Japan 2018 day 4: a very cheesy day

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Another day, another early morning transit.  We're off to Tokyo today, so after checking out of JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo, we rolled our luggage around the corner to JR Sapporo Station and got on a train to New Chitose Airport.  Due to an unfortunate issue with the ticketing machine, we were unable to buy tickets with reserved seats... and as it was morning rush hour, we ended up standing up for the whole 40-minute ride to the airport.  Oh well...

We needed some coffee and breakfast, and this seemed like our last chance to grab some ramen (ラーメン) in Hokkaido.  Unfortunately we were at the airport waaay too early, and there was only one shop open at this hour in the Hokkaido Ramen Dojo (北海道ラーメン道場) in the domestic terminal.  Given our tight flight schedule we decided not to risk things by waiting for other shops to open, and parked ourselves down at Menya Kaiko (麺屋 開高) - which has a few shops around Hokkaido.

Corn and cheese ramen (十勝コーンチーズ麵) - we're in Hokkaido, so what could be more iconic than ramen with corn (and cheese)?!  I have no idea what kind of cheese was used, but it didn't matter.  And no, this was not a particularly great bowl of ramen... and I needed plenty of water to rinse my palate afterwards.

Japan 2018 day 3: 3-star crab

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We're only in Sapporo for one night, so knowing me... it's not surprising that I chose to dine at one of three restaurants awarded with 3 Michelin stars in the 2017 Michelin Guide Hokkaido - a special edition which has only been published twice.  Hanakoji Sawada (花小路 さわ田) was promoted from 2 to 3 stars, and I wanted some kaiseki (会席) during our week-long trip, so this was the first restaurant I ended up booking.

We had pre-ordered the most expensive set menu, since this was our first visit and the price differential wasn't all that significant.  With the more expensive options, we were guaranteed to have crab.  As is typical, there was no printed menu since the dishes consisted of whatever ingredients were fresh and in season on the day.

Chinese yam with salmon roe and tonburi (長芋  イクラ  とんぶり  出汁ジュレ) - the main ingredient here is the cube of minced Chinese yam (長芋), which comes with a dual texture that is both crunchy (from tiny little bits inside) and soft (from parts that's almost purée-like).  On top we have some salmon roe as well as some perilla flowers.  The whole thing was surrounded by some dashi (出汁) gelée which was clearly made with ponzu (ポン酢) and citrus.  

Japan 2018 day 3: a crabulous feast

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We were up and at 'em early again this morning, trying to catch the sunrise that we missed yesterday.  I don't usually get my ass up this early, but Hello Kitty seemed determined to catch the sun coming up over the mountains, so we bundled up, grabbed our cameras, and went outside while it was still dark.

There was still some cloud cover above the mountains, but the light turned out to be pretty nice once the sun rose... especially when it illuminated the top of Mount Yotei (羊蹄山).  Someone had made a tiny little snowman and placed him on top of the fence, so Hello Kitty and I tried to take snaps of him against the rising sun.