7. Otaru
Just a short 30-minute train ride from Sapporo, Otaru is particularly known for glassware and music boxes, but if you’re going to make a trip to this small harbor city, make sure to grab lunch at Wakadori Jidai Naruto Honten, where you’ll have some of the best fried chicken you’ve ever sunk your teeth into. Walk off your meal along the Otaru Canal before you turn onto Sakaimachi road to do a little shopping at the number of shops that line the street. Make a stop at Rokkatei for their Marusei butter sandwich (where two biscuits sandwich a thick slab of cream with raisins mixed in) and Kitakaro for a supersize cream puff.
8. Seafood
Thanks to the plankton-rich Sea of Japan, seafood is highly abundant in the waters surrounding Hokkaido. The high-quality crabs are especially worth a try. There are four types to choose from: king, horsehair, snow, and hanasaki queen. And given how ubiquitous they are, feasting on these crustaceans is much more inexpensive here than anywhere else in the country. If you’re not a fan or get tired of cracking your way through those spiny legs, sea urchin, squid, scallop, and salmon roe (best had over a bed of rice) are also plentiful in the area.
Farm Tomita’s lavender fieldsPhoto: Courtesy of Farm Tomita
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