This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from a WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

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Picking up from the previous post: because the bed was too small, we slept badly the night before, so we were already not in the best mood. Then breakfast the next morning was even more disappointing. At breakfast, the server asked whether we wanted Japanese or Western, and as usual we chose Japanese. There were two or three Japanese set options, and we picked the sashimi set and the seafood rice bowl set. The seafood didn’t look as fresh as at some of the previous breakfasts we’d had, but this was still Hokkaido, so it wasn’t exactly bad. None of that was the main issue, though. The problem was that our kid had nothing to eat!!!

I asked the server where our kid’s meal was, and she said we could just share ours. Does this look like enough food to share... Then I asked whether our kid could get something from the Western breakfast side, and the server said she needed to check with the manager first because they had never run into this situation before. After checking, she came back and said she could help bring some food over from the Western side and asked what we wanted for our kid. I said, well, what do you have? Can I let my kid come take a look? She said no, only she could go get it. So we could only randomly name a few things based on guesswork, which was kind of absurd. Fortunately, in addition to what we asked for, she also brought back one or two other things that kids generally like.

Even so, we immediately decided that the next day we would just go eat at the Western buffet instead.

After breakfast, my partner and I talked it over again and decided that no matter what, we had to ask the front desk whether we could switch to a room with a bigger bed. We complained to the front desk for a while, and they even brought over a young woman who spoke Chinese. After hearing our complaints and what we wanted, they checked and found that there actually was another room available, but we would need to pay extra for the upgrade. They said it was a honeymoon suite used for weddings and was especially luxurious, or something along those lines. They also checked the bed size—and that was when I learned that the three of us had spent the previous night squeezed into a 1.4-meter bed, while the new room had a 2-meter bed.

Since we already had a full day of plans, we decided after discussing it that we would first pack up our things and leave the luggage in the old room, and the hotel would move it to the new room for us.

One more shot of the old room’s view.

Take a look at just how small this room—and this bed—really was...

After heading out, we first took a taxi to the akachan baby store. We had made a shopping list back in Tokyo, but never had time to go, and I felt kind of bad for our kid. So this time we went to take a look. akachan stores are usually located pretty far out, so we had no choice but to take a taxi.

As soon as we walked in, our kid spotted the cotton candy and picked a three-color one. There was also a stage performance downstairs.

I gave my partner some free time to go look at toys. After making a round, my partner decided it was all kids’ stuff and bought nothing.

akachan had shopping carts in this style, and our kid was absolutely thrilled.

Next came the adults’ shopping time.

Shopping in Sapporo is mainly concentrated around the three stops of Sapporo Station, Odori, and Susukino, all of which are very close to one another. In the shopping guide from Japan Guide You’ll Regret Not Reading - Updated 2023.8 Version, nearly all the brands mentioned were concentrated in two department stores: Daimaru Sapporo and Marui Imai. Compared with Tokyo’s overwhelming variety, in Sapporo basically each luxury brand has only one store, so there isn’t much to compare. Marui Imai has the Odori Building and Ichijo Building, and the two are connected, which is pretty convenient. But their tax refund counter often has no staff there and feels less than professional.

As usual, large department stores in Japan typically offer foreign visitors a 5% coupon. Marui Imai has a WeChat mini program where you can claim the 5% coupon after downloading and registering; at Daimaru, you can pick one up directly at the first-floor service counter.

I especially want to complain about Rimowa here. I’ve heard that some other brands in Japan do similar scarcity marketing too, like Issey Miyake or e 大饼, but for whatever reason, I’d always managed to buy those fairly smoothly before. Rimowa was the exception. Back in Tokyo, when we tried to buy one, the store said they didn’t have the model we wanted and that the entire store only had one large checked suitcase left. This time in Sapporo it was the same story. After we looked around, the sales associate directly said everything was out of stock and that there were no checked suitcases at all. I was completely stunned, because all our luggage was already packed full, and if we didn’t buy another suitcase, we wouldn’t be able to buy anything else. So I just stood there frozen, and then the associate added that actually there was still one of this model... I was like, what??? This scarcity marketing is way too obvious. Why didn’t you say that earlier? We were in a rush, so I didn’t even have time to roll my eyes—we just bought it and left.

First we quickly bought everything at the very top of our list, then we went to the anime merchandise shop Mandarake, which my partner had been looking forward to. My partner browsed for a long time and finally bought a model car; meanwhile, I took our kid around the store helping my best friend look for merch and manga, and everyone came away with plenty.

There’s a Pokémon store right next to Daimaru’s tax refund counter, so there’s no need to go out of your way to find it—you can just stop by before getting your tax refund. This store was much smaller than the one in Tokyo, and it was also very crowded.

The night before, we had gone to Tanukikoji, so let me mention that here as well. There are a ton of drugstores along Tanukikoji. The two biggest ones are also the two that close the latest, and they’re around Tanukikoji 2-chome (unless I’m misremembering—just check the closing times on the map). Besides tax-free shopping, these drugstores usually also have coupons, and the discounts often increase based on how much you spend, so if you know you want to buy something, it’s best to leave enough time and combine your purchases into one transaction. A quick Google search should turn up the coupons easily. We went to Sapporo Drug Store. There’s also a Daiso in Tanukikoji, but it’s small and doesn’t offer tax-free shopping.

By the end of the shopping that day, even the stroller was almost overloaded with bags. Since we were running short on time, we hurried back to the hotel first to drop everything off.

