Personal Favourites: Otaru & The Chocolate Factory

Otaru (小樽) is a small harbour city northwest of Sapporo, about 35 minutes by JR Train. The city faces the Ishikari Bay. With its beautiful canal area, historical buildings and Victorian-style street lamps, Otaru is an excellent day-trip tourist destination.

Upon exit from the JR Otaru Station, walking straight down the road facing the station (Chuodori Street, 中央通リ) will lead you down to the canal area. Along the right side of the street, towards the end nearer to the canal, there is this seafood supermarket cum eatery, where you can get really fresh seafood barbecued over a grill.

The scallop, the clam, the whelk and the abalone were excellent. Fresh and juicy, the meat tender and succulent, with a slightly salty taste from the sea water and light soya sauce, made them a treat for the palate. The honeydew melon were so sweet, but the best item was still the grilled corn - Hokkaido super sweet white corn. So tender and deliciously sweet and juicy. Simply a must try.

After that delightful meal, we continued our walk down to the canal. The famous Otaru Canal is just that, simply a narrow strip of water - a canal. There is nothing much to do or see along the canal, unless you want to take a rickshaw ride in the snow. Saw a guy clearing snow from the carpark. I have always wanted to do that, so I offered my services to help him shovel the thick blanket of snow in order to free the cars. It is hard work indeed.

Walking about 4 blocks to the right of the canal, along Rinkosen Street, you will arrive at the Kitaichi Glass Emporium No. 3, which showcases all the beautiful glass products such as plates, vases, lamps, accessories and so on. It is housed in an old warehouse 2 storeys tall.

There is also a tea room where 167 beautiful glass lamps light up the entire space, filling the room with a fantastic mood. It is so romantic and even has a baby grand piano where performances are scheduled throughout the day. And of course, flashlight photography is prohibited inside the Tea Rooom. The food there is quite average fare but the portion is quite huge. We could not even try their famous Jumbo Cream Puff after our meal.

Just behind the warehouse is Sakaimachihondori Street, which has shops on both sides selling souvenirs, music boxes, cakes, ice cream, sweets and other confectionery items. The famous LeTAO Otaru Confectionery can be found here. There are also a few restaurants along this street. Very touristy place.

However, when it gets later in the afternoon, most of the tourists are gone and you can enjoy a leisurely stroll up the street. Snow is piled high by the side of the street, and you can find some man-made caves. We also came across this lady making a huge snowman, so we went over to help her. My first attempt at building a snowman.

At the Asakusa Bridge over the canal, there is a tourist information centre, and behind that, along Otarukojukansen Street, you will find the Otaru Beer Otaru Soko No. 1. Housed in another old warehouse, this large, high ceiling hall is decorated like a German Beer Hall with a giant copper brewkettle in the middle of the room.

The beer was fresh and tasty. We tried the Pilsner, the Dunkel and the Weiss beers, accompanied with meat pate and toasted bread slices. The pate was exceptional. Loved it.

From Sapporo, taking the Tozai Subway Line to Miyanosawa Station, will bring you to the famous Shiroi Koibito Park and the Ishiya Chocolate Factory. Looking at the faҫade of the building, with its many decorative candy sticks and snowman, it really gives the impression that you are about to enter Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

After buying tickets at the reception area, we were told to follow the cat's paw prints which will lead us on a tour through the factory.

First was a photo opportunity with the famous Shiroi Koibito white chocolate cookies. Then we enter the room housing the Aurora Fountain, which was produced by England's Royal Doulton Company around 1870. Then there is the collection of beautiful ceramic cups used to drink chocolate in the 18th century. This is then followed by a section which showcases a number of valuable examples of chocolate packages from bygone days.

Next is the viewing gallery where you can see the cookie production line, including the stages of sandwiching chocolate between oven-fresh cookies, cooling them and packaging them individually.

Finally, we arrive at my favourite station of the tour, the Chocolate Lounge, which overlooks the park, its Rose Garden and the Mechanical Clock Tower. At the lounge you can taste the various chocolate products including Hot Chocolate drink in original porcelain cup, Shiroi Koibito parfait and a Chocolate Fondue. Absolutely fabulous meal and fantastic picturesque scenery. Just like a dream come true.

On the way out, there is even a gramophone gallery and a children's toys exhibition area where you can find classical toys from the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods (1868-1989). All the toys I used to play with when I was a child, such as Ultraman figurines, Astro Boy and Kamen Rider . There is also a restaurant.