When I left the train station, I was surprised that the Sankaku Fish Market (三角市場) is just located less than 100 metres away. It appears that the fish market isn't that big but it's still rather interesting. I even got to sample some raw sea urchin and it was very soft and midly sweet, but I'm not exactly wild over them. I had my brunch in Ajidokoro Takeda (味処たけだ), which seems to be a rather popular eatery in the fish market. The variety of food over here seems to be fantastic. I started off by ordering a plate of assorted sashimi, prawn sashimi, clam sashimi, conch sashimi and also hakkaku (八角魚) sashimi. Apparently, hakkaku and mantis prawn seem to be found only in Otaru. Hokkaido is famous for seafood and Otaru seems to be most famous for seafood in Hokkaido, so I really love Otaru for their fresh, sweet and tasty seafood. Hakkaku tastes quite good but I'm not exactly that excited about the crunchiness of mantis prawn (しゃこ). And it's even more amazing that my sashimi feast costs only ¥4,100. Such a meal will cost probably thrice as much in Singapore and the quality/freshness would not be comparable even.
After my sashimi feast, I headed for Otaru Canal area. Along the way, there are some beautiful old buildings and nice scenary at the shore. The atmosphere here seems great with the cool weather, the nice scenary, nice ambience and it was also not crowded with tourists. Otaru just seems so lovely to me.
I found a souvenir shop next to Otaru City Museum and the range of seafood snacks got me so interested and I ended up spending about ¥9,000 on snacks including several packets of seasoned scallops at ¥1,050 each. They seem so much cheaper than what's available at Aji Ichiban in Hong Kong.
Next, I went in the direction to the Music Box Museum, which is probably about 2km away. Since I am unsure of the bus routes, I decided to have a slow walk there and enjoy the sights along the way. As I started feeling hungry along the way, I decided to have lunch in Otarungashokudo (小樽運河食堂). I felt adventurous and tried shoyu ramen and a bottle of Otaru beer. The beer tastes light and goes well with my taste but I didn't really like the bowl of ramen.
After lunch, I continued my walk and visited Kitaichi Glass shop, which has alot of beautiful glassware and somewhat Venetian-influenced.
I proceeded to the music box museum next and it was filled with many beautiful music boxes in all sort of forms and designs.
Diagonally across the road, there is an interesting kaleidoscope shop. Unfortunately, they do not allow photo taking in the shop. But I managed to get some shots before I received a friendly reminder.
Later in the afternoon, I decided to go to an onsen to rest and relax till it's dinner time. I took a bus from Otaru Station heading for Asarigawa Onsen district and went to Korakuen. Apparently, this is an onsen resort but they allow day use of their onsen facilities. Day use rate goes at ¥735 and another ¥500 for rental of towels. The onsen looks small with just one indoor pools and one rotenburo.
After my onsen session, I took the bus back to Otaru Station and searched for my dinner downtown. I was hoping to find grilled seafood instead of sushi for dinner, so I ended up walking quite a distance before finding one small restaurant with a menu that interests me. I had grilled scallop, skewered seafood and also grilled mackerel for my dinner and they were absolutely delicious. The scallops and fish were just so juicy. After my dinner, I took the long walk back to the train station and took the train back to Sapporo.
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