The front desk really wasn’t exaggerating: the view from the new room was indeed quite good, and the bed was much bigger too. The room itself, though, was still just as dated as ever.

We still had a little time before dinner, so we walked around ESTA inside JR Station. Apparently this mall holds a lot of memories for many people in Sapporo, and it was set to close in August that year, so stores throughout the mall were running major clearance sales. We stopped by Lyft and had originally planned to buy a few more Wpc. umbrellas, but almost all of the Wpc. umbrellas in the store were already sold out. The discounts on other items were great too, but we didn’t have enough time to browse carefully and had to leave in a hurry. Before leaving, we also took a few photos to remember this mall, which had been open for 45 years.

We also happened to come across a Sanrio store inside JR Station. Japan’s underground shopping streets are truly huge—you can find almost anything there. At Sapporo JR Station, even if you’re not shopping, just walking through the underground mall can easily take 30 minutes to an hour.

We had dinner at 郷土料理 おが, near Susukino, which has a 3.73 rating on Tabelog. We thought it was decent enough, but not especially memorable.

The restaurant seemed to consist entirely of private rooms, though the soundproofing wasn’t very good. Each room had a telephone, and you had to call someone over for things like ordering or paying the bill. The menu was thick, with a huge range of choices—almost overwhelming. We ordered a few small dishes, one fish hot pot, and one crab.

For the crab, we chose the boiled version. It was a little salty, and even with three of us, finishing the whole thing was still a bit of a struggle.

The fish hot pot was pretty good, and the texture of the fish slices was excellent, but the portion was way too small.

This chilled tofu dish was also quite good.

The grated yam surprised me—I had expected just a little, but it turned out to be a huge bowl.

This noodle dish was tasty too, but the portion was enormous.

I can’t remember what kind of porridge this was.

We ate this meal pretty quickly, because after dinner it was time for the exciting fireworks festival. The fireworks at Lake Toya are also called a fireworks festival, but that one is smaller in scale and runs every day from April to October. This time, we just happened to catch this one by chance. If you’re wondering how to find fireworks festivals in Japan, it’s covered in Japan guide you’ll regret not reading - Updated August 2023.

This was the one we watched: https://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/article/843523/

It had been many years since we had gone to an event with a crowd this large. My partner especially doesn’t like crowded places, so I more or less dragged them along this time. After dinner, we hesitated between taking a taxi and riding the subway, but in the end decided the subway was the safer bet. There were lots of girls on the train wearing yukata, which was lovely to see.

Following Google Maps, we got off at the station along with the crowd. Starting from inside the station, there were already staff members directing people toward the fireworks festival.

There were a lot of people, but everyone was very orderly. You could just follow the flow of the crowd and the staff directions all the way forward.

Lyft

We got a fairly late start, and by the time we were halfway there, the fireworks had already begun. Since we had never attended before, we weren’t sure whether we should keep walking forward or stop and watch.

At that point we had reached the riverbank, and a lot of younger people were climbing over the railing and sitting in front of it to watch.

But even more people kept walking forward. We were curious how far in we could actually go, so we followed everyone else. There was a very large, wide path leading toward the fireworks, with spectators seated on both sides. Along the way, people were also constantly finding spots nearby to sit down and watch.

We just kept going deeper and deeper, and to our surprise, we were actually able to get very close to the launch site. We were tired by then too, so we found a spot with a bit of cover and sat down to enjoy the show.

Farther in, there was also a ticketed area. I still didn’t quite understand that, because the information I found online said this fireworks show was free and didn’t require tickets, so where had those people’s tickets come from? There were two staff members there checking tickets.

The show had a total of 4,000 fireworks, divided into many different sections. Each section came with very clear narration that could be heard throughout the venue. Every segment started off relatively sparse, then built to a dense, dramatic finale. Each section also had a different theme, so the whole show felt very story-driven.

Our kid fell asleep halfway through. If my partner hadn’t still needed to hold the baby, it almost would have felt like the two of us were on a date watching the fireworks. Later on, we stopped taking videos and photos altogether and just fully immersed ourselves in the dazzling display.

Even when the event ended, everything remained very orderly. The crowding and trampling we had worried about never happened at any point. We also never expected that even though we arrived so late, we would still be able to walk all the way to the inner area and sit so close to the fireworks. The organizers were incredibly capable, and the Japanese sense of order really was impressive.

We hadn’t slept well the night before, and this had been an especially intense day, so by evening we were completely exhausted. On top of that, we still had to sort through everything we had bought, which was... a lot.

The next morning, we decisively went with the Western-style buffet instead. How should I put it? It was still much better than the Japanese one...

One last photo of the room for the memories.

The biggest advantage of this hotel is its convenient location, right next to the JR station. CTS airport is not especially close to the city center. After check-out that morning, we chose a faster and cheaper way to get to the airport: taking the JR. You can get straight to the airport from the hotel. Even so, if we still end up staying at this hotel next time (does Sapporo really not have many good hotels?), we’ll need to pay closer attention to the bed size...

The next post will be the last one in this series, where I’ll share my Delta One Suite business class experience booked with points. Stay tuned~

2023 Japan Trip Series

This series covers the author’s trip to Japan after returning to China for a visit and before heading back to the U.S.

About the Author

This article is reprinted from the WeChat public account “懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐,” run by a reader from our WeChat group. The articles there are all original and well worth reading. If you’re interested, feel free to follow it.