D8 Back2Sapporo - Moerenuma Park, Sapporo Beer Museum, Ramen Alley (Susukino)

9~21May2024 13D13N Hokkaido adventure

Saw the sunrise when I woke to go to toilet.

We need to check-out early as there were a few transfers to make in the morning to get back to Sapporo.

The journey will take about 3&half hours, by bus to Furano station, change to local train for Takikawa, and then take the JR back to Sapporo.

The bus stop is just outside the hotel.. like seconds away?😚

We will be taking the 8 am Asahikawa Rapid Lavender bus to Furano train station.

It will take 20 mins and 8 stops.

We pay the fare to the driver when alighting at the front. The fare is 260 yen per pax.

Arrived at Furano station.

The train will be here at 9.07 am. While waiting for the train to arrive, we looked around for place to pack breakfast. As the bakery at Shin Furano hotel was not opened during this season, we did not pack breakfast as planned. Luckily, we had some bread left and we bought coffee at the station. There was actually nothing much to get at the station. Asa hayai.. nani mo nai.

As local train seats cannot be reserved, we were surprised that the train that arrived was so short.

Seats were quickly taken up on a Wednesday morning.

One thing to note about the local trains in the countryside, we need to push the buttons beside the doors to open/close when boarding/alighting as the doors do not open/close automatically.

65 mins, 6 stops to Takikawa.

We arrived at 10.12 am, and need to cross over to the other platform for the train to Sapporo.

Limited Express Okhotsk2 bound for Sapporo, seats already reserved.

Lilacs were still beautiful in Sapporo when we arrived.

Back to Hotel Gracery Sapporo, we quickly locked our baggage and headed out for lunch.

Ebiten Ekimae 蛯天 駅前店 was just 3 mins walk from the hotel.

It is in the basement level of a building called Sapporo Nikko Building, beside exit 8 of Sapporo station.

The staff do not speak English, but we ordered using google review.

And everyone ordered the same food, the Kakiage Tendon.

The food is really good, but a little salty though.

Taking the Toho line, heading to Kanjo dori higashi

Take exit 2 of the station and walk 3 mins to Kanjo Dori Higashi Eki Bus terminal. We are taking bus Higashi 79 KitaSatsunae Sen for Moerenuma Koen Higashiguchi.

Alighted 25 mins later at Moerenuma Koen Higashiguchi bus stop.

Walk 8 mins to Moerenuma park モエレ沼公園

Very sunny still at 2 pm in the afternoon.

Arriving at the glass pyramid

Ops.. we just missed the water show.

Heading right to the top level.

Mt. Moere

Googled and confirmed there is only a bus from Toyohara to our next destination.

We had to walk 19 mins from Moerenuma park to the bus stop.

Bus Bi 68 direct to Sapporo Beer Factory (33 mins, 21 stops)

Arrived as planned - Sapporo Garden Park

Sapporo Beer Museum is located within the garden park and we will be headed there.

We did not reserve the premium tour. Intend to just walk around and then purchase the beer to try later.

We were told that the tour will start from level 4, we need to take a lift up and move down while viewing the exhibits.

Beer tasting time

Ordered the "Tasting" set for 1,000 yen for us to try

We got to try 3 types of beer - Black classic, Classic and Kaitakushi beer

Heading to the old Sapporo Brewery next. The place had been converted into a shopping area.

Sapporo Factory aka the old Sapporo Brewery

Letting the gals buy the necessities for next winter trip.

Bought shoes too

Suggested to the gals to have some snacks before heading for dinner.

Reason being it will take some distance and still need to queue for our food.

Bus to Susukino

Ramen Alley

Our first choice, Haruka はるか was closed, hence, we went for Teshikaga Ramen 弟子屈

It was drizzling and cold, and there was no shelter in the alley.

We waited for about 30 mins before getting our seats

Order first from the vending machine.

Our choice: Chashu miso ramen (Sapporo style)

The soup was good, the noodles too but the meat has a little frozen taste.

Susukino happened to be red light district of Sapporo.