シンガポールのBU-CHAN LIFE IN JAPAN: Otaru Day 3

On day 3, we were heading to our next destination, Otaru! It is a small port town that faces sea and has many historical bulidings, known for its beautiful canal. A friendly Otaru local whom we met during our Sapporo trip recommended us to reach in the afternoon and where to visit for sushi and coffee. He said Otaru is a small place and so you can easily tour around within a day.

We took 30mins by subway and stayed in a nice hotel near the JR station and within the shopping mall but it was a station away from the main tourist area. I was drawn to the view facing the bay from the hotel picture and decided to stay there.

True enough, Otaru indeed was a small place and touring around can be done within half a day, if you include shopping in the mall. 1 day is enough. Otaru was filled with tourists, everywhere we went, it was filled with China, Korea, Hong Kong tourists. Most shops along the main tourist streets have food samples and tasted so good. We ended up eating, buying and eating!

One thing to note was that unlike city like Tokyo, Sapporo, the only night life available is around the tourist area. We went back to our hotel in the evening and came out intending to shop around the mall around 8plus only to realised all the shop were closed. Turn out that their winter operating hours were from 11am - 8pm. We asked the hotel staff and they suggested us to take a cab to main tourist area which the bars and restaurants are still opened. Shota asked the cab driver if there was any yakitori shop opened and he tried to drive us to find and even resorted asking his fellow drivers, turned out all had closed for the day. The time was before 10am! Resigned to our fate, we went back to canal and the guys had their final hamburgers to their satisfaction. They were the ones who insisted on eating when there were no shops available around the hotel.