Ibis Styles Breakfast and Ramen Alley Lunch

One benefit (?) of coming to Japan from the West Coast is that the jet lag will have you waking up super early which means you get to have more hours in the day to eat. Breakfast came with our room at the Ibis Styles Sapporo and though it is a budget hotel, the breakfast buffet was well made. In typical Japanese breakfast fashion, there were many small items for you to choose from including tamago, miso soup, soft scramble eggs, grilled fish, etc. I went back a couple times to get a bit of everything.

We had a few hours to kill before our train to Niseko so decided to take a walk through downtown Sapporo. The historical clock tower was a must visit as it's an iconic landmark of Sapporo. Another iconic spot is the famous Ramen Alley where Anthony Bourdain visited during his time in Sapporo. We opted to not eat at the same spot he did but instead chose another miso ramen joint a few doors down, Misogin. After ordering from a touch screen at the door, we gave our ticket to shop owner, and then took a seat at the bar. My daughter didn't want a full bowl of ramen so we got her fresh made gyozas that were blow torched then crispy fried leaving a nice "skin". I got the Miso Ramen Kiwami and my wife got the Miso Ramen Irodori. I'm usually not a miso ramen person (prefer tonkatsu) but this really hit the spot after walking through the snow. The egg was perfectly cooked, the noodles had the right amount of chew, and the broth was rich (even had a pat of butter!). Sad we only had a chance to have one bowl during our stay in Sapporo as the other shops looked great with some offering specialities like clam, abalone, and crab ramen. Something to put on the to-do list for next time.