Hokkaido!

We took this picture together with the kind, old man after he gave us a free 3 hour ride from the seaport to the city of Sapporo, Hokkaido. Hitchhiking really is one of the greatest experiences I had in Japan.

Hokkaido is famous for two kinds of chocolates: Royce Chocolate and Ishiya (to be shown later). I like Royce chocolate better, though Ishiya is the better tourist spot due to its large factory.

 (offtopic: Marumi coffee! lol)

This is Ishiya: White Chocolate Factory.

oops... that's me with long hair! haha (didn't have a haircut for around 4 1/2 months)

 The secret to their great tasting chocolate: ninjas make them.

Ninjas! Ninjas everywhere!

The end product/s:

 Tsumugi! hehe

 Different sizes of the Ishiya chocolate (the two bigger ones are just fake though).

After touring some of the tourist spots in Hokkaido, we decided to try eating what Hokkaido was famous for: Hokkaido King Crabs.

Hokkaido is very famous for their large king crabs... They're so famous and expensive that they cost around ten to thirty thousand yen each. Yep, you heard it right, 10-30k for EACH CRAB. This meal of ours consists of the limbs of one such expensive crab. And it costed us 4,200yen. Just for the limbs. SO EXPENSIVE.

They say they're healthier than a normal crab. But as for the taste, for me it did not taste that much better than a normal crab. I'd rather have a lot of cheaper, smaller crabs to achieve the same volume. That way you can get the same volume of crab meat for a lower price. And besides, after experiencing both, I still love crabs from the Philippines better (especially when showered with Alavar sauce!).

It's such a shame, but the best food experience I had in Hokkaido was not documented: its ramen. Maybe I was too shocked and engrossed by how delicious it was that I forgot to take a picture. I'm not even joking. I was speechless when I was eating it. I was just savoring the whole experience the whole time. And this ramen that we had was just an outdoor ramen stall, not a full blown restaurant (just like a mami/goto place in the Philippines). But because we saw how long the line was for this particular small stall's ramen, King and I decided to eat there. And we were not disappointed (actually, I recommend that you always go to the eating place with the longest line when travelling). Eating hot ramen in a cold winter night: priceless.

All in all, I must say that I really love Hokkaido! I didn't have the luxury of time left travelling in Japan so I just spent 3 days there and could not go to all the famous tourist spots in Hokkaido. Looking forward to going back again!