Day 7: Afternoon train to Kushiro. Overnight at Kushiro

Today was one of those days that we decided to take a holiday. We decided to sleep in till about 10AM. After we woke up, we headed out for a quick branch and had an hour to burn before needing to catch our scheduled train at 2:20PM. We spent an hour walking around at the shopping centre connected to the JR Station.

Today we would be catching a 4 hour train ride to Kushiro, which is situated at the East side of Hokkaido. Our Mission? To hopefully catch a glimpse of the Japanese Crane!

Here is me as usual, with something to eat in my hand. Here I am pictured with my favourite quick eat item, the Katsu Sandwich which is available at all local train stations or convenient stores. It was a 4 hour ride ok, what else to do but to cam whore a little...

Alright, we found a Japanese Crane at the Kushiro Train Station.... Mission Accomplished.....

Nope, my darling wasn't as excited as I was, and NO we still had to visit the Marsh Lands to hopefully see some Japanese Cranes.


The day was simple. We checked at La Vista Kushirogawa Hotel (yes it is the same as the Dormy Inn & La Vista Group). And yes they had the same Free Onsen as well as Free Ramen as the Dormy Inn at Hakodate.


We had a dinner at the local restaurant before retiring early. You can read about our dinner post here. Of course when I meant early, a quick 1 hour onsen session followed by some Free Ramen to round the day off!

Here we have a photo of our small but cosy hotel. It was simple, clean, and had cool looking Japanese bathrobes, what else can I ask for? And yes, it had free internet too, just remember to always bring along a Network cable (not provided normally)

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!

Day 5: Morning train to Sapporo. Spent the day at Sapporo. Overnight at Sapporo.

We reschedule our morning to catch the 9:42AM rather than the 8:02AM train to Sapporo. This allowed us to sleep in a tiny bit longer. For those who plan to travel from Kutchan to Sapporo, please note that there are express trains available, saving you about 15 minutes, when compared to the normal schedules. The journey should take you about 2 hours. Always check hyperdia.com for train schedules.

We stay in Sheraton Sapporo Hotel which was situated next to the Shin-Sapporo (JR) station. Please note that the Shin-Sapporo (Subway) is at the same location, but a different area, which requires 5 minutes between them. And please note that the JR and Subway are different companies, each requiring their own tickets and fares.

We checked in, got ourselves an upgrade from Twin sharing to a King sized bed. We had booked a Twin sharing as it was cheaper!! Since it was almost 1PM, we decided to head down to the city centre to have lunch.

We headed down to Sapporo (JR) station, where it is the main hub for the Sapporo city. Situated directly next to the station is the JR Tower, which consist of a few shopping centre like Daimaru, Sapporo Esta and Stellar Place.

By recommendation (read here), we decided to try the top Ramen that Hokkaido has to offer at the 10th Floor of Sapporo Esta. Within this tiny area, you may find a selection of top Ramen restaurants from all over Hokkaido. Some started from road side stalls, while others had generations and generations of history behind them. Unfortunatly we can only one, have decided to try Shirakaba Sansou which is situated on the first left restaurant when you first enter the area. Read more on our Shirakaba Sansou Ramen here.

After our heavy lunch, we decided to walk around Sapporo Esta. We travelled down the escalator, to find video arcades games, pet stores and other shops before entering Bic Camera departmental store. As we were walking down, we visited the Toy section first.

Eelin asked me... "What do you want to?"... my reply.... "EVERYTHING!"

Like a kid in a toy store, I was absolutely fascinated with everything available, from electronic toys, to Gundam models, to very detailed train replicas... I had a look around, and found some LEGO, only to realised that, it cost more than what I would pay for in Malaysia. We then proceeded to locate Nanoblocks (see pict above), which are very much like LEGO but comes in very tiny pieces... with the smallest block being only 4x4mm in size. Since its a Japanese brand, we were hoping to purchase some. Not only did we find some, but since they had 20% discount, we purchase quite a few.

We walked around Bic Camera departmental store. We loved their Console section, with the pre-launch booking for the Nintendo 3DS being only at ¥25,000 we realised that some things could be cheaper in Japan! We visited other sections like their Electrical section to view their TVs and other electrical goods. We also visited the ladies and men's department to realised that most of the clothing are for the Winter season. 

In most shopping centres in Japan, the lower ground floors would be filled with food. Whether it is bento boxes, or cakes, the whole entire floor would be ..... droool....filled with  food.... I bought my first Taiyaki (click here to read my Taiyaki post) while Eelin enjoyed her Strawberry Mochi. Yummzz... we love to walk through the food section looking for new stuff to try....

