1 November 2016
Flipping my own food
Eating Okonomiyaki in Sapporo
Tomorrow I go to Hakodate, but first, one last meal in Sapporo. I panned google maps around looking for an apricot shaded area of streets which signifies significant retail.
My target was an area south east of the main station, an area which used to be a factory of some description, as its called Sapporo Factory, which was a clue to its former factoryness.
Getting there was mainly dark streets, no retail, not many people, just cyclists on footpaths with no lights, or those old wheel powered dyno lights.
The state of lighting on Japanese bicycles is amazingly bad. The main kind of light is still genuinely the dyno driven lights of old, with each pedal it gets brighter then dims until the other leg pedals again.
This from the country that has toilets with 19 attachments. They are yet to understand LED lights.
Anyway once I got to Sapporo factory, it was a giant mall type thing, joined onto factories, with performance areas for Japanese X-factor, and a large array of christmas decorations erected today following the removal of halloween pumpkins.
It was however indoors and heated, a good thing, as it is now snowing outside again.
Stores in here stay open to 9, people working in stores outnumber customers 5 to 1. Their customary greeting was muted to a pathetic whimper. All of the 15 year old high school drop outs have had to utter the terrifying irasshaimase non stop for 12 hours straight.
Surely they wake in the night uttering the phrase that now defines their existence?
I pondered this for some time whilst listening to the Japanese band in the performance area who were performing only to me and the cleaners belting out a rendition of the rick roll classic never gonna give you up.
The inside of the atrium area of the Sapporo factory mall which is actually about 10 buldings joined together by semi heated walkways between old brick buildings where they used to make welcome to Sapporo memorobilia. Everyone has been to Sapporo now so they went broke and became a mall.
This restaurant in the basement has a giant cabbage on stand, and a sign which I think is proudly describing this huge cabbage they have grown. After seeing this how can I not eat here?
The problem is, its a cook your own Okonomiyaki restaurant, so now I have to pay to do someone elses job. Step one, vomit onto the grill, try to project your vomit into a neat circle.
Step 2. Await the onlooking concerned gaze of all the staff in the restaurant, then fake them out by grabbing the flipping things and putting them down again.
Do this a few times before actually attempting the flip as pay back for their weak attempts at the irasshaimase greeting.
My flip wasnt too bad, a couple of bits broke off. The staff returned to sleeping, not sure if they were concerned or hoping for amusement.
Step 3, flip it again and add the other stuff they provide on your table. Bonito flakes, I have no idea what these are, prawn shells perhaps. The good news about cook your own is you can skip the kilogram of mayonaise and sweetened fish paste or whatever it is.
Tonights leaf of the night color spectacle is the outside of the Sapporo factory.
Now I had to choose my dessert.
Except I am in a pet store. These are desserts for pets. No cat photo tonight, they had about 100 kittens to choose from but also attendents everywhere on no photo duty.
You want photo you buy cat. Thats what the sign on every cage / fish tank said!
Heres a random streetscape from an overpass. There are a lot of bigger buildings in Sapporo. I saw a residential apartment building that was 35 levels. Perhaps there is not as much risk from earthquake here?
Note the VEGAS VEGAS place on the left is a huge pachinko parlour, written on its windows is 'I have been dreaming non stop about returning to this moment of supreme happiness'.
The JR tower at the main station is also very large. I checked if they have an observation deck, they do! But its $10 to go up, no way!
If you like these capsule vending things, this is your place. No matter how I try to position myself, I cannot fit all of them in!
Having rejected the dog food birthday cake, I settled on some custard tarts. 6 for $10, what a bargain!