Yuriguhara Park and Gyoza of Every Flavor Imaginable

Last week we also finally made it to Yurigahara Park - a 60+ acre park in Sapporo that boasts nearly 6,400 different types of flowers, ''World Gardens," a train running around the park, and, of course, a play ground.

Fiona spotted this "castle" from the lily garden and took off sprinting for it shouting, "I hope we can go inside! I hope we can go inside!" 

As you can see, she was not disappointed:

The views from the top weren't bad either!

Our favorite gardens of the day were the "Sheng fang Garden":

And the Japanese Garden:

Apparently Portland, OR is Sapporo's sister city and here, they don't take that relationship lightly. There are tributes to and donations from the city of Portland all over the city. Including the "Portland Garden" at Yurigahara:

After our day at the park, we met Jason at Chao Chao Gyoza - a restaurant we've all be excited to try ever since we discovered our collective love for the Japanese dumplings.

This place is famous for it's extensive menu every gyoza filling you can imagine.

Among the types we sampled were mushroom, curry, and shrimp:

Traditional pork:

The crab and shrimp "long stick gyoza":

Okonomiyaki:

And how could we pass on the chocolate?:

We also tried chicken and mozzarella (tasted like a pizza!), beef, green onion salt, and green perilla (an Asian herb that belongs to the mint family, but really donesn't taste minty). We enjoyed most of them - with the exception of the okonomiyaki (mostly because it was covered in a Miracle Whip-like topping and I really can't stand Miracle Whip). Fiona's favorite was the pork, mine was the green perilla, and Jason's was the beef. Definitely a fun dinner!