What's exploring a new country if you don't explore their food and culture?

We decided to head outdoors before it was too dark to do anything. We started off by heading to the Old Hokkaido Government Building, or better known as Red Bricks to the locals.The walk was only a few blocks from the Sapporo JR.

The Old Government building now hosts a souvenir shop while the other rooms are used to display the history of Sapporo. It is not a very touristy place to visit. Don't expect much, but sort of a history museum of Sapporo city.

We moved on, and visited Odori park, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Sapporo Snow Festival schedule to start on the 7th Feb 2011. Unfortunately since its almost 3 weeks away, nothing was prepared yet. We however found some giant snow blocks carved with some cute famous character like Hello Kitty and Snoopy. Each block is about 6 feet high, so its quite huge.

Odori park consist of a park that spans 12 blocks... very very long.... As we were exploring it, I came across this huge gigantic snow/ice sculpture that they wanted to build.... no idea what the finished product would be like, but they were really trying to collect and build a very big snow/ice sculpture. About 3 storey high and still going...

On one of the corner you would be able to see the Sapporo TV Tower as pictured here. 

 

After all these walking in the blistering Winter, we need to hunt for more local food... next on our list... Ramen... again? we headed to the Ramen Alley situated not too far from Odori park. In this tiny alley, there are 17 Ramen shops. As you may have noticed, one of them is the exact same one as the one we had for lunch!! Not knowing which was best, we decided to walk past every stall, looking for one that was packed with locals... sure enough we found one that was.... however after waiting about 10 minutes in the cold, we decided to settle for 2nd best. We tried one that had some customers but wasn't the most packed. I am sorry but we wont be posting any pictures of what we had for dinner as both our cameras was too fogged up to capture any photos.

Shirakaba Sansou Ramen (白樺山荘), Sapporo

Our friends Jeremy and Shirlene were weeks ahead of us in Sapporo. Thus with all the ground work done, we just followed their recommendation (their posts here) and decided to try the highly recommended Ramen.

Located on the 10th Floor at Sapporo Esta shopping centre, next to JR Sapporo station, it is not difficult to locate. Once you take the life to the 10th floor, you'll find the entrance to the Sapporo Ramen Republic where it hosts 8 of the top ramen restaurants from Sapporo.

We decided to eat at Shirakaba Sansou Ramen (白樺山荘), which is the first shop on the left after the entrance. Made to look like a Japanese ramen stall, the look and feel was unique and fun.

Here is a photo of the menu, so you can decide on what you would like to try before you actually go there. We ordered the recommended ¥980 Miso with Chinese Roast Pork ramen. I mean, the photo was enlarged, thus it must be their special! 


We decided to share 1 main, and asked for an additional bowl to share. They were nice enough to provide an empty bowl, with half an egg and some sea weed. Nice gesture. There were also a whole basket of free hard bowl eggs provided. We only tried 1, but other locals took the opportunity to consume a few.

Here we have the top Ramen of Sapporo. When you first taste the miso soup base, you know that this is no ordinary Ramen. The soup base is extremely rich, tasty and creamy.... almost like they used a whole animal just for the broth. The ramen came with bamboo shoots, spring onions, sea weed and Chinese roast pork, Even the ramen noodle was great in texture and taste, cooked just right. The only thing that I didn't enjoy about it is the amount of fat it has. You'll be able to see a layer of oil hovering on the top of the soup. It is probably why the soup is so tasty, with all the fats in it. This is truly one of the best Ramen that we have tasted.

Last of all we also ordered a Gyoza, which is shaped a little different from the traditional dumpling shapes. The skin they used is a little different, a little more firm when compared to the usual Gyoza.


Overall we really enjoyed our lunch and would recommend anyone to give it a try if they ever do visit Sapporo.

Yakitori at Torimatsu, Kutchan, Japan

As we were on holiday, we weren't as well prepaid for this post. We had no decent camera (DSLR and G9) and in desperation had to use the Iphone 3G to capture the following photos. Please note that the restaurant had a dark ambience, thus the grainy and sometimes out-of-focus photos.

The place that we were recommended was a place that serves Skewers or what we called Yakitori. By definations, Yakitori means Chicken Skewers... Kushiyaki means non-poultry skewers.

The restaurant wasn't that big. They had an bench that would fit about 10 people surrounding the grilling area. At the back of us, and at the corner, they had some private area, which should be able to fit 10 people in each room.

