Day 10: Chocolates, Chocolates and More Chocolates

It was Tuesday, February 17th and the last day of the tour. We would be returning home the following day if the flights were not impacted by winter weather.

We enjoyed our wonderful breakfast with more ikura (red salmon caviar).  When we looked outside our window, we could see everything blanketed by thick snow.

I don't recall any of our streets in Chicago looking like this when we lived there. It was pretty darn amazing.

Our first stop of the day was this seafood store. And yes we bought more dried cuttlefish and scallops which we all love. It was fun to see that sign posted on the doorway that said, "We 💖 Hawaiians, Have a nice trip!" I'm sure they loved us all even more with our many purchases.

Can you believe the size of this snow drift? And does anybody use phone booths anymore?

As we drove to our next stop, we could see trucks lined up to drop off snow farther out of the city. There were also empty trucks returning to the city on the other side of the street.

There was a shopping stop at Ario Mall where we grabbed lunch. Yup, we got McDonalds again. The funny thing is we rarely go to McDonalds while at home. We did like the ebi (shrimp) fillet burger though. 

We also went to a pharmacy where there was a certain sore throat drop that my daughter had wanted after trying it when a friend shared some with her. My son-in-law liked that special toothpaste that's supposed to build up your enamel. Art wanted some shorts from Uniqlo. 

And then we were at Royce Cacao & Chocolate Town. 

Unfortunately, Art is not into chocolate and since I've lost a lot of my sense of taste, that wonderful and special Royce chocolate taste is lost to me. We've bought Royce chocolate every time we've gone to Japan in the past. 

The funny thing is Tiffany and family visited from Chicago the month before with Trader Joes Cocoa Truffles and for me, it was the same as Royce. So no.... we didn't get any chocolate truffles. We just got white chocolate for Tiffany. Can you believe she doesn't like regular chocolate? 

Chocolate Town was very interesting. There were informative displays showing how chocolate is made from cacao pods to candy pieces. 

According to the sign: The activity of microbes that live in the air and in the wooden boxes encourages fermentation. At ROYCE' Cacao Farm, from the third day after adding beans, the fermenters are stirred once every 24 hours to incorporate air and promote microbial activity.

I had to leave the theater room because the flashing lights and movement were bound to give me a vertigo attack. The bottom left photo has me holding the white chocolate candy box for Tiffany. And my favorite part? 😂 Yup! The Royce chocolate soft serve.

We discovered that this was our driver's last trip with a tour group around Hokkaido. He was always such a kind and good natured gentleman. He received a number of gifts to commemorate his retirement.

Once back at the hotel, we dropped off our purchases and took the underground subway to a Don Quijote store where we purchased a few things and then returned to the hotel. 

Hmmm... dinner? We were rather tired and just wanted something quick.

We were at the Solaria Hotel in Sapporo.

Across the street was Lawson which is what the Japanese call a konbini (convenience store). Lawson, FamilyMart, and 7-Eleven are well known konbinis.

We decided to just grab a quick bento plate there.

There wasn't much of a selection so late in the day, but the sushi was good enough. I'd really gotten to love the melon drinks we'd been having at the hotels, so I chose these canned melon drinks. I could read the Japanese characters for melon so we bought 3 of those cans. We were rather thirsty. 

After drinking it all, we wondered why we were suddenly very tired and sleepy. We decided to Google Translate the words on the can. Oops! It said Liqueur Sparkling Alcohol. Granted it's just 3%. But it was enough. We had a good night's sleep.

Meanwhile, outside our door, Tiger and his helper were taping our boxes of purchases securely for the plane ride home.

And outside the window... LOTS of snow! 

Would it impact our flight?