Hokkaido 2015 – Shakotan + Otaru 小樽

Shakotan is a very ulu fishing place along the coastal roads of south eastern Hokkaido. It is famous for sea urchin in particular. Approaching my destination, I spotted many sea urchin restaurants along the way.

But it’s this particular restaurant, Misaki, that has really high rating on Tabelog. There was a queue for a table, something you wouldn’t really expect for secluded places like Shakotan! People come all the way here just for this. Other restaurants had no queues.

The menu is pretty limited with many things unavailable. Their special sea urchin bowl was only available from mid June to end August, and only 15 per day.

Uni Ikura Don – ¥2300

This bowl was really good. The uni was very fresh, soft and sweet. The price was very friendly as well considering the quantity and quality, but for the amount of inconvenience time spent to get this, I don’t really think it’s worth it.

Misaki
236 Hizukacho, Shakotan, Shakotan District, Hokkaido Prefecture 046-0326, Japan

Leaving Shakotan, the next stop was Otaru. Otaru is located very near Sapporo and people usually come here as a day trip.

https://www.instagram.com/p/743BL4HvMZ/

The town was quaint and small, and crowded with tourists. It’s the typical photogenic town which tourists love.

The quaintness was a bonus as my main objective here was for the famous ice cream and cream puffs!

Cheese soft cream from LeTAO was SO GOOD. Best soft cream every! Really! This is worth any inconvenience getting here. This brand is not available out of Otaru and Sapporo but they do pop-up events in various department stores all over Japan every now and then. I’m not sure if they bring over their ice cream though…