Carousel tune: 一路顺风 – 小虎队 (old song, but so unforgettable…)

Because the weather gods were really kind to us (and becos we prayed so hard, even while I was in the onsen), the snow storm lessened considerably after the 3rd night. We set off for Otaru Orgel Doh a.k.a. music box museum especially early on our 4th day and were able to get what we fervently hoped for- opened highways! In no time, we reached the Otaru Canal, which is famous for its ‘century-old stone warehouses and glasswork shops’ (as quoted from the itinerary). Actually, as it was still snowing quite terribly there, all we did was to take a picture (the ‘到此一游’ type) beside the nearly frozen canal and the big thermometer which clearly marked ‘-8 degrees’ on its display panel. Nothing remotely interesting actually.

Of course, our next destination was the museum (finally!). But as it was still quite early, our kind guide brought us to this kawaii café to have some refreshments first (which was fortunate, since the breakfast we took that morning wasn’t exactly too appetizing). The café has this very interesting process. Customers get to choose the cup which their tea will be served in. After drinking the tea/coffee, you then wash the cup and keep it as a momento in the box which is also provided by the café. So delightful right? Why can’t we have such charming cafes in Singapore?? Why why why?

Anyway, most of us chose the incredibly cute Hello Kitty cup (couldn’t resist!), and I also ended up buying another cup (unused one lah) for one of my close friends. If only I have enough money to buy for all! Kawaii ne!


We then proceeded to the Otaru Orgel Doh, where I practically went into a shopping frenzy, trying to decide what to buy. You can mix and match the different parts of the music box and come up with your very own creation! Just choosing the melody alone took me quite a while (the Japanese-worded music titles were not helping much lor), and then you gotta select the setting you like, and the extra stuffs you wanna put in, like small figurines, or words, etc etc. So you see what I mean when I said this place is a must-visit? It’s so unique! I bought 2 music boxes in the end, and gave one which had my sis’s favourite tune in it to her. Glad to report that she absolutely adored it! =)

The day ended with us visiting a bear ranch near Mt Showa. The only thing I remembered from the visit was that I felt terribly sorry for the bears which were held captive in the ranch. Its like the entire day, the only thing they could look forward to was the visitors throwing down food to them, and…. that’s about it! Quite boring hor? I didn’t even bother to take any photos…left the place with a somewhat heavy heart.

Our final day in Hokkaido was spent firstly at this star shaped Fort Goryokaku, which is Japan’s first western-style fort. Don’t recollect much of it, just that I took a pic of some small kids playing football in the middle of the fort. Quite cute ne! Oh yes, a lot of snow also…..as usual.


Out last stop was the Hakodate morning market, where we saw crabs the size of 2x my palm. There were lots of other seafood too, but as the wind was beginning to get really strong, we spent the entire morning eating yummy ice-cream in one of the cafes nearby. Actually, we were only interested in getting away from the cold, but too paiseh to just sit around and not buy anything, so we got the cheapest ice-cream we could find lor. Yar lar…a bit cheapo. Singaporeans mah.

Then it was off to Hakodate Airport for our flight to Tokyo. Wow, my Tokyo encounters are even more 劲暴 than what I have wrote on Hokkaido. Trust me….you should stay glued to my blog for my next entry….东京恋曲 Part I. I guarantee you….good stuff coming up…=P

P.S. As you would have noticed, I have changed my blog template to one offered by Blogspot. These few days, I'm in the mood for something simple and ...............aarrrgh! Who am I kidding? Actually, I WAS in the process of changing to a much nicer looking template, but this new template uses CSS language, which I'm still having a lot of trouble figuring it out. So confusing and different from the usual HTML I used to fiddle with. So now, b4 I discover how CSS actually works, I will have to bear with this current template, which, frankly speaking, is really not too bad lar. I actually don't mind using it in the long run......=) What matters is the content of the blog, agree?