Chris started feeling unwell from Day 3, had a bit of fever and sore throat. But he still going to tour Sapporo with me. We had a Chinese Style breakfast at the hotel, which included congee, chicken with mushroom and Chinese pickles. Firstly we took JR to Sapporo, we skipped all the shopping mall district and went to the Sapporo Clock Tower, one of the famous landmarks in Sapporo. Then we went to the Former Hokkaido Government Office Building, which has now converted into the museum showing the history of Sapporo.

The next attraction is the Odori Park and Sapporo TV Tower. The city area is very relaxing and the people are very friendly. Chris assisted a Japanese couple to take picture for them and we ended up chatting for 15 minutes. They were from Tokyo and they came to Sapporo for a break. Both of them had already retired and the lady had studied some Chinese before. We chatted in three languages – a little bit of Japanese, mainly English and a little bit of Chinese. They congratulated us when they found out we were here for honeymoon and we all took photos together!

Next we went to the Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade and looking for places for lunch! Since Chris has been sicked he wanted something soupy so we decided to look for ramen noodle house! This restaurant is located inside the Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade and it is famous for its oil based ramen.

After lunch we decided to go back to the hotel for a little rest, we went down to the underground shopping arcade on our way to the underground train station. We were tempted by the sweets shops located in one of the department stores basement area. There were cakes, chocolate, chestnut product, waffle  and all these good looking little sweets. We ended up purchased two sliced of cakes and a bag of donut like cakes.

After few hours rest, Chris and I caught the underground train back to Odori Park and walked to Susukino. Susukino is the centre of nightlife in Sapporo. Many people said if you never had the crab cuisine in Hokkaido, you really haven’t been to Hokkaido. So I decided to take Chris to experience the crab cuisine. Chris was a little worried that he will make a mess as he’s not a really crab eater. If you also have this issue, don’t worry, you will find it very easy to eat here in Japan. You don’t need to crack the shell yourself because it is all done for you. All you need to do is to take the meat out and eat, very very easy. Chris and I both ordered different crab dinner set and trust me, there were a LOT of crab – king long leg crab, queen long leg crab, hairy crab… we were so full after that meal!!

We decided to go to Otaru one day trip on our first full day of honeymoon. According to the travel book, Otaru is the most romantic city in Hokkaido because one of the most popular Japanese movie story was based in this city. This movie name is “Love Letters”.

When I purchase the flight + hotel package from Hong Kong, it said it wasn’t included breakfast but we received three breakfast vouchers when we checked in. Later I found out that the hotel offered three different type of breakfast – Japanese Style, Chinese Style and Buffet Style. Chris and I decided we will try all three during our stay. One our first moring in Sheraton Sapporo, we tried the Japanese Style breakfast, which including crab leg soup, fried fish, egg, rice and Japanese snacks.

After breakfast, we travelled from Shin-Sapporo to Otaru, it took about 45mins by train. We first visited the fish market near by the train station. We saw a lot of fresh long legs crab and I bought a kilo of dry scallop as mum’s gift. We then stopped by for coffee, tea and cake at this very old style tea shop. This shop has a lot of antique furniture and decoration around.

Otaru is famous for its cancal and we walked along it. The sceney was beautiful as the red leaves were growing on the buildings next to the cancal and its reflection made the view look like a postcard.  We also purchased red bean cake from the shop and also had Otaru Beer at its Brewery. Since we have been eating all day long, we had a very late lunch because we weren’t hungry. We went to the sushi street to have sushi, however in my opinion the Tokyo Fish Market sushi was much better.

Otaru is a popular tourist place, there is a lot of jewellery and gifts shop around, we bought few necklaces for my friends and Japanese plum wine for my dad.  We stayed in Otaru until dark as we want to see the canal at night. We then travelled back to Shin-Sapporo for dinner, we went to Saizeriya, another place Chris wanted to take me as he went to this chain restaurant few times previously. They serve Japanese style italian food and the prices are very reasonable. By end of the day, Chris and I both very tired by walking too much.

