- [Mark] Good morning, I hope
you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Sapporo, Japan, but
today we are taking a day trip to Otaru, which is a little ways outside of the city on Ishikari Bay. They are known for their seafood, for their old town and seafood market, and they're known for uni as
well, which is sea urchin. So, we're gonna take a day trip there. We're gonna eat some seafood. We're gonna just walk around. It's pretty cold, but
we're gonna have fun, and I'm gonna share everything
with you in this video. But to get there, we
gotta first make our way to Sapporo Station and then
take the train from there. So we are on our way! (upbeat pop music) (loud motor vehicle) (train skidding) In order to get to Sapporo
Station from where we're staying, we have to take the tram and then walk, and then we'll be at Sapporo Station. (upbeat pop music) (speaks foreign language) (upbeat pop music) Made it to JR Sapporo Station. Bought ticket, 640 yen to Otaru. (ticket dispenser beeps) Okay, and then should be... Is it Track number 2, right? Track number 2! (upbeat pop music) Train is always right on time. I believe that it's about
a thirty-minute ride to get to Otaru. (baby babbling) (foreign language) (upbeat pop music) Okay, welcome to Otaru. I think that took about forty
minutes on the local train. Looks like a very snowy city. The plan is, we go to the
first of the fish market which is right outside the station. Then we walk around some more. Then we go to the canal and
walk around and eat some more. Walk outside the station,
immediately to your left, hike up a flight of stairs,
and this is the seafood market. Yes! This is one of the top reasons that I wanted to come to
Otaru in the first place, to come to the market. Hello! - [Clerk] (speaks foreign language) - Good, thank you. From Thailand. - [Clerk] Thailand? - Yes! Wow, very nice. Okay, thank you, thank you! Crab... do you have hakkaku? Oh, you have hakkaku also. Yeah, this one is from local, right? - Yeah - Hakkaku, it's sashimi? - Sashimi - Sashimi - (speaks in foreign language) - Oh, okay. Okay, thank you. This market is immediately amazing. I just stepped inside and
everyone is so friendly! The seafood is just blooming! There's tanks of crabs. There's hairy crabs, there's
king crabs, there's fish. Wow, this is-- This is a little seafood alley paradise. Thank you. Yeah, I want to have one hakkaku, yeah? - Together, together? - [Mark] All together, yes. Awesome. I took a little walk all
the way down the market, and there's some very popular restaurants, very popular stalls, but he's so friendly. Thank you. (laughing) He greeted us as we entered,
that we came back for him. He's awesome. - Youtuber? - Yes, youtube, youtube. Yes, yes yes. (laughs) About food, about food. So, he's so friendly, and so cheerful. Um I, there's one fish that
I really wanted to try. It's the hakkaku, which
in English is sailfin- sailfin something. But it looks like a dragon, it looks like a prehistoric figure-- Swimming figure. Uh, so we got a couple of those. Then I wanted to try the hairy crab. What is hairy crab in Japanese? Kani..? - [Clerk] Japanese? - [Mark] Kan-Kani... - Kani... Kegani, Japanese, Kegani. - Oh, Kegani. - Ke-ga-ni - Kegani, that's the hairy crab. - Hairy crab is very good.
- And then also, ooh, and then also uni, which is sea urchin, it's very, very famous in Hokkaido. Uh, so he said he had
some local sea urchin, but this- Not from this Bay at the moment, it's not in season, but from
the other side of Hokkaido, the uni, yeah? Okay, (speaks foreign language) - Thank you
- Thank you, okay! - [Clerk] 6,500 yen. - This one is good one?