Our host of the evening, spoke little or no english. Only a young girl was able to communicate with us in english. As usual, there was a english menu, and we were able to order from the list.

 

The first 3 skewers that we had ordered was juicy pork, pork stomach and pork skewer. We didn't realised that each order came with 3 skewers each (we were thinking of 1 each, 3 types!). We had a choice of the skewers being served with salt or tare sauce. Tare sauce is like sweet soya sauce. Please note that the juicy pork should be called fatty pork... as you can see from the images, it was mainly fat.

As we were strategically situated next to the grill, we were able to spy on what the other patrons were consuming. Most of the stuff they ate was predicatable.... just the meat skewers... so we took the chance to explore and question every item on the menu.

My CEO (Chief Eatery Officer) had decoded the japanese menu and decided to try supposely Hokkaido type Sausages. We ordered a pair and seated eagerly wondering what how special it would be... It sure smell great as they were grilling it.... The Hokkaido sausage tasted very similar to those chinese sausage that we could obtain from Pasar Malam in Malaysia. However it was very juicy and moist.... probably because it had plenty of pork lard in it.

Next we decided to order the Special of the day, which was grilled Scallops. When they were grilling our scallops, we realised that it was HUGE! Check the size of the shell when placed next to the skewers! It took the cook a really long time to grill our scallop.

While grilling, I asked my CFO "Darling, how much do you think the scallop would cost? I mean, it the biggests scallop I have ever seen in my life... and since it is the special of the day... it could be extremely expensive.... how?"

Finally the scallop was served. It was huge.... humongous. The scallop itself was about 2" in diameter. Definitely too big to eat with one bite. When you have your first bite, you would realised that it is not hard nor chewy, but soft. Very juicy and tasted very sweet. I realised that the scallop was grilled as it is, adding just a pinch of salt, while retaining its original juices and flavour... brilliant! How much was it you asked? Tell you later in the post...

As we couldn't find any vegetables on the menu, we decided to order and try some of their stir fried mushrooms. Both of them taste simple but delicious. It was stir fried with just butter and salt (I reckon).

So we had spent the last hour exploring the what this restaurant had to offer. Situated next to the grill made us smell like skewers ourselves. We asked for the bill and realised that the scallops weren't that expensive... Generally each skewer is about ¥300/each (3 skewers per set). The scallop had set us back only ¥600/each.... phewwww... reasonably priced.

A few notable things on the menu that we didn't get to try...

• Raw Horse
• Raw Whale
• Horse Tongue Sashimi
• Ostrich Sashimi

Day 4: Spent the day at Snowboarding at Niseko. Overnight at Niseko.

scFor once in the last 2 days, we didn't have to wake up at 5AM. We slept in till about 8 something.... little did I realised that I am no more in my 20s.... bady aching everywhere!!

I opened the blinds and was greated by a scene.... only to be describe as heavenly.... it must have snowed the whole night as there was fresh snow everywhere... powder paradise!

Breakfast was provided at Niseko Freedom Inn. We had the option of Bacon or Sausages with sunny side up or scrambled eggs. Toast, cereal, butter, jam, milk and orange juice was also available. We quickly had our breakfast, and headed to the slopes.

By the time we arrived at the slopes it was almost 10AM. Since our body was aching everywhere, we decided to take it easy. I started off by trying to teach Eelin how to snowboard, facing the hill, or what I call toeside. In theory it was just the opposite of what she has been very comfortable doing, snowboarding with the hill behind her or hillside.

After a few falls and laughter, we head up the slopes. The weather remains the same as the day before... cold... extremely cold... expected temperature was about -10°C. With wind-chills the temperature was expected at about -18°C!! OMG!!

We spent most of our days at the Hanazono side. In fact, we spent almost 90% of our time on the same green run, Silver Dream. Eelin wasn't too confident in trying the more advance run, and I was a little concern about her ability.

I did however decided to try a red run (advance)... little did I realised that, the red run is nothing like the blue runs I encountered in Australia.... it was extremely steep... luckily I manage to get through it safely...

I soon realised what the numbers on the ski maps mean. The first number in degrees is the max inclination, the second is the average inclination and the last number is the ski run in meters.

It looks something like 23°/11°/3020m.

The rule of thumb is to look at the first one, because I reckon anything more than 25° looks like a death wish.... maybe its just me... feeling old.... The green runs mostly had a max inclination of about 20°.

The other thing that snowboarders have to worry about doing the green runs is that it has plenty of flat areas (flats). So if you are a snowboarder, keep the momentum and speed up as you wouldn't want to be stranded at the flats.

