Hokkaido - Otaru

Cheesecake City!
Otaru is a small port town of 130,000 people on the Sea of Japan.  It's a thirty minute drive north of Sapporo and is famed for sushi, glass works, ice cream and cheesecake.  We took our bus from Noboribetsu, past Sapporo to Otaru for lunch and an afternoon stroll.  Dodo and I stormed right past the glass works and everything else on our way to a lunch warm-up of cheesecake and coffee.

It's a hilly town with a steep curtain of mountains and a narrow coastline of crowded, wooden houses.  The mountains appeared to be nudging the town into the ocean.  The sky is close and grey, like Wales.  I doubt the sun shows itself very often during winter.  It was drizzling so we jogged from storefront to storefront too keep dry.

A place called Le Tao has a stranglehold on desserts with a cheesecake shop, a chocolate shop and a patisserie shop along a single narrow street.  At their cheesecake shop, we divided and conquered.  I chose a very French concoction that had alternating floors of millefeuille and cheesecake.  Dodo went with the classic, in the background.  They weren't bad.  Much lighter than I like but heavier than the typically airy and bland Japanese style.   

In addition to eating cheesecake and popping into stores, we toured the canal district.  It didn't look like much but I've since seen nicer photos of it at night during winter.  It's lined with Victorian lamp lights which give off a nice glow.

Our tour guides promised us a light lunch, they could tell we'd been overstuffed in the past few days.  We parked near our sushi restaurant and climbed the inner stairs to a private room.

It was a traditional setting with tatami mats but thankfully we didn't have to sit on the floor.  If you weren't raised sitting on the floor it's impossible to do so comfortably.  I last tried it in Osaka and I wanted to leave half way through the meal.  My lower back was killing me and my legs were numb.

You're either a traditionalist or not.  My socks matched - I only have white socks and no matter which two I grab from the sock drawer I don't have to worry.  Dodo is cool - she mismatches on purpose.  I have a feeling that she bought this pair in Japan.

As usual we took our assigned places.  In other words, the king's hands were on either side of his royal highness and everyone else sat wherever they liked.  The smarter amongst the crowd took seats out of the king's line of sight.  In no time, large sake bottles were presented and opened and toasts commenced prior to the food arriving.  Luckily, the uni arrived soon thereafter.

We each got six pieces of sushi, as promised.  It doesn't look like much but it was very filling. 

This is a close up of the prawn and tuna.  The tuna was toro, the fatty kind that melts in your mouth. 

The greedier amongst us also got a piece of Tamago. It's thin layers of egg, cooked with sugar.  It's like an omelet but slightly sweet.  It's a must in Japan - especially if you're a picky eater.