- Similar, similar. More big, better (laughs) - This one is good-good one? - This is a good (speaks foreign language) - Looks like a prehistoric
fish, but he has to like-- It really takes precision to cut it and its like a drag and then he has to actually
kind of rip off the skin, almost like a snake skin. Hakkaku is only in winter? Winter time? - [Chef] No. - [Mark] Or all year? - [Chef] Winter time, number one. Number one. (upbeat music) - [Mark] So there's the uni. (phone ringing) - [Mark] (speaks foreign language) Oh, I almost forgot I
ordered the hairy crab which is still on it's way. Ah, this is beautiful,
its so fresh it's shining. The uni, that color is
unbelievable and that texture, ah, but we gotta try the fish first. In Japanese, it's called the Hakkaku fish. In English, it's a Sailfin Poacher, and I had seen this in some photos, I knew I wanted to eat it cause this is local from Hokkaido. Um, it is just
extreme-looking with the fan, with the bone, with the like snout. Before adding any soy sauce
or any wasabi or anything, I'm just gonna try it here. Oh, there is a little bit of wasabi on my chopstick already actually. Mmmm. Wow, it's like... It's not like melt in
your mouth, tender-soft. Has a little bit of texture
to it, flavor is so pure it's almost like milky. I'm gonna go in for a little
soy sauce and wasabi next time. For this bite I will put a little bit of-- apply a little bit of
wasabi onto the actual fish on my chopsticks then dip. Little dip. Mmmm. Oh yeah, that's wonderful. Its, I mean... it's fresh, it's creamy... its yeah. That's just a delicious
sashimi experience. And the presentation, I
can't get over the beauty of the presentation, how
they cut it, how they-- The expertise it takes him
to cut this fish as sashimi. Another piece before we move on. Okay, let's move onto to the uni bowl. I don't know if I've ever
been so excited to eat uni and he literally put
on an entire box of uni onto a base of rice. And a lot of the best uni
from Japan is from Hokkaido, the island of Hokkaido,
somewhere along the seas. This particular uni is
not from Otaru today, but it is from Hokkaido, it
is from the the east coast, the owner explained to me,
but it's fresh, it's local. It is the, even-- It's not even all orange,
like the different colors. The oranges, the hues, the yellows, like some are more saturated than others. And that texture, it looks like, it looks like your tongue
almost, the texture. That little bumpy, bumpiness. (upbeat music) Wow! It's just like it's melting on my tongue. Oh that is... That is outrageously delicious. It's so creamy! I love that like
bitter-sea-foodiness of it. The complexity of taste then
paired with that warm rice, wow. Beyond incredible and
what's amazing about this is it's nothing other than rice, the uni, and that's it, there's nothing on that. That's just the pureness, that's just relying on the uni itself. Wow. That is like, it's just like melting, you don't even need to chew that. (upbeat music) That is just uni dreams and the nuttiness, wow, I can
taste almonds in that uni. To be honest its so good. I don't even need, I don't even feel the
need to add anything. Okay, maybe a little bit of wasabi. And then yeah, as you keep
on stirring it around, as you keep mixing it
with your chopsticks, it will literally, just starts to melt like your rice starts to coat in uni. Whoa. With that little bit of
wasabi, that is awesome. (upbeat music) I'm blown away, it's like unbelievable. Like I've had uni, I've had like-- I had uni but it's always
like just one bite, just enough to taste to
like wet your appetite. Having an entire bowl of it, this is just an uni game changer. This is a sea urchin,
like dream come true. Okay, let's move on to the hairy crab. (upbeat music) (snips) Alright so, hairy crab also
known as the horse hair crab. This is another very famous
crab to eat in Japan. Especially in Hokkaido. And its also, uh, the hairy
crab is very well known for the roe inside the head,
but you can also eat the legs, the pincers the claws the body. Um, but let's try that, they
even put a spoon directly into the head so you can
just begin with that. Okay so this will be my first
time to ever eat a hairy crab. And that, it really does
feel like, like hair. It's so soft actually, that's amazing. Alright let's try some of that head roe. Wow! I was not expecting that. Oh, oh that is-- Oh wow that's stunning! Its' like a burst of
saltiness but you taste like the bitterness of the roe, you taste like the creaminess
of it, it's kind of like... I don't even, I-- I'm almost-- This is one of those things
we're I'm kind of stumped and that's my first tie to ever try it. That's like roe unlike
any other roe I've had and I like how it's kind of runny, it's kind of like liquid-y,
it's almost like watery. But then actually like
creamy at the same time. That might be the best pudding
I've ever had in my life. Moving on for the legs. Yeah, it really is so awesomely hairy. It's not sharp at all,
