Sapporo summer 2017

I met Kazuki-chan on Sunday night and he introduced me to more of his friends (mostly badminton friends: long story) and because it was a holiday on Monday, most of them came from other parts of Japan like Tokyo or Kyoto etc so it was like a badminton gathering.

Anyway we went to 3 different bars and stayed at the last bar for some karoke then it was 3am and I was super sleepy already so I wanted to go back to the hotel. Only Ha-chan and Kazuki-chan were singing so they were saying last song last song, then we went out of the bar at 4am. I wanted to go back hotel to sleep. And they dragged me to eat curry rice. At 4am in the morning and the sun already came up in Sapporo. And we were supposed to meet Habu-chan at the seafood market at 10am for breakfast.

I slept at 5am and we couldn't wake up in the morning and slept till 1.30pm on Monday. Haha poor Habu-chan and friends. In the end we ate breakfast at 3pm, they brought me to this super awesome soup curry place. I had prawn (ebi) soup curry base with chicken leg and extra hamburg and cabbage. I super love it. The soup was like lobster bisque with curry. The hamburg and chicken were so soft and tender. The vegetables were sweet and crunchy. The best soup curry I had in Sapporo.

We shopped around Sapporo and I realised it was end of season sale everywhere. Japan's mid year sale is crazy, especially H&M and forever21. One t-shirt can be like 100yen ($1.20), a pair of shorts for 300yen ($4), sweaters for 500yen. I bought underwear (3 for $4) and a winter beanie ($3) from H&M but the other bought lotsa stuff. Went to Sports-kan but there's no ski pants for me.

Dinner's at a izakaya with Maki-chan and I witnessed the famous Japanese alcoholism. The drinks they ordered are endless... it was so scary, once mug after one mug but luckily they were so nice to go dutch on the bill. I also had my authentic Japanese Karaoke box experience when we went for a 2 hour karaoke session. Drinks were endless as usual. I love to hang out with them but I felt lousy that my Japanese is not up to their level and I couldn't understand much of the things they were talking about. That's my sole motivation for my Japanese class now. I want to be able to understand and converse with them.

Their fruits are out of this world. It was cherry and melon season. I have never tasted melon so soft, juicy, sweet and crunchy at the same time. The cherry was normal, different variant from US and Australia.

I really love Sapporo. It's so chill and laid back, less crowded and less crazy than Tokyo. I definitely had a better experience this time than February. Food is hands down better than Tokyo, because they self-produce but it's expectedly more expensive. People are so nice and genuine, and they are less materialistic than their Tokyo counterpart. I will come back to visit my friends again.