What I Ate Today: A Journey Around the City and a Bowl of Soup Curry

Today, I wanted to check the balance of my Korean bank account. Well, Hokkaido University or someone in charge notified me today that I have to pay ca. 69,000 Yens this month. Why do they charge me the deposit, the initial cleaning fee, the rent for the half of September (during which I did stay here) and October at ONCE? They could have, and I think they should have, charged me those costs when they were made i.e. I could pay for the cleaning and deposit when I first entered the dorm, and the rent for September earlier this month. 

So... that's why I went to check out my balance; to make sure I have enough money. I got on my bike, and that was the beginning of today's journey. 

After failing at the post office, which was closed because it's Saturday, SevenEleven and Lawson both of which didn't served my card, I found a festival going on in the women's university nearby (not 100% sure). It looked interesting, but I had no clue what it was about, and just passed by.

This is the other side of the venue where the festival was held. And it says it's a women's junior-high and high school. Not university, then. Anyways, it has a feeling to see a school, which doesn't have any connection to me. Those 'stranger' schools always remind me of my school (or pre-university) times. Then, when I was 15, 16, or so, my life 'began', like a book 'begins' after the preface. Once I started the race called life, I can never go back, and the starting line remains a vague nostalgia. Hundreds of students would be 'starting' their lives right in that buildings, and they would feel the same, I think. A kind of empathy, maybe.

Right across the school was this kindergarten. I don't think I remember even a single 'word' I said or heard when I was a kindergarten kid. Just few names, like that of my best friend, whom I met then already.

On the way to a random direction, I came across with a cafe. At first sight does it look like a coffee factory. Just behind the corner was a nice cafe. It's not completely Western (I don't like those kind of expression, though), nor 'Japanese'. Almost every building I've seen in Japan are so; they have something in common, which is surely not 'Japan', but that IS Japan.
They are somehow different from Korea, and I cannot tell clearly exactly what is different, and why they are different. Though, I can feel it, and that's why a travel, a new experience in a new environment is good.

An 'authentic' Chinese restaurant. There are thousands of those 'authentic' restaurants. What is funny is that those in Japan and those in Korea are quite different - what is 'authentic' about them, then?

Nice to meet you, 사랑채(Sarangchae; means guest house in Korean traditional house). A Korean restaurant not too far from my dorm.

Of course I checked the menu, which was full of expensive but ordinary Korean foods. Hm, maybe the Japanese foods I had eaten in Korea were just like those.

In Sapporo sets the sun as early as 16:50 lately. And the sunset time will just become earlier and earlier until the winter begins. I have to get used to it...

Finally, I found a post office whose ATM was not closed. What I wanted to do was, in fact, just to check my balance. Well, as you can see from the photo above, I had no choice but to withdraw. As they didn't show the deposit, I just entered 45 thousands, and what I got was 45 sheets of 1000 Yens. Shit. If I'd known this would happen, I would have entered 4 10-thousands and 5 thousands.
Feeling rich, anyways, I put them in my bag. Well, I can pay the deposit with it, and the rest with my scholarship.

A beautiful manhole cover! I saw another beautiful one in Osaka, but I thought it was unique to the city.

This is it. This one, the one from Osaka, features the Osaka castle, and the one from Sapporo the clock tower. Sorry to the city I'm currently living in, but I prefer Osaka's. 

A high school. 

This is the place I had dinner. A soup curry place, and I've been to here already, on the day right after my arrival. It's called 奥芝商店(I think it's read okushiba, but not sure), and located quite near the Sapporo station. The venue is connected to the 23rd(!) gate of the station.
Usually, soup curry is called スープカレー(su:pu kare:, : marks prolonged sound), but in this place, it's スープカリー(su:pu kari:). Maybe they want to imitate the pronunciation of 'curry' more closely.

When it's meal time, the seats are full of waiting people. As I came here ca. 17:00, early indeed, there were only few customers inside, and I didn't need to wait.

They were promoting something related to prawn today. I just ordered it, as I felt 'rich' and wanted to have a nice meal.

And a nice meal naturally includes a cup, or a bottle of coke. I didn't expected a bottle with a straw in it, though. (I was thinking of a cup of coke with lots of ice)

You can see inside the kitchen. The proof of their confidence.

My meal. I chose the level 5 out of 10 for the spice, but it was not hot. Well, I'm used to eating hot foods, and that's why. It's the hottest delicious food available here, I guess, and I always enjoy it anyway. I've never tried it before coming to Japan, and now it's one of my favorite.

The small, cute, tiny piece of fried prawn is the prawn they were promoting. It tasted nice, though. The saltiness was gentle and satisfying, and the leaf underneath smelled good. And finally, I paid about 1,600 Yens in total. Well, if I didn't order the coke and the fry, it'd have been like 1100 or 1200, which would be totally fine for me.