just like so fluffy. Okay, it is a little bit spiky. Move that crab meat, oh, very flaky. Mmm-mmm. Whoa, really sweet, it's
stringy, it's flaky, it's almost like slightly
fishy-tasting, that's incredible. Wow. And then the combination, both the meat and the eggs, the roe together. That's sensational,
absolutely sensational. Incredibly pure and fresh. And then finally this section
which is kind of like the-- that's in the section between
the head, the whole body and the legs. Maybe it's easier, this
is like the baseball mitt is what I like to call it. Think it's easier to pick this
up, it looks like fingers. You could wave at someone with this. Yeah, that is stunning. Full of meat, it's so sweet. Mm. This is like the ultimate-- it's really like crab
complexity in flavor. You know you taste the red
king crab, it unbelievable, it's so good, it's sweet, um but it doesn't have
that bitter complexity. The hairy crab has more
of that bitter complexity. It's like really the full flavor of crab. And as you keep on reaching,
its so incredibly stringy, look at that. As you dig it out,
they're just like strands. The legs and the claws are just like ultimate crab strandiness. They just like strand apart. Mmm! And the flavor, it's like
the most vibrant crab flavor. I think a little hairy
strand went down my sleeve. Wow. This was a spectacular, spectacular meal. This market alone, is like enough reason to come straight to Otaru from
anywhere you are in Japan. In the world! What is the name of your shop? - My restaurant is Ka-wa-shi-ma. - [Mark] Kawashima. - My restaurant is, sen-guo-shoku-do ka-wa-shi-ma Okay? - [Mark] Very good
- Thank you. - [Mark] (speak foreign language) Very good, thank you very much. Oh this is-okay. (speak foreign language) Thank you, thank you. Goodbye, thankyou. Man, what an amazing meal,
what an amazing place and yeah like, there are
many places to choose from but they are so friendly they're so nice, they're so welcoming here
and they have the full range of seafood that you could want, massive king crabs, hairy crabs, hanasaki crabs, the fish, the... Yeah the uni bowl is just unbelievable. Step outside, the market packed now. Ah, but this is a really,
like it's pretty small its so friendly there, it's
just loaded with seafood. Then that was one of those meals... Wow, look at that plate of food. That was one of those meals
where like I could just, right there, it's only the morning, but I could straight up
call it a day, right now, I'm that happy. Hello, how are you? - Hello, how are you? Hi. - Nice to meet you. Back outside and from
here we're gonna walk over to the canal side, one of
the most famous things to do in Otaru is walk along the
canal, I think there's shops, there's little restaurants, it's just a nice place to walk around. That's where we're up to next. (upbeat music) We made it to the famous
and historic Otaru canal which is one of the icons of the city, there's old warehouses
and shops, and restaurants and now kind of like souvenir
shops along the canal. So you can just walk along the canal, there's little museums as well to visit. Walking through a valley
of snow right now. Not totally sure what we are doing, but we're just taking a stroll and that's what lot's
of people do in Otaru. Even when it's freezing cold. This reminds me of like a bobsled track. I think you could take
a bobsled though here. (upbeat music) We're just kind of walking
around, not that much to do and then we just stopped
at this little corner that has some little snacks,
some little restaurants. This is uh, you can just
order the melon ice cream. Mmm, pretty good. Can I have the Hokkaido fried chicken? Yes, one please. (speaks foreign language) Thank you. I'm not so huge on the sweet snacks. So I decided to try some
Hokkaido fried chicken. You can see like almost
the crackling on the skin, it's just like completely golden crispy. O-ho-ho-ho. Wow. Okay, it is like slightly
better with maybe like rice or mochiko flour. That tastes incredible though. You can taste the ginger on it. And it's so warm and nice and crunchy. Oh, that's delicious. (upbeat music) Mmm. It's so good. And on that note of fried chicken I am going end this video in Otaru, we're just gonna walk
around, not really do much and then head back to Sapporo. Definitely the highlight for me and well worth your visit coming here, to visit Otaru is for that seafood market. And that uni bowl, that
was just uni of your dreams in an entire bowl, not just
a single bite of it, so good. That was, yeah, unbelievably good. Huge thank you for watching this video, please remember to give it a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below, I'd
love to hear from you and also oh yeah! If you haven't already seen a
couple of videos I also have from Sapporo, I'll have them
in the description box below. The red king crab was
unbelievable but go check out the rest of the videos and yeah, thanks again for watching
see you on the next video!
