Sapporo Beer Museum, Sapporo

Sapporo Beer - the oldest beer brand in Japan since 1876

Yea it's a touristy thing that we must do when one is in Sapporo. All travels and trips for Notti Monkey must revolve around FOOD and BEVERAGES. It would be better if the beverages contain alcohol. Hahahahaha. Alcohol makes ppl happy and most of all it kills bacteria. Water carries bacteria so please go ahead and have more alcohol. *hic*

The side facade of Sapporo Beer Museum, the only beer museum in Japan was only recently opened in 1987. Originally this building was constructed in 1890 by foreign architects and engineers as a factory for Sapporo Sugar company until the demand for japanese sugar declined *thanks to cheaper Taiwanese sugar*. In 1903 Sapporo Beer purchased this building as their manufacturing plant. It operated until 1965 before the whole plant was transferred to Eniwa.


Today it is a very important cultural heritage from the Meiji Era and has been selected to receive the status of Hokkaido Heritage. Only certain deserving assets which are meant to be preserved and passed on to the next generation as treasures can receive this status, so it is a very honorable one.

JS said this way to the museum!!!

We were so ambitious and wanted to do the real tourist thingy and thought of catching some loop bus to get here. You see the loop bus is something like a hop on hop off bus that go through the sights and shoppings in the city. But....we ended up hopping into a cab. We failed lar....JS said taxi is much easier...no time wasted...and so much so we are now planning to cycle around in Provence, France next month. I think that would be a failed project too bcoz I have a feeling in the end we gonna hire a chauffer with a limo to go around the villages.

-_-"  right JS?

Poser!!!!

it's just that I have this habit...whenever I see a seat or seats or couch or chairs or benches or stools....basically anything that I can lay my big bums on, that would be it. Even if it means only for a few seconds. Guess I will make a good participant or sample size to test chairs before they go on production. Monkey can give reviews on its ergonomic design, comfort, heights etc

Every history has its beginning of inception, date/year, founder, why, how, where

For Sapporo Beer it's even more important because it also marks the birth of Beer Brewery in Japan. Yeap it's that dramatic!! hahahaha. Started by Mr. Seibei Nakagawa, who studied the art of brewery in Germany from the largest brewery in the world at that time, he came back with vast knowledge and experience. Nakagawa-san also personally oversaw the planning and construction of this brewery. Being a perfectionist and a great master, he also headed the procurement of machineries....selected all the fine ingredients for his beer and finally the packaging, marketing and advertising. Basically from the barleys and hops to the iced cold beer in the bottle. Wow!!!


A walk through their history timeline~~~ but it's all in Japanese.

Do u know that beer is such an old beverage in the world that even the Code of Hammurabi has it??? on regulations and laws about consuming this beverage. If you are in Louvre Museum Paris, you should look for the famous black stone with the Code of Hammurabi. I was surprised that it's so big and tall, about 7.4 feet.


The main ingredients in beer - barley.
Didn't our moms alwiz said drink more barley water...so this is it!!! this has to be it!!!!


sou des neh....this is how Hops looked like. There was even a canister of hops for us to touch and nose. Hops add bitterness to the beer and also act as a natural preservatives.


a photo-op corner...and so we were here on 1st August 2014. That's like more than a month ago. Gosh I am so lagging behind my postings...ok ok note to self.

the huge Wort Kettle made from copper. This is the boiling stage where hops are added. Usually boiled for an hour to release the bitterness from the hops. The longer it's boiled the more bitter it is but then the flavour of the hops is less distinctive so it all depends on style and what the brewery wants to achieve in terms of flavour.

a collection of really old bottles throughout the years from 1878 to 1908

There is a cute miniature animation on the entire process of beer brewery.
First the hops plant and barley, it's all headed like jack and the beanstalk towards the heaven bcoz finest ingredients are the gifts from the higher above to Earth.

Then the barley are roasted, the mashing process to convert starches to sugar. Then hops are added before it's further boiled inside the wort. After all the boiling in numerous stages to remove water through condensation, yeast are also added.

after the boiling and heat work it's now the filtering process and into the cask!!!!

