Friday 21 February 2014

Korea (Seoul & Jeju) 2013 14-28 Oct (Day 1)

This Korea trip will be 2 weeks, of which 1 week will be in Seoul and the other week in Jeju.

For the Seoul leg, nothing concrete was planned. The daily program depended on our whim and was ad-hoc. Only the Jeju leg did we have a concrete itinerary, which I will be sharing in later posts.

We arrived in Seoul at night and looked for our own transport to our hotel. Its relatively easy to get a taxi from the airport. Just approach the information counter and ask for directions. Also, if you need internet connectivity, do get a SIM card from the telco counters at the airport. We had trouble getting it in the city later on and gave up the idea.

We stayed at The Classic 500 Executive Residence Pentaz at Konkuk University area at the east of Seoul. It took us an hour to get from the hotel and it is just diagonally across from Konkuk University train station (Line 2 & 7).

The apartment was very comfortable and high tech. It was a self contained apartment including washing machine, cutlery, cooking utensils, wine chiller, etc.

The living and kitchen area

Bedroom

We were hungry so we went to hunt for food. There's a street lined with restaurants and street food near the train station. Even though it was near midnight, the area was still bustling with activity with many students having their supper or drinks, as it was near the university.

Street of restaurants
Street food stalls

Some of the street food that we tried

When in Korea, you can't be here without trying their soju and makgouli. We went to a convenience store and was shocked to discover how cheap it costs. In Singapore, the cheapest bottle of soju that I've bought was S$11, in Seoul, it was only S$2.80.



By the time we went back to the room, it was already past 1am. Good night Seoul, see you when we wake up.

Thursday 20 February 2014

Hokkaido 2013 13-20 Dec (Day 6-final)

Today is free and easy day. As we were staying at the JR Tower Nikko Hotel Sapporo, we went up to the JR Tower Observation Deck T38 to have a scenic view of Sapporo.

Photo from http://uu-hokkaido.com/

Directly connected to JR Sapporo Station, the observation deck is located on the top floor of JR Tower's tallest building in Hokkaido. 38 floors from the ground and 160m high, the majestic skyline view of Hokkaido spreads out 360 ° in all directions. Address: JR East Tower 6F, kita 5 jo nishi 2 chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo city Hokkaido Japan.

View from up at 38th floor
The children's restroom. So cute
Nice view from men's restroom
(Photo from http://uu-hokkaido.com)

We stayed there for about an hour and then we took a taxi to Mount Moiwa ropeway.

Mount Moiwa (藻岩山, Moiwa-yama) is one of several small, forested mountains southwest of central Sapporo. The mountain is a popular sightseeing spot that is known for the spectacular view out over the city from an observation deck at its summit. The view is especially beautiful after sunset.

The Mount Moiwa Ropeway climbs from the base of the mountain three quarters up the mountain to a transfer station. From there a rather unique mini cablecar travels the rest of the way to the upper station at the summit where there is an observation deck and restaurant with nice views out over the city. The station also houses a planetarium and theater. The ropeway and building complex at the summit were reopened in 2012 after extensive renovations.

The ropeway

The ropeway with an extremely courteous staff greeting everyone

The view on the way up the ropeway
The view on the way up the ropeway
Transferring to a mini "cable car" at the transfer station
(Photo from http://moiwa.sapporo-dc.co.jp/)

The observation deck


The view of Sapporo from Mt Moiwa

The view around Mt Moiwa

The view around Mt Moiwa

A sculpture called Satellite of Lover's Sanctuary


The different mountains you can see from Mt Moiwa

After spending about 2 hours there, we descended and took a taxi back to our hotel to browse around the malls. The malls were really large by Singapore standards and of course we couldn't finish browsing.

For dinner, we went to Kani Honke (かに本家) that serves all crab dishes. It was just short walk across the road from the hotel.

Exterior of the restaurant with a large crab

Menu of Kani Honke

Below are pictures of the food we ordered. Really yummy and fresh.

