After regrouping in our room after our visit to Noboribetsu, we set back out towards the train station at about 5:00pm to take the metro to Sapporo station then the rapid airport train to Otaru. Otaru is an old shipping port city on the water with iconic warehouses looking out over the canal. We took the rapid train which took 33 minutes. From the train you could see the sea and the rocky winter waves.

We arrived at Otaru station at about 6:00 pm and got some Otaru stamps in our books. Next we walked into town. The town was so busy with tourists, it was difficult to walk. We made it to the iconic warehouse and Jives filmed a rap take along the water. We took a few photographs and made our way back to the station.

We were too cold to stay out too long! The train back to Sapporo was packed!! We stood with no room ( a guy had his backpack in the aisle and I had to limbo over it backwards for 30 minutes). Also, on the train there were 4 unmasked westerners coughing non stop (this was when there still was VERY much a mask mandate in place and tourism had JUST reopened) I wanted to punch them in the face. So incredibly self centred and rude! We arrived at the Sapporo station at about 7:30pm and switched to the metro. We arrived back at our accommodation at about 8pm and had a beverage. The plan was to go out and get dinner and have a soak in the bath after, but we were so tired that we fell asleep at 9pm . At least this way we could set our alarms for 5am to have an early bath before the crowds. 

I woke up to my alarm at 5am and hopped out of bed. We headed down to the bath right away. When I arrived there were two women heading into the bath ahead of me. I chose a locker by the wall and changed. The wash station I chose had a faulty tap, so I had to move to another. After washing, I headed into the main bath and had it to myself. There was a lady in the bubble jet seats beside the main bath. I sat for about 15 minutes and then headed up to the rooftop onsen. There was a lady in one of the individual onsen barrel baths, so I went into the big bath and had it to myself. After about 15 minutes the lady left and I had the entire bath to myself. I headed back to the room at about 5:45 and Jives was already there. I went and grabbed us some coffees from the vending machine before we headed out for the day. (We spent the day at Noboribestu, but that is it’s own awesome post if you want to read it, I will link it here)

We headed out again at 4:30 to go to the Sapporo Beer Museum. We took the metro to JR Sapporo Station and then walked 25 minutes to the museum. The museum closed at 6pm, but the tasting area closed at 4pm, so we couldn’t try the beer there. The museum is free or you can pay and go on a little tour. Since it was close to closing time we opted to walk around on our own. We saw one of the big copper kettles used to brew the beers and a bunch of displays about the history of the museum and brewery. I liked the display of all the labels they had used throughout the years. They also had an old advertising display, with drawings of kimono-ed women drinking Sapporo beer. We bought a darker brew at the museum gift shop and sat down at a bench outside to have our own little tasting. I had a bottle opener in my purse! The beer was very different from the standard Sapporo, much richer. 

We then walked back to the metro and took it back to our station. Once we arrived in the neighbourhood of our hotel, we tried again to find a restaurant to eat at. We went back to the izakaya that we had eaten at on our first evening in Sapporo, but they told us that the whole restaurant was reserved. We wandered for hours trying to find a place to eat. Finally we went to a tonkatsu place and ordered some rice bowls and an Asahi. It wasn’t excellent, but we were so hungry that it didn’t matter. We then walked around the snow festival at night to see the snow sculptures illuminated at night. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and I went for a bath in the onsen. I had the place almost completely to myself, except for one lady. It was so nice having hot springs in the hotels so that after a long cold day you can warm up so thoroughly. We then went to sleep early as we had an early morning the next day, heading to Aomori.