.  

This is a reminder to myself to clear any blocked nose before boarding a flight in future lest anything worse happens. We touched down at 6.30am or so and the pain lingered for quite a while... terrible. Took a Grab home which costed us $12.6. This was quite a nice and chilled trip with my in-laws, LL and Dexter, and I'm most happy to know this will be a nice memory for them.