Sapporo and Osaka

So my Japan blog failed. I guess making a blog during a holiday is really hard! After my last post things were super crazy busy. We only had a couple of days at some places before moving into the next one, and when it finally all calmed down I wanted to relax before making a post, then I forgot about it. So I'll do a bit of a summary here.

I realise I left out some details in the last post. So as mentioned, in Akita we went to a place called Round One. I want to give this more attention: It turns out this is all over Japan. The one we went to here was the best we saw however. It's several stories of fun things! I can't find a website to reference for the Japan branches, but it looks like they're in America too. The bottom 2 floors are full of skill testers so we started here. I think the next floor was full of bowling so we skipped that, then the 3 floors above that are full of LOTS of things: bowling, shooting, basketball, archery, mini golf, segways etc. It was something like $20 for unlimited access to everything until 5am, so we did that, and that was our Akita experience! If you travel to Akita, I recommend planning what day to go on better than I did, as I thought there would be dog related stuff everywhere but that's only on certain days, and also check out Round One.

As you know, we went to Niseko after this. I don't have a lot more to say on that one. I think honestly a good summary of Niseko was that I found a small jar of Vegemite (like novelty size) for about $20. ... Yeah.

After Niseko, we got a plane to Sapporo! At this time the ice sculptures were still being made, so we got to see that process plus the final results! It was really cool! We also saw snow sculptures and skiing and boarding events (on a giant ramp set up in the park!). There was so much amazing talent. I'm really happy to have got to experience that.

Besides this, we also went to this bunny bar in Sapporo. The bar had a translator who talked to us, along with one of the bunny girls. They asked if they can drink with us, which I later realized meant 'will you buy us drinks?'. Oops. But whatever they were fun to talk to anyway. That was fun as an experience of something different.

Next stop was Osaka. I had some delicious food in Osaka. I had Coco Ichibanya of course, but also takoyaki and ramen! All my favourite Japanese foods!

It's such a big, busy city! It was awesome! There was a rock climbing wall on the outside of this building (pictured below) which would have been pretty awesome to climb, but it was much too cold weather for it I think, plus I suck at climbing anyway.

 
We went to the aquarium which was huge and really awesome! What I remember most about this is the big tank which has the spiralling path around it so you get to walk to deeper parts of it, the really giant crabs, and the smooth slimy feeling of the eels.

We also went to Universal in Osaka. I was really scared to go on the Jurassic Park ride but it was so much fun! If you get the chance to try this ride, do not miss it!
We also went on a Spiderman ride where you wear 3d glasses and the are screens everywhere to give the effect that your cart that you are sitting in is flying through the city. That was good fun. Stan Lee cameo made me sad though because it still felt like his death was very recent. But only for a moment!
The Harry Potter section was cool too, but the lines for actual attractions were too long! I wanted to buy a wand but they were way too expensive for my budget. Instead, I got a snitch key charm.

We also went to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory. As seen in the link, the factory tour was closed, but the rest of the factory was open which was cool. Their chocolate is AMAZING! I wish I got more. Definitely try the hot chocolate from the vending machines outside. My fingers felt like they would fall off in the cold when I was getting my change out but it was worth it.
 

We didn't do a lot of nightlife stuff on this trip overall. Probably most of it was in Osaka. The best place was a goth bar called Farplane. Farplane has awesome goth decor. The first time my fiance and I went to Farplane, the bartender was very welcoming and chatty! When our friends joined us there he gave us more space. We ordered this for our friend, not telling him it was coming. It was a funny surprise, he loved it, and said it was delicious.





It's something like maybe Baileys? and a banana, and a cream on top. I think there was also chocolate.

This post is getting a bit long so I'll make a separate post for Kyoto, and one or two for Tokyo too.