I haven’t write about our honeymoon trip yet, I should have but I haven’t. So now I’m sitting in front of the computer and stop myself playing computer game and write down something to remember… I have put the photos in my Gallery already so some of you might have already seen them.

We went onto our honeymoon two days after our Hong Kong reception. I have organised the trip from Australia with mum’s help, we got a Sapporo 4D3N flight & hotel package flying with Cathay Pacific, and extended our stay for another 3 days, in total of seven days! Chris and I never like joining the tour so we travelled my ourselves.

We went to the Hong Kong International Airport early in the morning on Sunday 25 October 2009 to catch the 9:40am flight directly to Sapporo. The arrival time was 3:10pm local time. The New Chitose Airport is much simple and old than I expected. The airport was incredibly stuffy and I think Chris and I were the only one wearing short shelves and everyone were having big jacket on… It was autumn in Sapporo at that time and red leaves season was just started. The weather was beautiful, nice and cool but everywhere indoor was just sooo warm/hot. I know Japanese hates the cold, but I think they like the stuffiness more!

Some of you might know most of the Japanese hotel use twin or semi-double (4 feet wide bed) as their standard room. No way Chris and I are going to fit in a semi-double, so we requested to have a King size bed and mentioned that we are honeymooners, however it wasn’t guarantee. When we arrived in our hotel, Sheraton Sapporo, we were guessing if we could have the “up-grade”. I was secretly hoping that once the receptionist sees us, he/she will upgrade us automatically as Chris is twice their size and obviously I’m going to bounce off from the 4 inch wide bed. When we checked-in, the receptionist used a fluent but in a bad accent English letting us know that we have been “up-graded” to a King size room, and congratulated us being just-married, he was very well mannered and nice.

Sheraton Sapporo is located in Shin-Sapporo, few JR stations away from town (Sapporo), but it has a very good view and it is the tallest building in the area. Chris and I both love the country-town feel of Japan, less advertisement, less crowded and just very relaxing. The hotel is very closed to the JR station as well as the shopping centre. After we settled ourselves in, we got out and went to browse around. It was around 5pm and both of us were getting hungry, because we only had a small lunch on the plane!

Chris always wanted to take me to Okonomiyaki for a long time so when we saw 風月 restaurant, we decided to go there. We also had our first Sapporo beer on our first night there.

Okonomiyaki

After dinner, we took a walk inside the shopping centre, brought few gifts for family and Chris suggested to have something else to eat just an hour after our early dinner! We went to this Japanese wine bar (居酒屋) and had some skewers. Chris never been to one of these before when he travelled around Japan with Mollie few years ago, so I decided to take him there. We had two large sake and few plum wine. We both little tipsy by night that night.

Although I have lived in Australia since 16, my English is not as good as it could be. Often I create new words or mess up my grammer, and my friends called it “Menglish”. Sometimes it can be funny, well my husband Chris finds it funny anyway. He sometimes even write it down so he can tease me later, which I think I might be able to share some in my blog too. By the way, “Trimp your beer!” is Chris’ favourite Menglish, do you know what it means?

Below is the conversation that I had with Chris while listening to Chris’ newest favourite Aussie singer – Lisa Mitchell. (M – Me, C – Chris)

(Lisa’s CD playing)

M: You always listen to the same songs!

C: Well, I thought you start liking it coz I caught you sang along before.

M: When she sings, I can’t hear the words clearly…

C: Yeah, it is a style…

M: Yeah?

C: Yeah, what is the style? (thinking hard) Arrhhh… I can’t remember what it calls!!!

M: (quick think) Mumbling??

C: *LOL*

I got a large fig tree at my backyard, and the figs are ripping now. I usually go out once a second day to spot if there is any new ripped one for me to pick. I went outside as usual yeterday to pick my fig in the late afternoon. The sun is setting and the wind is chilled. Remember I mentioned before that mosquito loves to bite me? Well, I guess all insects love to bite me… I was outside only for about 5 minutes picking the figs, I got four mosquito bites on my hands, one unknown bite on my arm, one ant bite on my knee (I was wearing long pants!)… So I told Chris, I think I’m not design as a farmer… my flesh just like figs, sweet and juicy for the insects…