I met my Japanese friends when I was in Canada and we were living in different parts of Japan. We decided to meet each other in Sapporo last year to catch up and also to try the local food since I have not been to Sapporo and we met up in Tokyo & Niigata the year before. After we checked into our hotel, we took the subway to Susukino station as that area was famous for its food and shopping. We went there to search for a Gingisikan (grilled lamb) restaurant but for a long time, we couldn’t find any decent restaurant. In the end, we asked a policeman who was standing in front of the police station and asked him to recommend us to a nice restaurant. Fortunately he knew one and he directed us the way to the restaurant. We went through the red-light district area (we must be crazy...) and finally found the restaurant which already had a long line-up outside the restaurant.
After waiting for about 30 minutes, we were finally able to get our seats and once we sat down, they automatically provided us the vegetables and 3 meat portions and we just had to grill the meat by ourselves. Once the meat was done, we dipped it into the sauce they provided and wow.. it was tender and juicy and it tasted really delicious together with rice. If you plan to go there, make sure you wear something casual as the smell was so strong and it stayed with us for the whole night.
On the second day, we joined in a local tour so that we didn't waste time trying to get around Sapporo. Fortunately, we were the only tourists so we had the whole bus to ourselves. The Japanese guide brought us to look at the Clock Tower and the Former Hokkaido Government Building. After that we went to Okurayama Ski Jump which held the ski jump competitions in Winter Olympic 1972. We took the chair lift up to the top and enjoyed a melon ice-cream while enjoying the spectacular view of Sapporo. The weather was great even in August and we had to wear a light jacket as it was pretty windy. 
Next we went to the Shiro Koibito Park, which is actually a famous Hokkaido chocolate factory theme park and their cookies, white chocolate sandwiched by 2 thin butter cookies, are well-known among Japanese. Over there we saw European-style houses with cafes and the best part was going into the chocolate factory and museum as we saw many exhibits, the production process and the whole place smelled of chocolate and butter cookies. If you have children, your children could participant in the process and try their hands on making the cookies.
Finally, it was lunch time! We were so hungry especially after visiting the factory and the guide brought us to the famous Nijo seafood market to try the famous Hokkaido crabs. We walked around trying to decide which restaurant to go into and we were able to sample Taraba crabs or Red King crabs and the hairy crabs or Horsehair crabs. Personally I like the Red King crabs as the meat was sweeter and juicier. We finally decided on one restaurant and I ordered a salmon roe with crab meat rice bowl together with crab meat miso soup. The salmon roe was so juicy and fresh as compared to those bought in the supermarket and the crab meat was tasty and refreshing. Yummy!
In the afternoon, we visited the Sapporo Beer Museum that was the oldest (since 1877) and the most popular brand in Japan. We were able to join in the tour introducing the history of Sapporo and the beer-making process and we bought some soft drinks and a beer ice-cream as we were curious of its taste. The ice-cream was not very creamy with the beer taste and actually even though I am not a beer fan, the ice-cream was delicious and I finished it up! We were sad to say goodbye to our guide as she was really helpful and provided us a lot of useful information about Sapporo.
The next morning, we decided to try Sapporo ramen at the airport since Sapporo ramen is very famous in Japan and the miso used is not as salty as some parts of Japan with bits of soy beans. I tried the authentic Sapporo ramen which was with bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and slices of meat. My friend tried the Sapporo ramen with butter and the other tried ramen with cream cheese and asparagus which was like blending the Western and Japanese taste together as it tasted like ramen with white creamy sauce.
Finally, it was time to bade farewell to each other and we promised to try to meet each other again this year.
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