Sushizen Main Restaurant （すし善本店）| Booked for a Party | Sapporo

"Sushizen Main Restaurant （すし善本店）" is an authentic and traditional sushi bar on the Michelin Guidebook Hokkaido （ミシェランガイドブック北海道）, and the chief chef is selected as one of the three greatest sushi chefs in Japan.
The other day I booked the restaurant, and had a birthday party for one of my tour guests.

If it's available, we can fully book the detached restaurant house for ourselves only. Perfect!  

This is a surprise party that a wife of a tour member and I planed secretly!! He was so happy to find the banner above the chefs!
"Happy birthday, Mr. ○○!!"

Chefs cook meals just in front of us! We were so excited to see them cook beautifully.

Cheers!

Everything is very sophisticated. The crab was carefully selected.

I ordered seasonable sashimi only, including chutoro （中トロ） caught off Ooma (大間）, a very expensive brand tuna.

By the time we enjoyed the brilled yellowtail, we switched champagne to sake （日本酒）.

Sake really goes well with Japanese dishes!!!

A big and sweet scallop is covered with very fluffy egg! Yummy x 2!!!

The high-quality hairy crab made us drink sake more! Hahaha!

While they made sushi, we sang "Happy Birthday", and enjoyed dancing here. As the house is separated to the main restaurant, we could fully enjoy the special day!

Actually I asked the main chef to make the sushi, because as I mentioned, he is selected as one of the three greatest sushi chefs in Japan!

The conger sushi was served while it was hot! Sounds professional, doesn't it?

Last but not least, we enjoyed this green tea mouse, and a birthday cake!

"Sushizen Main Restaurant （すし善本店）" is an authentic sushi bar and naturally expensive, but when you come here during the lunch hours, the sushi sets are served reasonably.

*If you are interested in the lunch menu, please refer to my other post→click here!

■Where is "Sushizen Main Restaurant （すし善本店）"?

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!

TOYA SUN PALACE （洞爺サンパレス）| Hotel | Lake Toya

If you are looking for a reasonable hotel, but want ot enjoy beautiful scenery and hot spring in Lake Toya are, how about "TOYA SUN PALACE （洞爺サンパレス）"?
This used to be a very popular hotel especially in the 70's, but there are a lot of new hotels constructed one after another around this area, and the hotel rates right now are not high.

From the lobby area and rooms,

Voila!

This hotel is located by Lake TOYA （洞爺湖）. We can enjoy the beautiful scenery anytime you want! How fantastic it is!!

This is my room↓, which looks a little bit old-fashioned, maybe very popular in the 60's and 70's. Anyway, we enjoyed this lake-view room very much!

 Let's go to a dining area!

What the hotel is unique is they use a lot of cheap but delicious local ingredients that we cannot eat except this area. I like this concept.
They have a steak corner, and

a sushi corner like other hotels, but ............

they also have a Suffork stew corner. Is it difficult to find such a local stew corner in other hotels, isn't it? We love this brand lamb!

How about whelk?
This is a typical soul food in Hokkaido!

This area is very famous for its fresh and delicious vegetables.

The tomatoes tastes very dense and rich!!!

Wow! Wow! Wow!
Can we eat mochi , or sticky rice cake, in this season? How lucky we are!

Usually we eat ozouni, or mochi soup （お雑煮） only during the New Years.

The freshly-baked bread service is good!

Although they serve ordinal types of desserts,

I love this baked apple, which was produced in this area! Yummy x 2!!!

Did I eat too much? Hahaha!

Just for reference, group tours often enjoy a set menu like this in a Japanese tatami room↓

After eating dinner, we went to ......................

the huge swimming pool! As their TV commercial says, "this is a hot spring paradise, biggest in the space （ここはお風呂の遊園地。なんてったって宇宙一！）". Hahaha!

Let's go to a hot spring area, too!

The area is as big as the dinning area!!!

I've found a unique one! I tried the "Whirlpool hot spring （うず巻風呂）", and enjoyed exercising there!

There are a lot of interesting hot spring, but I love this traditional outdoor hot spring just by the lake the best! Lake Toya is in front of us!! How soothing the onsen is!!!

This hotel is a little bit decrepit, but considering the hotel rate, it can be one of the choices in this area.

■Where is "TOYA SUN PALACE （洞爺サンパレス）"?

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!

Shukuzu Panorama Observatory （祝津パノラマ展望台） | Otaru

"Shukuzu Panorama Observatory （祝津パノラマ展望台）" is one of the recommendable places to enjoy very beautiful scenery in Otaru （小樽）.

Look at Hiyoriyama Lighthouse （日和山灯台） and "Herring Mansion （小樽市鰊御殿）" at the tip of Akaiwa Rock （赤岩）. Otaru is famous for herring, which were caught a lot near here especially in the 20th century, when some of the fishermen became billionaires  and constructed so-called herring mansions like this↓

This observatory is located near Otaru Aquarium （小樽水族館）, in the Otaru-Shakotan Otarukaigan Quasi-National Park （小樽積丹小樽海岸国定公園）.

We can fully enjoy the Sea of Japan in front of us!

It has different charms depending on the season and time, but I recommend ............

the sunset from here! How beautiful it is!

■Where is "Shukuzu Panorama Observatory （祝津パノラマ展望台）"?

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!

Boyotei （望羊蹄）| Hamburger Steak Restaurant | Lake Toya

Lake Toya is one of the most popular tourist spots in Hokkaido.
Today I'll show you "Boyotei（望羊蹄）", my favorite restaurant in this area.

I like this comfortable atmosphere! The restaurant is so popular that it is always packed with its fans, some of who come all the way from Sapporo just to eat this hamburger steak on a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery hot plate!!

This is hamburger steak, the most popular item in this restaurant! Other restaurants cannot make delicious sauce like this!

It is HOOOOOOOOOT, juicy and delicious! Be careful not to burn your tongue!

This is pork steak with ketchup sauce, the second popular item in this restaurant (I guess....).

The steak is thick but tender!!!! I love it!!!

I also recommend this salmon steak, too. Toya area is along the Pacific Ocean and famous for seafood such as scallop and salmon.

How juicy it is!

Personally I love their corn soup, which tastes very dense and creamy, too!!

It takes only a few mins from a boarding point for pleasure boats on Lake Toya to this popular restaurant.

■Where is "Boyotei"!?

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!