Hokkaido II Day 9: Dormy Inn Sapporo, Tanukikoji Street & Odori Park

I had a fever during the night so I woke up feeling less than myself in the morning. I must have caught whatever virus that the Littlest had in Toya! We had to skip our usual morning onsen for the first time ever and prepare for check out instead! As the saying goes, "the show must go on"... 😣

Beautiful morning for a walk to Otaru Station, albeit feeling sick

We bought our train tickets to Sapporo at ¥750 per adult and ¥370 per child (6-12 years old) and boarded the train at around 12 noon.

Taking the local train to Sapporo Station

On arrival at Sapporo Station, we headed to the taxi stand to hail a taxi to our accommodation. It was so worth it as we only paid ¥1250 and did not have to drag our luggage through the snow! 

Inside the taxi at Sapporo

We arrived at Dormy Inn Premium Sapporo Hotel, our accommodation in Sapporo. We chose it for its good location and onsen facilities!

Our room was not ready so we left our luggage at the concierge and headed to Tanukikoji Shopping Street, located conveniently behind our hotel! 

Dormy Inn Premium Sapporo

Tanukikoji Shopping Street

We had lunch at a restaurant the Hubby spotted just down the street from our hotel.

Have no idea how to read the name of the restaurant in Japanese

We were given a small table under the stairs!

Starters

Yummy seafoood

Fish hotpot soup

The food was tasty and affordable but I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest as I started to feel chills running throughout my body again. I found myself in one of the many pharmacies in the area buying medicine. I had to scan the box with Google Translate to understand what I was buying!

By then, our 2 rooms were ready for us to check in so I returned to the hotel to rest. We headed to our Moderate Double / Twin Rooms, which we had booked for S$270 per room per night (each room accommodates 2 adults). 

Bedroom slippers on the wall to save space (left) and very narrow entryway (right)

Toilet and shower (no bathtub)

Tiny wardrobe and luggage rack

Tiny double bed that could barely fit me and my girls

TV console and windows with limited view

Information about the spa and other facilities

Restaurant at Level 1

Complimentary use of the dining area during certain timings where we could get free drinks from the machines

After taking my medicine, I took a nap with the Littlest while the Hubby and older kids headed out to shop. They said they had a lot of fun! 😬

Shopping at Tanukikoji Shopping Street

The Boy bought more of his favourite Kirby gachapon

They also shopped at Mega Don Quijote Sapporo, which was just a 5-minute walk from our hotel.

My Boy found more Kirby merchandise at Don Quijote!

External view of Mega Don Quijote Sapporo

The other section of Tanukikoji Shopping Street

The Littlest and I slept until 6pm! I woke up feeling much better after a good rest. We met up with the rest of the family to walk to Odori Park via the underground shopping street towards Odori Station.

We were there to visit the famous Sapporo White Illumination at Odori Park!

Odori Park looked extra magical when it was lighted up!

Beautiful installations

Sapporo Christmas markets

The Sapporo TV Tower looked so different lighted up at night compared to when the Hubby and I saw it during the day in our last visit.

The kids took photos with the giant Christmas tree at the base of Sapporo TV Tower

Final photos

After exploring the Christmas market stalls and not finding anything substantial to eat, the hubby decided on Gyoza no Ohsho, a very popular restaurant chain selling fusion Japanese-Chinese food. There was a long queue at the Tanukikoji Street outlet and we waited for about 30 minutes before we were finally seated.

Gyoza no Ohsho

Fusion Japanese-Chinese cuisine

The Hubby's favourite fried chicken

Vegetables with beef

Ramen

We can't dine at "The King of Gyoza" and not order gyoza right?! *laughs*

Fun fact: we first tried the restaurant chain's gyoza when we visited Osaka!

We returned to our hotel after dinner and headed to the onsen for our baths.

Bathing at the Dormy Inn Onsen

We helped ourselves to the complimentary yakult and ice-cream after our bath
(As we had done in Dormy Inn Otaru)

We ended the day with Dormy Inn's complimentary ramen at the restaurant.

One of my Boy's favourite ramen! 😋

I prayed that I would feel well enough to explore Sapporo the next few days! 🙏🏻🤞🏻

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P.S: Read about our experiences in Dormy Inns all over Japan:

• 2016: Onyado Nono Namba (Osaka)
• 2018: Dormy Inn Premium Kodenmacho (Tokyo)
• 2019: Dormy Inn Premium Nagoya Sakae (Nagoya)
• 2024: Dormy Inn Premium Otaru (Hokkaido)

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Continue to >> Hokkaido II Day 10: Ichiran, Royce Town Factory & Susukino
<< Back to Hokkaido II Day 8: Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery & Otaru Sakaimachi Street

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Hokkaido, Japan 

as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

Hokkaido II Day 8: Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery & Otaru Sakaimachi Street

After our morning wash up at the onsen, the girls ate the LeTAO cheesecakes we bought the day before for breakfast while the boys had noodles at the nearby convenience store. We reconvened after breakfast and headed to Otaru Station to buy train tickets to our next destination.

On our way to Otaru Station

The next train to Yoichi Station was at 10.57am as we had just missed the earlier train. The train tickets cost ¥440 per adult and ¥220 per child. Since we had time, we shopped at the station. 

Love the bread from Saint-Germain bakery! Super good!