To truly enjoy the powder, you'll have to do runs that most people aren't doing!! I realised that the green runs had decent amount of powder, but when I visited the red runs, it was excellent. Most of the areas was untouched, and since not many people visited those runs, the hill was all to yourself!!

The other tip to enjoy fresh powder.... ski after lunch, say at about 2PM. Most people are having their lunch, and the hill will probably have accumulated about 1-2" of snow during that period.

The last tip of the day is to always rent a helmet... I had to learnt the hard way as I had a concussion on my last ski trip while in Australia (6 years ago). I had partial amnesia with the scene looking alot like the Groundhog Day movie as I was just repeating myself every couple of minutes... asking the same questions as I couldn't remember anything from a few minutes ago!! Funny if you asked me.... irritating as hell if you asked my friends!!

Again we ended our day at about 3:30PM as the shuttle service was scheduled to pick us up at 4PM. We returned our gears.... sad that we only had 1.5 days to snowboard....

Did we regret not booking a few extra nights? Since we only had 10 days in Japan, we were fortunate to even have allocated 2 full days to enjoy the snow... so no regrets... at least we had a taste and experience of skiing in Niseko!

Honestly to enjoy the slopes, one should book for at least 3 nights, allowing 2.5 days to enjoy the powder. Ideally, > 5 days... first 1-2 days to get yourself warmed up or if you are a beginner, to acquire the basic skills. And the next few days to explore the whole mountain!

Is skiing/boarding in Japan cheaper than Australia? You be the judge...

The following are what we paid each for our ski lift tickets and gears for 2 days.

• Ski Lift tickets = ¥6600/each (2 days)
• Boots & Snowboard hire = ¥7500/each (2 days)
• Helmet hire = ¥1500/each (2 days)

The accommodation, the average a couple looking at a twin/double room would have to pay about USD200/night. If a bunch of guys wouldn't mind staying in a dorm style lodge with shared baths, the price is about USD70/night/pax. Please note that the prices quoted are from what I had noticed while searching for a place to stay, over a Shoulder Peak period (2nd most expensive period).


The prices at Niseko has been rising over the years. This is due to the foreign investors buying up lodges, setting up ski gear rentals shops as well as provide lots of ski lessons and other facilities.


In that 2 days that I was there, I reckon about 70% of the slopes are filled with Aussies. This I had realised  when I was searching for accommodation over the internet... most of these websites had an Australian address and telephone number! During our lunch, I felt that I was in Aussie.... surrounded mainly by Australians, with very few Asians or Japanese.

Onsen again.... yes we really enjoyed the Onsen experience... nothing beats soaking in a hot spring water after a long day at the slopes!


Like the night before, Matt had recommended a place to have our meals at Kutchan. Click here to read more about our Yakotori experience.... highlight was the biggest scallop I have ever eaten!

Sushi at Yoteimaru, Kutchan, Japan

This place was recommended by our host, Matt from Niseko Freedom Inn (read previous post here). His description was, "if you want good sushi, try Yoteimaru.... yes it has a sushi train, and it looks a little commercialised but the food is excellent!".

We booked in a ride to the Kutchan town, where all the locals live and eat. When we got in, we saw the interior and it reminded me very much of Sushi King. It was not that full, at first glanced, but when I try to hang my jacket on the rack, I had difficulty squeezing my jacket into it. I soon realised that there were some private rooms at the back. The restaurant had more and more patrons as the night went by, to a stage where it was almost a full house.

Like all restaurant in Japan, the really good ones, you would expect the staff to speak little or no english. The staff at this place spoke very little english... EXCELLENT!!..  However most of them would have some simplified english menu. Matt had provided us with a few recommended "must try" items, with its japanese name.

We were very pleased with the provide english menu, but soon realised that it was limited compared to the japanese menu. We realised this because we saw the couple next to us order really interesting things. Since the lady spoke little english, we just pointed to her plate, and tried to decode what she ordered by referring to the english menu. We realised that most of the unique stuff is not in the english menu, and just asked the lady to help us ordered a plate.

In no particular order is what we had for the night.

This was one of the first few plates that we ordered. Do you want to guess what is it? It is Snow Crab sushi. To the untrained eye, it may look just like another Crab Stick sushi you get in Malaysia..... however please note that in Japan, they only eat the real thing... real crab legs.... look at the size of it, it must have come from a very big crab!! And once you have tasted the real crab stick..... you'll never look at it the same again.... ever...

