寻找 Hokkaido Fox - Mar 2013 - 小樽 Otaru

很想看一看日本北海道的威尼斯。据说小樽 Otaru 有音乐盒的美丽传说，有旧式货仓的小巷，也有一条浪漫的小河。三十分钟的火车，经过漂亮的蓝色的大海，让我们对小樽有点期待。

小樽下着雪，让我们有股梦境般的感觉。我们本想坐车到音乐盒工厂，但错过了时间，要等多半小时的巴士，我们就干脆慢慢走去散步。

I didnt do much research for this Otaru excursion though. To me, I felt that it could not be compared to Venice - Murano and Burano. Glass factories were part of Venice and they were related and inseparable. Musical Boxes, however were something new and I felt that they were a good icon for Otaru. That's why my focus was initially on the Music Box factory.

We chanced upon a shop selling fish cake. As a bit hungry, we feasted on one in the shop. To me, I thought the fish cakes were like Old Chang Kee, just a snack "along the way". We slowly moved on on our way to a Hello Kitty cafe to buy the Otaru coffee cup set. Chanced upon another big outlet selling fish cakes as well. This time, we were more convinced that these fish cakes were speciality of Otaru. In fact, there was a documentary showing near the way to Gents on how the fish cakes were made. Seemed that there were many steps involved and not an easy task.  My wife was observing which fish cake was the popular one when I went to the Gents. She picked and I ate. Very nice and delicious. I could not forget the taste and normal fish cakes were so normal nowadays. 

鱼饼太棒了，很想念它的美味，结果我在机场又吃了一个。

Told my wife she ought to eat scallops in Hokkaido. Scallops were big and juicy and I  kept asking her to eat throughout the trip. One reason was also to let her recall the "Bento Set" story which I purposely bought a set for lunch as the Set got a BIG scallop. We again "chanced" upon a roadside stall and self picked one for the chef to cook.  My wife said she didnt pick the best one. To me, I couldnt tell but it was BIG to me. This was  the second time in Hokkaido to eat BIG scallop. 

Otaru gave us a feeling of countryside excursion away from city-like Sapporo. There were music played along the streets and I even thought there were musical boxes everywhere. In fact, I still pondered over a vending machine and suspected that it was a big musical box. It was right besides the music box factory...