We slept in until 9 after the late night last night and then had to rush to free breakfast before it closed. It was very Japanese and had lots of little dishes of fish and roe and miso soup.

Millie knew today was Halloween and wore her Elsa dress all day. She has been very excited for Halloween but was disappointed that she couldn’t go trick or treating. We wanted to make it special for her so I came up with the idea of a candy scavenger hunt. We had planned to do this in the afternoon but she was too excited so we decided to just get it out of the way.

She cleaned up the room while Nick showered and I went out to 7-11 and Daiso to stock up on candy and various other goodies. An excuse to buy a bunch of Japanese candy? I’m not sure who won today, me or Millie.

I resisted (barely) hiding candy cigarettes for her.

When I came back to the hotel room they headed out to a nearby park so I could hide everything in peace. Fall is in full swing here and Nick sent me this photo of her with a very red tree. They also picked up a little plastic pumpkin for her goods while they were out.

I bought so many things that it took a full hour to write out all the clues and get them hidden. It was mostly candy, plus nail stickers, chapstick, origami paper, apple sauce, and a bath bomb.

I started getting rhyming fatigue and just writing the first thought I came up with, so half of the cards made no sense.

I summoned them back and the search began. She was squealing with joy the whole time.

Once everything was found she laid it all out and organized it, just like a traditional Halloween. This was the first year that we didn’t really put any limits on how much she ate and just encouraged her to listen to her body and not get sick. Which means today was also probably the day she broke her personal record of sugar consumption. We skipped ice cream Friday.

It was so much fun and she was so grateful. She is finally getting to the age where she says thank you and shows genuine love and gratitude without any prompting. Makes it all worth it.

She packed her little pumpkin with some sugar and we walked 30 minutes over to the Sapporo Beer Museum. On our way we walked through beautiful foliage and past the original factory that was covered in foliage. The air smelled amazing and we shuffled through piles of leaves.

When we got closer to the museum it felt more like we were in Cambridge than Japan.

We did the free, self-guided tour of the museum and learned about the history of Sapporo beer. My favorite part was seeing the evolution of the label design over 100s of years.

And the early advertisements. On my list to find when we get home: an original or good repro of one of these to hang up in our kitchen.

We did the tasting at the end which has 1. Today’s recipe 2. The original recipe 3. The original recipe brewed with only local ingredients. The latter two are only available here in Sapporo and were great.

We had a late lunch at the restaurant onsite, which serves something known as “Ganghis Khan”. This is a traditional Hokkaido dish of lamb and vegetables that you grill yourself.

Tasted better than my terrible food photography makes it look.

They also had a kids meal and Millie surprised us by eating her tempura shrimp and then saying “shrimp is my new favorite”

We walked around some more and then decided we were still hungry. So we went for round 2 of miso ramen, at a place called Menya Saimi. This was out of downtown and in a quieter neighborhood. It was dead silent when we walked in other than people lined up at the bar slurping, a good sign.

We preferred last night’s (Sumire ramen) but agreed that if we had had this first, then it would be the best we’d ever had. It was thick and rich and warming. I think tomorrow needs to be a fish day after today.

We walked back to the hotel to help digest. Millie was tired and in a state over candy. She wanted to eat more before bed and we suggested she have just one piece and save the rest. She was bargaining with us and with herself to have more. I’m excited for her to finish it off tomorrow so we can be done with the drama! But despite it, it was a joyful day of overconsumption for all of us.