Japan Road Trip 2014 Summer: Touch Down In Sapporo

We touched down New Chitose Airport in the late afternoon and took a short train ride to downtown Sapporo, where we started our hunt for our hotel, Hotel Gracery.

Despite the hotel as advertising ‘just outside the subway exit’, as it turned out, Japanese subway stations have many exits that could sometimes be far from the main compounds of the station. The exit to Hotel Gracery was one of them and the way was full of slopes and steps. To make matters worse, there was no direct signage to the hotel.

The hunt took some half an hour, and we finally made it to the hotel, only to find that the hotel was fully booked (despite our prior reservation).

The manager arranged a cab to take us to Hotel Fino, a few blocks down the road. The whole service recovery process took us about an hour and a half before we settled into our hotel room, from which we had to rush to our 1^st dinner location: Nanda Seafood Buffet.

Nanda Seafood Buffet

For a whole day of unpleasantness (we nearly missed our flight and while rushing for check-in, my bag opened without my knowledge and I lost some important stuff, on top of the bad experience with Hotel Gracery), the buffet was the only, greatest saving grace.

Unlike Singapore’s seafood buffets, of which seafood only made up 20% of the offering, almost all the food available at Nanda was seafood! The set up was like Seoul restaurant, with a grill in the middle of the table for barbecueing the food.

I had made reservations via Visa Concierge prior to arriving at Japan, because the restaurant was known to be full every day! Therefore, remember to make your own bookings if you intend to drop by!

Accomodation of the Night:

Hotel Fino

4-15 kitahachijonishi, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0808, Hokkaido

Click here for my TripAdvisor review

What We Did in Sapporo:

Nanda Seafood Buffet for dinner

難陀 海鮮バイキング

〒064-0805 北海道札幌市中央区南５条西２丁目

**Take subway to Susisusukino**

Click on the links to find out more about the rest of the roadtrip!

Charming Sapporo and Otaru

Onward To Asahikawa!

The Nature of Sounkyo Gorge

“F” for Flower & Furano

Yorkshire Farm & Soba

We Do Not Want To Leave Hokkaido!