Otaru

When I originally planned this Sapporo trip, it was a bit late, and I had trouble finding accommodations. So I booked a hostel in Otaru, which is about a 40 min train ride from Sapporo, for a night. It worked out perfectly because on Sat night, they had a candle festival in the snow. It was SOOO beautiful. Luckily I was there right as the sun was going down and the candles were being lit, so there weren�t too many people. Later, it became too difficult to take pictures without strangers posing in them. This festival is not as well known or popular as Sapporo�s snow festival, but I like it just as much, if not better. The town is much smaller of course, and has a close connection with Victoria, Canada, which is like Britain. So the town had a European feel, including many chocolate shops, which gave out a plethora of samples. We were able to walk back and forth and get numerous samples until we actually bought their chocolate, then they just said thank you when we walked by. So of course we hid our bags and tried again. My favorite was a shop called LeTao that had dark chocolate pyramids that were tea flavored. So delicious! There was also a sweet shop that sold cream puffs with funny signs. (Some of my adult students back in Wakayama saw the pictures. They didn�t find the humor in them.)
Otaru has a special street where there are many sushi restaurants. We tried one, and it was pretty good. I had a tuna and salmon sushi. It was great, but I would prefer it without the wasabi. And in case you think you are misreading something, yes I ate fish, yes it was raw, and yes I enjoyed it. Maybe my taste buds are dying of old age, so I can try more things.
We also stopped into a tiny restaurant to try some fried potatoes (Hokkaido is famous for potatoes too). As we sat there, one of the cooks� grandmothers came in to get a snack too, and shared her sweet potato-filled pastry with us. That was delicious as well.
This town is also famous for music boxes and glass blowing. Both of which you can make your own piece to take home. Susanne ended up blowing some glass.
I really enjoyed this town.