But the happiest part would be consumption of all the hardwork. Look at that that. I wished I could climb the red ladder and dive into all those iced cold beer.

Wooohooo!!! eppy moment for me too. Summer also marks the Beer Festival in Sapporo so we were just in at the right time.

not forgeting the supply chain of delivering the beers worldwide, of coz these days we dun use horses donkeys and sampans....tee hee hee.

the beer bottle caps over the years.

The ad campaigns over the years!!!! wow it's like a walk down memory lanes.

The Communication Corner, usually used by Marketing and PR person

that would be my dream job...to work in the PR department of champagnes house or wineries. To be able to speak breathe and drink something you so passionate about to your privileged visitors, private collectors and international medias. I think the job isn't as easy just taking your guests on private cellar tour and then pop open a bottle at the end of the day isn't it?

Read about her dream job here at KRUG champagne house. This is the kind of job I want now. *Click here to read*

the proud growers of barleys in Japan

Today Sapporo Beers are sold worldwide with a few manufacturing plants. 5 in Japan and 1 in America.

If u are driving and under 20 years old, no beer for you.

JS can't decide which tasting we wanna do....Monkey suggested all top 3 but he was much busier choosing which roasted nuts to go with his beers. -_-"

I think we should start with the black label...no?

Liquid gold.....yumsssss
gosh looking at these pic made me so thirsty.

I wished I could swim in beer!!!!

The huge Star Hall for tasting. By the way the entrance to the museum is FREE. There's  lil museum shop at the corner of this hall and the best purchase would be some Beer Jelly to be brought home as souvenirs.

After quenching our thirst, we went out around the factory museum for a short walk. Nope that ain't our bicycle hahahaha.

The famous tall chimney which u could see from afar.


at the museum's garden there's some barley plants

and hops!!! finally I've seen, touched and smelled hops
:)))))))))

Opposite the museums there's a Sapporo Biergarten to enjoy some fresh draft beer with the famous genghis khan BBQ mutton called jingsukan in japanese.

It was an educational visit for both of us and we look forward for more. To read more about Sapporo Beer, please visit their website here:
http://sapporobeer.com/
Opening hours: 10.30am to 6.30pm
Closed on Mondays

Lavender Fields, Furano

It was Sheep Sheep's dream to go to a lavender farm. He looked so eppy eppy here!!!

Coz u see, when we bought Sheep Sheep from Vienna, he came with a lavender pouch inside him. Notice that lil lavender logo on his chest? And ignorant this mommy of his, threw him into the washing machine without removing his lavender pouch. He was almost ruined!!!!! So we got more lavenders for him at our following trip to an organic market in Paris. But nothing is complete without visiting one, since we couldn't make it to see the lavenders bloom in Provence, I guess the one here at Furano isn't too bad either huh?


Choo Choo Train

Furano is the navel town of Hokkaido, being in the center of the 3rd largest island of Japan. They even have their very own Hokkaido Belly Button Festival. Don't ask me what do they do nor parade on that day. Being in the center, it's alwiz perpetually cool...and during winter months, temperature drops to -30*C. Because of that Furano is famous for their soft light powderie snow, something that every ski-ers dream would come true. Yes in winter, this is a power packed ski resorts with lodges and snowmobiles cruising around.

I am pretty sure that's a display and not meant as a source of energy for this choo-choo train. The Lavender Norokko train is the best way to travel here. After 2 hours special direct train from Sapporo, to have this 'al-fresco' style train, we were a bit relieved for some fresh air.

Only in summer months and especially the lavender period, there's direct traisn from Sapporo. Plus this cute lil Norokko trains have special stops directly at lavender farms at this time too.

As usual, we've alwiz have everything booked and reserved in advance. There's the reservation coach and the none. So u could imagine it's much more proper when you have designated seat numbers, there were also some passengers from the none-reserved coach that came over to this coach. Luckily there were a few attendants managing and ssshooooooo ppl away politely.


and off we go!!!!
Chooo chooo choooo...chug a chug chug chug chug a chug a chug a chug
Wahhhh not only Sheep Sheep and the hobbits were leaping in joy. Monkey was perpetually hopping around her seats.

