Hairy Crab, Sapporo Summer Festival, and Italian Food!

Last week, the weather in Sapporo was beautiful, so we spent a lot of time crossing local bucket list items off our list.

Crab has been high on Jason and Fiona's list of things to eat ever since we got here. Japan, and Hokkaido specifically, is known for having some of the best crab in the world. Granted, the crab season is actually during the winter, but we still couldn't miss the chance to try it here. Especially a regional speciality - hairy crab.

For lunch one day, we headed to Kani-Honke, a popular crab house that's been in operation for over 50 years. It's common for crab houses in Japan to be adorned with huge crabs on the building:

Basically what you're looking at is floor after floor of private crab dining rooms:

Sadly, when we arrived, there was a sign out front indicating that they were fully booked for the day. Just as we were walking away in disappointment, we decided to go in and make a reservation for the following day.

We sure were happy we stopped in, because through some series of conversations among the staff, we found ourselves being led to an elevator. When the doors opened, a waitress dressed in full traditional kimono attire was waiting to greet us. From there she led us to our own private dining room.

I'm really not a fan of shell fish, but I was sure there would be something else on the menu for me to eat. Well, I was definitely wrong on that front. These crab houses apparently take their specialization seriously because after scouring the 10+ page menu, I can confidently say there was nothing but crab on offer. 

We decided to go for some variety in our ordering so we could compare the different types of crab. We ordered boiled hairy crab:

Tempura king crab legs:

And grilled snow crab:

Yes, we recognize that there are too many variables in our experiment, but hairy crab could only be ordered whole and it wasn't in the budget to order three whole crabs, so this is what we came up with. In the end, Jason was very disappointed because as it turned out, we all loved the hairy crab - dashing his dreams of having it all to himself. I've probably tried crab half a dozen times in my life, and only in places where it's fresh, but I've never enjoyed it - until this crab. Oishi!! Fiona's favorite was the tempura crab (surprise, surprise...I'm pretty sure she'd love anything that's battered and fried!). Jason enjoyed it all!

After lunch, we made our way to the Sapporo Summer Festival in Odori Park to meet up with Fiona's buddy Taere and her dad. It was a gorgeous sunny day, so ice cream was a must for the ladies:

And beer for the daddies. Jason has been eyeing this fun beer dispensers ever since the festival started, so he was happy to have some friends to help him with it!

After a long afternoon of playing, on the recommendation of Taere's family, we walked over to a local Italian (yes, you read that right) restaurant for dinner.

These two! Two only children so excited to have dining buddies!

So I have to say, that the spaghetti with meat sauce we had for dinner that night - the best I've eatten since we were in Italy. I was shocked!