Otaru

Well here we are in Otaru, with our ever present friends rain and fog.

Despite the weather, we've been enjoying ourselves here. It's easily the most lively town we've been in since we started in Sapporo. Otaru is inexplicably famous for it's glass blowing studios which we only really experienced in passing, and by proxy of the 463 thousand souvenir shops selling various glass things that wouldn't last more than a day squashed into our bike bags.

The sushi here was also highly recommended, and while it was quite fresh and definitely a nice change from the Seicomart meals, it has the price tag to match. Somehow it bothers me to pay more for raw fish from an ocean that's ten feet away, than I do for raw fish that was frozen and shipped half way across the world in Toronto, but what can ya do.

We then wandered into an tiny ice cream/t-shirt store in search of beer flavoured ice cream but found something even better; crab flavoured ice cream, and to answer your question - it tastes like crab. We also tried wasabi, potato and pumpkin. All of which were actually pretty good.

We finished off the night in the micro brewery and after having a pint of everything on their menu couldn't resist the ridiculously over sized one litre glasses of beer that look like something out of the Flintstones.

And just when we thought the one litre glasses were the highlight of the night, we came across a place selling Bakudan which I don't even know how to explain. It's a ball of fishy tasting goo that you can put different toppings on? Even after eating one I'm not even sure what it was, I don't think I want to find out either. I have a feeling it's the seafood equivalent of a hot dog - miscellaneous parts crushed into a tasty paste.

Anyways, the Bakudan wasn't even the best part, it was the 30 second Bakudan theme song that played literally non-stop over and over from the shop that I'm sure is haunting the dreams of the poor girl forced to listen to it for hours a day. We only heard it for five minutes and can't get it out of our heads. I'll come back and edit this if I can find it on Youtube.

Tonight in Otaru there's a festival of some sort, lasting the whole weekend. Fireworks, music, lots of glass stuff for sale along the old railroad.

Unfortunately, it's pouring rain and doesn't seem to be letting up, so we will likely skip the festivities so we can get an early start tomorrow. Our next major destination is Hakodate, our last stop on the island of Hokkaido and also an opportunity to celebrate my birthday on the 30th. I'll be turning the horrifying age of 29. Leaving me only one more year before I have to start lying about my age, or be forced to act like a grown up - I think we all know which is more likely.

All things said and done, Otaru was a nice city to spend a few days off the bikes. Tomorrow morning it's back to Seicomart, rain and headwinds! Which actually seems strangely appealing right now.

Small update - The rain eventually did clear, and so we made our way to the festival at night. It was surprisingly busy, something like the CNE in Toronto, with fireworks and even a not so fantastic Japanese metal band hitting the stage.