Day 6: Morning at Hokkaido Shrine (Jingu). Afternoon at Chocolate Factory and Sapporo Beer Factory. Overnight at Sapporo.

Today we have a full day planned out. We had purchase the daily ticket (¥1000/adult) that enable us to use City bus, Subway and JR Hokkaido bus. This allowed us to travel the whole day without worrying too much about about transportation.

In the morning, our first stop was to the Hokkaido Shrine (Hokkaido Jingu). As it snowed the night before, the snow was thick, but at least it was nice and sunny.

The Hokkaido Shrine is situated in the middle of small forest. We had to walk for at least 10 mins to reach the where the shrine is located. On the day we visited, it must have been a special day as there were lots of other local guests.

Before you could enter the shrine, you are suppose to (traditionally) cleanse yourself at a little hut outside the main entrance to the Hokkaido Shrine. You could see spring water emerging from the centre into a tiny pond. You pick up a laddle, to rinse your left hand, followed by right hand and last of all taking a sip of water (at least that's what I notice everyone else doing!). The water was really cold, freezing temperature. From the photos you should be able to see the water freezing all around the pond.

After we enter the entrance of the shrine, we could see loads of people in the foyer area. We could see people writting messages on a little piece of wood or on a little papers. You are could write a wish or a blessing for a loved one. We could also see lots of locals purchasing little tokens made from either paper or dried leafs. All these tokens were different and was used like an offering when burnt. There was a list that stated what it represented, like for Good Health, or Wealth or other things one would pray and hope for.

As usual, where there is a gathering of people, there would be ample of food around. There was Dorayaki, Taroyaki and other local food (don't know what the name is!). I tried most of them and came to the conclusion that hawker food quality is NOT fantastic. However, being in the sub zero temperature, any warm food would still taste good.

The next stop we headed to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory. When you first step in, you'll realise that it is no ordinary factory. It is more like a museum of products that they have made since the factory was opened. Some of these are probably a hundred years old, antique stuff if you asked me.

Pictured here are only a few antique tins of products that they had made. They too had lots of antique tin toys as well as wooden ones. They had lot's of interesting antique stuff to look at, and will probably take you an hour plus to walk through these exhibits as well as look at the factory where they make their famous chocolate biscuit.

The Ishiya is famous for its chocolate biscuits, which is basically 2 very thin pieces of biscuit with a slice of white chocolate in the center. You can visit their website here.

Here is a photo of the product I am talking about. Problem is, I don't even the name of the product. For now, lets just call it Ishiya Chocolate Biscuit. The chocolate biscuit is actually made very well. The 2 thin biscuits are very thin, and melts in your mouth. The chocolate is rich and goes well with the biscuit combination. My only complain is that it is a little too sweet for my liking.

The same chocolate does come in a milk chocolate variation. Again, its a little too sweet for my liking. These chocolates are available in Malaysia, in some of those Japanese shops. Price, it is both very expensive in Japan as well as in Malaysia.

If you do plan to buy these as a souvenir for your friends, please DO NOT purchase them from the factory (as what we did). These are available all around Japan, and also in the Chitose airport. Price is the same all over, so that will save you the trouble of carrying it all across Japan, just to realise that it also exist in the Airport!

The last stop for the day is at the Sapporo Beer Factory. When we arrived you'll see this big red brick factory, with a red stars symbol. At first it game me an impression like the old German war factories that I have seen on TV. Did you know that the Japanese had learnt how to make beer from the Germans since the 1876?

The beer factories goes through all the theory on how to make a beer. Lot of stuff to learn if you asked me, but I am not here to learn how to make beer, but enjoy a mug or two. Anyway, a walk through the factories gives you more knowledge on how beer is actually made. Next stop we went to see the Sapporo Beer Museum. They have all the beer bottles (or cans) since they started making in the 1878 till now. With all the different designs and variations it comes in. They also had loads of cool Beer advertisement posters over the last century.

Next stop, the Beer Garden (situated next to the factory) a place where you can enjoy a nice cold beer together with the famous Fresh lamb Genghis Khan BBQ. After a long day, what better way to wind down, have a meal and a nice cold beer. We got ourselves a set meal and had fun doing the BBQ. It was a little like Korean style BBQ. More info on the Beer Garden can be found here.

We headed back to the City area. We went back to Sapporo Esta for some window shopping and to buy some stuff that we left out the day before.... Yes I bought lots of Nanoblocks!