I sent them off to the bus station near the Sapporo TV tower early in the morning heading to the Sapporo International Airports. They were 3 of them and they all were gone by 6 am. that marked the end of the Tokyo-Sapporo trip with us 4, leaving only me behind. I have NOT buy the return ticket to Kuala Lumpur so i have the freedom to go anywhere. I had some plans in mind but not yet written or figured out. I guess for now, I want to explore Sapporo city first, and visit places we missed.
Checked out around 12AM from Plat Hostel Haikyuu Sapporo Ichiba after eating Maggi for breakfast. We booked a room for 4 persons with 2 bunk beds. It was nicer then we anticipated, the toilet was outside though. They have a pantry and laundry/dryer that they charged for cheap. But the main reason i chose that hostel (beside the price) was its location. 10 min walk to the Tanukikoji Shopping Street and 5 mins to the Sapporo TV Tower but far from Sapporo Station. Theres one Halal Ramen Shop nearby (its pricey tho), HALAL WAGYU RAMEN SHINJUKU-TEI, only a 3 mins walk from the hostel. the owner was indonesian and the ramen tastes fine i guess, but i wont say it is authentic. 2 mins walk away was also the Nijo Morning Fish Market if you are into fish. We tried some oysters, and suprisingly they loved it, i did not. It was also kinda affordable and fresh. A lot of people though and no seating.
So my first stop travelling alone was the Sapporo Clock Tower located in downtown Sapporo, just beside the Sapporo TV Tower. Built around 1870s, its the oldest wooden clock tower. It has an american style architecture so it was kinda interesting. Also the clock tower chimes every hour so i stayed there till then. There was an admission fee if you want to go inside to look more closely and the fee was not expensive (maybe around 300 yen). I didnt go in though, i was on a budget. Worth it if you like history and facts and have the patience to translate the japanese signs and descriptions to read.
Travel tip: You can use Gemini or any other AI (i think) to translate them for you. Use the Gemini Live feature and open the camera and showed the signs you would like to translate, and it will start a conversation with you. You can ask questions and it will answer by searching the web. Pop in your Airpods and do this, and you get yourself a personal tour guide. Its awesome.
My next stop was the Sapporo Mosque, a 30 minutes walk from the clock tower. It was a 4 storeys new mosque built between the buildings, its hard to miss. One thing I noticed about the mosques in Japan that they rarely turned on their heater, or maybe they only turned it on during prayer times i guess to avoid traveler like me resting while lying down. It was too cold to stay long so i performed my Jama’ prayer of Zohor and Asar and stashed my bags there and continued my lonely journey.
I decided to visit another museum, The Hokkaido University Museum, mainly because of it’s free admission. Just a short walk from the mosque, maybe around 10 to 15 mins. Its located inside the Hokkaido University so you do need to enter the compund and as far as i experienced, you do not need to register yourself as a visitor (or perhaps i went in trough one of the small gates). Nevertheless you do need to register yourself at the musemum’s front desk, a simple process.
Here you get to see a good number of old artifacts and studies done in the University troughout its years. It covers all kind of topics from the university history, the Ainus (the indigenous people of Hokkaido), engineering stuffs, dinosaurs and a life size mammoth (dont forget the stamp hunt). There were no english description of course so use the Gemini trick and everything will become interesting. Got to spent there for nearly 3 hours and headed back to the mosque right before Maghrib.
Stayed at the mosque for a while to wait for Isyak. The top floor (4th floor) was the main prayer hall, below that was the womens. Abluation area was at the ground floor and also where i kept my bags earlier. Most of the jemaah were middle eastern/arabic and a couple of japanese. Talked to one indonesian guy who just started doing his masters in islamic studies (i think) back at the Hokkaido University, his name was Fikri (i think). After Isyak they had a quran class with the kids so I decided to take my leave after eating a couple of biscuits from my bag.
I remembered stepping out of the mosque and it was freezing. Back at the mosque, i decided to go visit Otaru, one of the harbor cities in Hokkaido, an hour train ride northwest of Sapporo. I booked a 2 night stay at one of the hostel right there and then.
For the night, i searched around and found a PC cafe that you can sleep in. I am a sucker for new experiences so i decided to just do it. Plus point it was like 1500 yen for 12 hours.
You see if you have not entered a pc cafe before (i think most of you dont), the rooms are divided into cubicles and they have around 50 of them. The place smelled like ciggarates and the walls were not tall enough so when you stand up you can see the person beside your ‘room’. There were 2 ‘rooms’ configurations; 1. the ‘room’ where they provide a ‘foam matress’ so you can lie down on the ground while watching stuff on the PC and 2. the room where they only put a pc on the desk and generously provided you with an office chair. Unfortunately, room 1 is fully booked so i had to settle for the latter. Fortunately though, the chair can be reclined and there was a leg rest.
The cafe was a pc cafe but there were also racks of comic books and manga. They give you unlimited drinks (coffee and juice) and hot water so you can cook your instant noodle here. The toilet was okay but you have to pay extra to use their shower. Changed to my sleep clothes, took a couple of drinks, watched a few youtube videos and settled for the night.
I have slept in many weird places in my life and this was definitely among the worst of them all.
– putumayam, 13/6/2026, jb, writing this during my off day