While JS was complaining he's hungry...Japanese have this culture of packing bento boxes on train rides, even if this mean a short 15 mins ride. To JS having a bento in shinkansen is a novelty. My only delight was to choose which beautiful bento to purchase bcoz all of them looked so beautiful!!!!
Every piece of food was cut, prepared and merchandised beautifully inside that tiny box. I dunno how they do it.

Woohoooo~~~

JS: "Monkey sit down and don't push ur head out!!!"

There were miles and miles and miles of potato farms, leeks farms, nursery and some other vegetables which I couldn't identify.

What a scenic ride and it's kinda too short for me, bcoz before we could enjoy the novelty of such train ride, the announcement in Japanese came that Tomita Farm is next!!!


When we arrived at the farm, Monkey rannnnnnnn to the colorful patches of flowers.

JS: "Monkey....that isn't lavender u know?"
Monkey: "Oh ya kar? oppsss nvm it's so pretty I want a pic!!"

JS -_-"
he refered me as "Horkatis" = orang kampung in greek language

Nvm lar...all the farmers here are orang kampung anyway.




There were rows and rows and rows of many types of flowers including barleys? I thought these were wheat at first.


Then we sniffed around and there's the lavenders!!!!

July marks an important month bcoz it's the harvesting months. The dry season further intensify the maturing process of its flowers. So if u wanna see lavenders it's as critical as sakura flowers viewing. There's only 2 optimal weeks a year to see beautiful abountiful lavenders!!!


Bcoz we were late by a week....the lavenders were almost gone!!!
oh no!!!! come back!!!!

There were so many hongkies doin wedding photography at the lavender farms. Hongkies and their boorish way of speaking. They were trying to chase off tourists walking around...but u see most of these tourists are Japanese and they won't understand cantonese.

Yeah hardly u could find westerners here. Local tourisms is pretty much evident with mostly japanese, Taiwanese and Hongkies. And 2 of us orang kampung from Malaysia.


very rare to have JS's pic taken. He's not so keen. Bcoz he was looming around with his giant camera, most ppl mistaken him as a photographer as well.

While Monkey was more keen on Lavender Soft Serve Ice Creams. OMG it was sooooo yummy and soooo different that I've imagined it to be. The high quality milk produced in Hokkaido makes any dairies from pastries to ice creams to cream puffs super awesome!!!

There's also a production cottage manufacturing essential oil from lavender. The smell was so intense u felt like u are swimming innit!!!


Then stomach klu-klu.....not me but JS. I was so excited bout the lavenders that I've forgotten bout food.

The sight of a huge green balloons signify FOOD hahahaha.
Monkey: "Look JS!! there's follow the balloon."


As we walked following the direction of the giant green balloon, there were more beautiful sights and we de-toured agian and again.


More beautiful flowers!!!!! Yaaayyy!~!!!!!


Let's take a scooter instead? It's faster?
but we couldn't find its keys...*well obviously!!!*

and we have arrived!!!
The giant green balloon was actually the famous Melon!!! 

Look at his hungry face!!!

JS: "Can I eat now???"

the famous Sweet-White-like-Snow-White-creamie-super-Sweet-Hokkaido-White-Corns!!! It was soooo delicious and u can even eat them raw. The taste was super sweet, non-fibrous, and extremely creamie. So so different from the best corns I've ever had.

Oh nom nom nom nom and Monkey had to finish JS's sweet white corns

JS T.T~~~~~ my corns~~~~~~
Okie lor...dun cry. I buy u Pao

Yubari Melon Pao!!!!
wow this is a new discovery. Its skin was crispy, then with middle soft like bread texture and finally the warm creamie Yubari Melon butterie jam oozzziinnnggg out~~~

and for desserts, we had Yubari Melon drinks and more fresh Yubari Melon. The sweetest thing I've ever had in my life. It has a very long length in the mouth, it's almost too sweet for me. No trip to Furano is complete without indulging in everything Yubari for the town that produce the famous melons is just after the next mountain range.

For more information and visits to Furano:
http://www.lavenderfurano.com/
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6826.html