In Otaru

We came back home very tired yesterday. Saori came to talk to us, it looks like she enjoys talking to foreigners. Her English is not fluent but we make an effort to communicate. Fausto has less patience when he is tired so eventually he said he wanted to go to bed. We slept well last night, finally!

Today we visited Otaru, a famous town situated 39 kilometres from Sapporo.
We have Japan Rail Passes now for two weeks. Trains are very expensive so it's better to get the Rail Pass that allows to travel everywhere in Japan. One pass for two weeks costs £255 and have to be purchased outside of Japan and they are only for foreign tourists.

Otaru, although it was highly recommended by tourist literature, did not impress us unfortunately. Apart from some tourist shops and restaurants at rip-off prices, there is nothing else. It's probably a great ski resort but we had a quick walk around, had a great buffet lunch including drinks in a very elegant hotel restaurant that we stumbled upon (£12 for both of us) and we came back home.

When we arrived it was almost time to eat again. Saori suggested that we go to a sushi restaurant near her house. It was a very busy restaurant with a very efficient queuing system issuing tickets. We got our number on arrival and we waited for an hour to be seated.
The selection of sushi delivered on a conveyor belt was amazing. The cost for three of us was £14. After that Saori took us by car to a mountain with a beautiful view of Sapporo by night.
In the pictures: in Otaru and with Saori in the sushi restaurant.