otaru day 2

Day 2 started with our hotel's breakfast buffet, they use local ingredients and there was lots to try. My highlight of this buffet was the awabi (abalone) o-kayu (gruel)...delish!

After breakfast we checked out and left our bags at the front desk.

Then we bought a 1 day pass and rode the bus to Otaru Chikko, we then took the train one station over to Asari.

I had heard about this shop called Asariya selling kunsei (smoked) fish sushi. We were happy they were open even though it was nearing the end of the year.

Satoshi chose their smoked scallop sushi.

I chose the smoked salmon with haskap (blue honeysuckle).

We liked both sushis, I thought maybe mine would be sweet, but it wasn't. The salmon was tender and Satoshi's sushi had a nice smoky flavor.

Plus, the owner and his wife were really friendly and nice.

Afterwards, we rode the bus back to the bus terminal to wait for another bus.

While we waited we tried Kuwataya's panju, I think panju stands for pancake + manju.

These actually taste like taiyaki except they are in the form of domes (we tried chocolate and sweet bean paste).

We also tried Amatou's white pudding. I am not too sure how they keep the pudding white because the eggs in Japan are really orangey.

This pudding was really creamy.

Then we were off to Tenguyama. You can read about what a tengu is here.

From the bus stop, it is about a 4 minute ride up the mountain by ropeway.

While going up the mountain, you could see many people skiing down the mountain.

There was a display area with many tengu from around Japan. It was interesting to see all the different types.

We then went back to check-in at the Hotel Nord and then headed out for dinner at Otaru Bine.

The reason they call this restaurant Bine is because it is in an old bank it is owned by the local bus company and they specialize in wines.

The cheese fondue was really delicious and creamy.

Another dish that was really good was the Hokkaido deer ragout with mushrooms served on pasta. It tasted like it was cooked in a red wine.

We also tried their house salad which was topped with seafood, their bouillabaise which we mopped up with the bread from the cheese fondue and we also tried their wine sampler of different Otaru Wines (the white one was really sweet (a Muller-Thurgau), the rose was was kind of dry (Seibel 13053 Blush) and the red was kind of light and dry (Zweigeltrebe)).

We saved some room for dessert and tried some items from a convenience store. A fluffy cake filled with Hokkaido custard cream and this tokibi (corn) cone filled with vanilla ice cream.

It was quite a full day filled with lots of food and lots of walking.

Asariya
4-1-1 Asari
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.54.0067

Kuwataya
Otaru Unga Terminal
1-1-12 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.34.3840

Amatou
Otaru Unga Terminal
1-1-12 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.31.0141

Otaru Bine
1-8-6 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.24.2800

Hotel Nord Otaru
1-4-16 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.24.0500