Sapporo: Moerenuma Park & Sapporo Beer Museum
Kamala
We awoke with a WhatsApp message in our Puliharas thread from Linda (who is recently an avid WhatsApp user, you can message her there and she will respond instantly) that she and dad were getting up and taking a shower, so Mäneka and I followed suit. One shower discovery: there is a very thoughtful part of the bathroom mirror that must be treated with something, so that even when the whole room fogs, there is a perfectly round space where you can clearly admire yourself. This is why I love Japan.
After a few false starts leaving the hotel — we were missing passports, then the pocket wifi, etc — we ended up at Mister Donut, just down the street from our hotel, for breakfast #1. I had a cronut with cream filling and some kind of flaky chicken pot pie pocket and Mäneka went for a bulbous strawberry crown that the woman at the register mentioned had mochi in it. That got Linda excited — she loves when she thinks food might give Mäneka less of a gluten problem. I really admired some of the ways the donut shop arranged their space. First, they had an enclosed smoking room, which was where all the men in the shop sat, and second, they had a bathroom for women only and a bathroom for women/men, which was less clean than the former, but available.
This meal was promptly followed up with a trip to our favorite convenience store, Lawson. What else might we possibly need after coffee and sweet/savory donuts? The answer: post-breakfast musubi. For me, there is no greater luxury than a giant bite of rice and ikura, so I could not resist.
The goal this morning was to make it kind of far northeast of Sapporo to an art park on reclaimed landfill land that was designed by a sculptor named Isamu Noguchi. It’s called Moerenuma Park. Try to say that two times fast, it’s hard. The park itself was magnificently beautiful and incredibly well-designed, so that everywhere you look, there are great angles and contrasts in texture and the landscape.
The first feature we visited was my favorite. The Aqua Plaza is an interactive fountain that overflows into a sort of uneven cement canal with small bridges, where groups of people wade into the water or sit on the edge and dip their feet in. Since it was very warm, we immediately decided to join in, though we hadn’t the foresight to bring small foot towels, like everyone else. Since you know how much Linda dislikes the heat, you can imagine that she found this part incredibly refreshing — enough so that she was moved to do a dance with Mäneka.
Meanwhile, Balaram took it up on himself to get a little extra exercise and picked out a hill to climb. Then we walked and sweated around the rest of the park to check out the shiny Tetra Mound, the sleek Half Dome-looking Band Shell, and the impressive Glass Pyramid — all of which were delightful.
Mäneka
Our afternoon activity was a visit to the Sapporo Beer Museum to eat lunch and learn about the history of Sapporo beer. The museum not to be confused with the Sapporo Beer Factory, which is a shopping mall. There are three restaurants on the premises and we opted for the bier garten option, where the featured item is jingisukan, or thinly sliced lamb cooked at your table on a dome shaped cast iron grill. Mongolian culture is apparently loosely interpreted all over the world, not just in the United States.
I ordered an economical lamb with vegetable set for one person. Part of it was consumed by a second person, Balaram, who prior to the meal donned his bib reluctantly and declared himself “the least likely to grill.” But he also only ordered a green salad and 500¥ salmon appetizer, the meagerness of which likely increased his propensity for grilling. Three of us also had the bier garten exclusive Sapporo 5 star beer, which provided a crisp counterpoint to the grilled meat. Mom had a special orange-colored soda, which she was not impressed with.
Unfortunately the premium tour, which includes tastings of other exclusive beers, was unavailable so we amused ourselves with the free informational tour. Sapporo was originally a state-owned brand that was part of a government initiative to industrialize Hokkaido. Initially one hurdle was a shortage of glass bottles, which had to be purchased secondhand from abroad. Another highlight was a display of Sapporo advertisements though the decades. Japanese flappers!
While browsing brochures, we noticed a pair of men, one of whom had grossly over-consumed and was laying down on top of his suitcase. Near the exit a couple was posing for a photo in front of the picturesque brick building. The very drunk man lunged in to photobomb them and then attempted to abscond from the scene, only to trip over his suitcase a few feet away and land flat on his back with his buttcrack on display. There was shock all around. Only afterward did Kamala and I fully realize the hilarity of the situation.
Lastly, our dinner consisted of soup curry at Suage Soup Curry & Dining. Zesty curry broth with a real hit of spice. Kamala and I got cheese on our rice. Mom ended up with her second unwanted soda of the day, neon green melon (she thought she had to order it).
Then as we were wandering home we stumbled upon a window for Cremia, the high-class, ultra-creamy Hokkaido soft serve. I had been anticipating Cremia after my pre-trip ice cream research. It is indeed exceptionally creamy with a nice milky flavor. The langue du chat cone is a perfect buttery foil to such a lush, velvety ice cream. Recommended! 🍦