Appetizer of fish, minced crab and crab pate

Appetizer of shredded crab meat with lemon dressing

Pickled sushi for the kids

Sashimi of crab leg, salmon and cuttlefish

Deep fried crab tempura

Baked crab claws



Crab hotpot

Baked crab

The hotpot was especially yummy. You are supposed to put the crab roe into the soup to make it sweet but we forgot all about it. Rice was added to the leftover soup to make a porridge and we by then the food was nearly up to our throat. I remembered about the roe and added it into the porridge. OMG, I was already so full but I finished every bit of my porridge because it was so so so sweet. Burp. I'm still missing this dish haha.

After the super duper filling dinner, we took a walk around the neighbourhood help digestion. My good friend Blanche, recommended me to look for a cafe, 雪印 Parlor, that serves good vanilla ice cream and so, armed with the address and map she sent me, we went to look for the shop.

It was very cold that night but it was so refreshing. We found the cafe, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it. However, the pictures of the write-up with address and the map are below. Go look for it.

I must say I'm not a fan of vanilla ice cream, but I must say, this is really good. Must try. Glad we found it. 




This is the last night of my Hokkaido trip and felt so reluctant that it was ending so soon. Hokkaido is really beautiful and a place to see different things each season. Yes, I'll be back. Don't know when, but definitely I will be back!!!


Saturday 8 February 2014

Hokkaido 2013 13-20 Dec (Day 5)

Our guide and driver came to pick us up about 9am to head towards Otaru. The journey from Rusutsu to Otaru takes approximately 2.5 hours. The journey went through winding roads and was very picturesque. Saw a snow capped mountain that is known endearingly as the Mt Fuji of Hokkaido.

Mt Fuji of Hokkaido



As it was a long journey, we stopped at a convenience store for a toilet break and also for the driver to take a short rest. One thing to note was that although the distance wasn't long, the driver was driving slowly and carefully on the snow/ice covered road. So for safety reasons, the guide requested for a rest break for the driver. 

View from the convenience store
Being typical Singaporeans, we took the opportunity to do some "shopping" in the convenience store. Rested for about 15 minutes and continued on our trip to Otaru.

It was nearly lunch time when we reached Otaru, but we decided to take a quick tour of the beautiful town first. First stop, we visited a confectionery. They had really good biscuits and cakes. Highly recommended for visitors to come for a taste test before buying.

The confectionery
Streets of Otaru
Walking towards the music box factory across the road
Inside the music box factory

After walking round Otaru, we went for a late lunch of seafood. Something that we've been waiting for, especially crabs. We went to a restaurant frequented by the locals facing the sea about 15 minutes away from the town. Below are pictures of all the dishes that we ordered for 4 adults and 2 children.


Crab
Prawns
Sashimi of (clockwise from top left corner) octopus, sweet prawn, unknown fish, salmon, clam and scallop
BBQ fish

BBQ squid
Another BBQ fish
BBQ shellfish
Cuttlefish sashimi

Clean up everything on the table
The seafood restaurant
Lunch was soooo good. So fresh. My favourites were the raw scallops and crab, which were so sweet. After lunch, we continued on our journey to the world famous chocolate biscuit factory of Hokkaido, Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人)

The facade of the factory
Outside the factory
 I felt like a child visiting Willy Wonker's chocolate factory. The grounds were decorated with beautiful lights, sculptures, plants and sculptures and they even had a clock show. 

After some time taking pictures at the grounds, we proceeded into the building for the factory tour.

Ticketing counter for the factory tour
Exhibition rooms
Factory floor producing the famous chocolate biscuits
Factory floor

Cafe/Restaurant with a beautiful view
After finishing the tour, we continued walking around the grounds of the factory and continued taking more pictures. 

The grounds of the factory
By then, the sky was starting to turn dark and we decided to continue on to our hotel, JR Tower Nikko Hotel Sapporo.

Hotel Lobby
The bedroom was a decent size and had a beautiful view of the city. Everything was up to expectation and this hotel had a different feel from the other 2 hotels. While the other 2 had a more homely, family feel, this one has a business feel.

The bedroom
The night view from the bedroom

The hotel is located above the central train station and is super convenient. It has 3 shopping blocks that we were unable to cover fully in the 2 days that we were staying there. 

After checking-in and settling down, the guide brought us through the malls and we settled to have dinner at a sushi conveyor belt restaurant.

After dinner, we walked around the malls for awhile and went back to the room for an early night.