Yummy fried chicken from this stall

We boarded the train approximately 10 minutes before it departed.

Local train heading to Kutchan through Yoichi

On arrival at Yoichi Station, we decided to buy our return tickets so that we wouldn't waste time. Thankfully we did because we found out that we had to catch the 1.43pm local train back to Otaru Station as the next one's at 3pm! We made a mental note to be at the station by 1.40pm latest.

Yoichi Station

Yoichi is the birthplace of whisky in Japan, with Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery being the first distillery. The distillery was just a 3-minute walk from Yoichi Station and you could see it from the station. This was a must-do activity for us as the Hubby is a big fan of whisky and has a small collection! 😁

Main entrance to Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery

You'd need to make advance booking of the distillery's complimentary tour in order to enter. We booked the 12pm slot on our first night at Lake Toya (had to cancel the earlier booking once we knew we wouldn't have a car). We showed the reservation email to the staff, who gave us 5 entry cum tasting tickets: 2 alcohol tasting tickets for the adults and 3 juice tickets for the underaged. We were also instructed to keep the tickets until we left the premise.

As we had arrived early for the tour, we had time to take photos with the picturesque, snowy distillery! It looked like it came out of a storybook! 😍

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With the snow-covered whisky barrels

The distillery was even more magical in the winter!

We headed indoors to their mini theatre, where a staff showed us an introductory video of our tour.

Boards introducing the distillery and our tasting ticket

Introductory video shown on the screen

The guided tour was conducted in Japanese but the distillery printed highlights of the tour in English so that we could follow it.

Walked around the distillery and learnt about its history

These furnaces were not for show;
the staff worked hard to keep them burning for the whisky distillation.

More walking to explore their premises

Rita House

Visualisation of the whisky-making process

Nikka Museum

As the tour took approximately 70 minutes, we did not have time to explore Nikka Museum. At the end of the tour, the hubby enjoyed complimentary tasting of 3 types of whisky!

Hubby had whisky while the rest of us had juice

The 3 types of whisky we were given to try

The dining area

Beautiful view outside the window! 😍

In the interest of time, the Hubby headed straight to the shops after he had finished his drinks while the kids and I checked out the vending machine at the dining hall. 

The vending machine dispensed various snacks that paired perfectly with whisky.
We bought the mini sausages as it was unique to the distillery. It was a hit with the family!

By the time we headed downstairs to the shop, the Hubby had filled a basket full of products that he wanted me to get him for his (belated) birthday! 😅

Very satisfied customer! 😁

The Hubby was not the only one who enjoyed the distillery! Even though the rest of us can't/don't drink, we didn't want to leave as the place was simply too beautiful! 😍

Took more pictures as we left the distillery

Reluctant as we were, we had to leave by 1.30pm otherwise we would miss the train to Otaru Station! It was an enjoyable visit and I highly recommend it! 👍

We made it to Yoichi Station just in time to catch the train!
(Littlest was sad that we had to leave)

We stopped at our hotel to deposit our shopping and rested at their Resting Room. 

Our hotel provided complimentary yakult and ice-cream for guests

After a quick break, we continued our journey to Sakaimachi Shopping Street for lunch and round two of shopping.

The snow can make it extremely slippery to walk!

The Hubby spotted a Kito no Gyoba restaurant along the street where we had our late lunch. It turned out that they were famous for fresh Hokkaido seafood.

One of Kito No Gyoba's many outlets in Hokkaido!

Super fresh salmon

Yummy crab soup

Love the rice bowl and sticks of beef! 😋 

Yummy grilled squid

Littlest's favourite: fresh giant prawns!

After a very satisfying lunch, we proceeded to do our shopping. As we had limited time left before the shops closed at 5-6pm, we split into 2 groups for efficiency: boys to the Kitachi Glass Shop and girls to the Orgel Music Box Museum!

The skies were getting ominously dark

Pretty glass cups the Hubby bought from Kitachi Glass Shop

The Hubby also bought this sake glass set exquisitely made in Japan

While the Hubby was happily shopping, the girls and I arrived at the traffic junction across the road from the museum.

Otaru Cafe x Hello Kitty!

Otaru Music Box Museum and Otaru Steam Clock

I couldn't wait to return to Otaru Music Box Museum as I have loved it so much during our last visit to Otaru.

The only photos I took of the music boxes as I was too busy choosing the ones I liked to buy! 

Totoro and other parts of the museum

By the time I completed my purchase, it was already dark outside.

The buildings were illuminated!

The 15-minute walk back to our hotel felt like an eternity due to the slippery ice and snow! We slipped and almost fell many times! 🥴 We were so happy to be back in the comforts of our hotel! 

We had burgers from Burger King and more ice-cream for dinner

We washed up at the onsen before having our usual complimentary ramen supper.

Before I end this post, I'd like to share some of our shopping haul! 

Souvenirs from Nikka Whisky and Kitachi Glass Shop

Music boxes I got from Otaru Music Box Museum

I couldn't believe it was our last night at Otaru! Two nights in Otaru was not enough! 😆

Continue to >> Hokkaido II Day 9: Dormy Inn Sapporo, Tanukikoji Street & Odori Park
<< Back to Hokkaido II Day 7: Dormy Inn Otaru, Sankaku Market & Otaru Canal

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Hokkaido, Japan 

as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!