Next on the list, we picked up a salmon from the sushi train. From what we noticed, the salmon was grilled lightly using those hand held torch before it was served. The salmon was a little fattier than normal, thus even after it was grilled, it was still very moist.

This sushi we ordered after pointing to the lady next to us ordered. It is NOT available on the english menu. It was grilled fatty salmon with mayo and salmon roe. The salmon was very fatty, topped up with the mayo and roe, the taste just came together... the mayo made it a little more tasty and rich. This was my favourite for the nite. And before we left for the night, we realised that this was the recommend pick from Matt.

This one we picked up from the train again. It was a scallop sushi. A little bland if you asked me. The scallop did have a sweet scallop taste and texture, but paired up with the rice.... a little bland. Please note that japanese sushi is more flat compared to those in Malaysia. Malaysian sushi have a little more salty and sour (vinegar) taste to it.

This we ordered from the menu. Do you know what it is? If you guessed unagi, you got it right. It's eel. However the unagi in Japan is prepared a little different. The unagi itself has NOT been prepared in the sweet sauce that we get in Malaysia (and in Australia). The unagi itself has a salty taste to it, and they just dribble some of the sweet sauce over it(as in the picture). The unagi sushi tasted different as it doesn't have an overwhelming sweet taste to it, with just a dash of sweetness to it. Overall something very different to what I used to eating...

This was a recommended item by the lady next to us. Till today we have no idea what was ordered. If you asked me, the taste was a little bland and the texture was a tad bit hard and rough. If you asked me to guess, I would say that it was a cake of fish roe.... honestly if anybody know what it is suppose to be... please let us know....

This we ordered from the menu. It is salmon roe sushi. The roe was larger than what I am used to eating. Overall the roe was very fresh and firm, but when you bite into, it would literally melt (pop) in your mouth... yummm...

Another sushi we picked up from the sushi train. Again, we have no idea what is suppose to be. Probably some fish.... I mustn't have made an impression because I couldn't remember what it tasted like (probably bland). If anyone knows what it is, do let us know.

This we ordered from the menu. Deep fried Octopus. It was probably one of the top item of the night, not the mentioned cheapest from the menu, only ¥126. A little hard to make out from the photo, but it is NOT those baby octopus you may think it is. It is actually octopus tentacles, and each piece is probably cut to each sucker of the tentacles. It was deep fried with batter. Over taste was salt-ish, but the texture was extremely chewy. Not tough, but very juicy chewy. It has to be fried just right to be chewy, because if they over did it, I would expect it to be dry and tough.

This was another recommendation of our new found japanese

This many Malaysians would know.... Kani Mayo.... or crab with mayonese as stated in the menu. Once again, for just one minute forget any of the Kani Mayo you may have tasted in your life.... now picture this.... fresh crab meat.... mixed with japanese mayo and placed on top of a sushi..... just brilliant! OK now back to reality.... in Malaysia (and Australia), you'll probably only get shredded crab stick on your Kani Mayo.... sad... just sad... in fact, I can never eat another "fake" Kani Mayo again.... ever again....

The last item for the night was also recommended by Matt. He specifically told us to order this as the last item of the night. It is the Otoro or the Fatty Tuna sushi. When we received our plate, we could see a layer of oil on our plate. You could see the layered of fats on the fish. When you bite in your Fatty tuna, it just melts in your mouth... yes really it melts..... Very much like butter melting in your mouth. A little like Kobe beef but Tuna instead. Overall the taste is extremely rich (think of a block of butter). After having it, we realised that it was very oily and overwhelming. We could not have anything else..... just too oily.... 


We realised after our trip, that a friend of us also very much enjoyed the Otoro. You can read on her post here.

As you can see here, most of the people had left, leaving only us, curiously waiting to see anything else on the sushi train. 


Having sushi in Japan made me realised a few key difference with sushi in Malaysia.

• Japanese do NOT add any extra wasabi onto their sushi. If you request for wasabi, they'll give you a weird look.
• They eat their sushi with Soya sauce... thats it.... No sweet sauce option either.
• A sushi train restautant is the only place that will serve green tea. No other restaurant before this had green tea to offer us. 
• Generally the sushi in Japan are more bland, a little less salty & sour (vinegar) when compared to Malaysian sushi. I guess they are trying to bring out the tastiness of the sushi, rather overwhelming you with the taste from the sushi.

Overall we really enjoyed our first Sushi experience in Japan. The experience was a little different, and after being so used to eating at Sushi Zenmai (fusion sushi), it would take me a while to get accustom to how sushi should really taste like. 

Read about our Sushi Dai, Tokyo experience here.