2/8/13: Sapporo and Travel Day back to Tokyo

We have some down time before we have to head to the airport, so I thought I'd catch up on my posts since Paul and Akemi are taking a nap.  I just couldn't sleep...

So I think I last left off in Sapporo right?  We had an afternoon flight, so we didn't have too much time to spend exploring.  Akemi really wanted to play in the snow one last time, so we agreed to let her indulge before we had to leave.

We decided to walk to Mr. Donut for some breakfast since our hotel didn't offer freebies.  On our way, we checked on Bob.  This is Bob the Snowman.  Akemi worked really hard on him, but he didn't have a face, so they added in some pine needles.  He even looks Japanese if you ask me.

And here's the two posing w/Bob.

We kept seeing this on every table at Mr. Donut.  We totally thought it was a lady, but Paul's friend Ai said it was a man.  No wonder!

After breakfast, I dropped the family off near the Sapporo Clock Tower to indulge in some final snowball fighting.  I decided to depart so as not to get caught in the cross fire.

Talk about perfect timing!  Paul snapped this selfie pix of him and Akemi just as she threw the snowball in his face!

You can take the girl out of Hawaii but you can't take the Hawaii out of the girl!

After the last snowball fight, Paul wanted to find a cache that was supposed to be at the Clock Tower, so we headed for the back of the building... but when we go there, the snow was so high, they couldn't find it at first...

Then we met some fellow Geocachers from Okinawa, who helped us find it!

After the Sapporo Geocache mission was accomplished, I wanted to walk through the park once more to see if I could find some things I missed the night before. (Yes, I always want to look).  I found it!  It was the Yuki/White version of the Baumkuchen.  Everything is made to look like snow during the festival.  So cool yah?

After I found the cake, we saw this booth... Crab, some kind of mollusk and Ika.  We couldn't resist getting a bowl of Kane Soup.

Only thing is that it's hard to shell a crab while holding your bowl of soup!  So we headed back to the hotel room to eat our soup.

 Then it was time to pack up and say sayoonara to Sapporo.  We headed for the station and took the subway to the train station.  There, we found some cool shops and unreal food kiosks!  One of them was called The Little Mermaid and it had wonderful breads.. just think of a waaaaay better version of St. Germain Bakery back home and you'll get the idea.  All of their breads are crunchy on the outside and super soft on the inside.  In fact, all Japan bakeries are just like this one.

We also stumbled onto a kiosk that sold these little pastry cups. When I first saw them, I thought it was custard cups, the kind you see at Dim Sum places.  They looked really good, so I bought one to eat at the airport.  One we got to the airport, we shared it.  OMG it was soooo ono!  The crust was really crunchy and the inside was actually a really really light cheescake!  I wish I could find the photo of the pix I took of Paul with the sign in the back so we know who made them.

And look what I found in the vending machine at the airport!?  Its Qoo.  Never heard of it until I read Marceline's blog and zines...  I think this one was apple, kinda tasted like the Natchan Apple.  Akemi ended up drinking most of it.

OK I just had to add this picture cause it makes me laugh everytime I see it!   Paul was trying to teach Akemi about shooting photos, so he was showing off a bit in the Qoo photo.  Akemi wanted to do the same pose as me, so he made her do the same and I photo bombed her!  Bwahahahahaha!

See, I couldn't stop laughing!  I totally had the giggles... I knew she was putting bunny ears on me but I didn't care.

Maybe I had the giggles because we had so many drinks!  I was also craving a milk tea, so I decided to take a photo with the one I bought earlier.  Again.. I knew she was doing bunny ears on me.

We finally got on the plane and realized it was snowing!  Bye Bye Sapporo!  It was fun!  I love the heart on the wing.

After getting off the plane, we saw a Fuji TV stand.  As Akemi and I were browsing, we saw this!  What the heck?  Paul found it amusing, so he took a photo. I think it was a bag of potato chips.

And here's a shot from the monorail back in Tokyo.  We saw the sun setting behind Fuji-san!  This photo doesn't do it justice.

After we got back to our hotel and dropped off our luggage, we headed out for some food.  We found a good tempura place near Nakamise.  It was very good.  You would never guess that there was seating on multiple floors!  They told us to go to the 5th floor to be seated.

On our way back, we decided to pick up some fruit at the grocery store.  Look what we found!  Sweet Secret!  Yummy Yummy!

OK I guess that's it for this post!  I'll have to finish off the trip posts when I get back home.  Until then, goodbye Tokyo!  We'll miss you!!