The Chocolate Factory

For our last stop in Sapporo Matt and I traveled to Ishiya Chocolate Factory where the famous Shiroi Koibito is produced. The Shiroi Koibito is a langue de chat (French for cat tongue) which is two butter cookies with a layer of chocolate to cement them together. The Shiroi Koibito are differentiated from other langue de chat by using white chocolate, and the name in Japanese means "white beloved one."

The Shiroi Koibito is made on location, and Matt and I could smell the chocolate before the large building came into view. From the exterior all you can see is a large brick building with an imposing wrought iron gate. Once inside, however, there are multiple European-style buildings surrounding a garden.

We paid around six dollars to walk through the museum. The entrance fee included an English translation to the exhibits and one Shiroi Koibito each! Yum! We walked through a chocolate box display, a hot chocolate cafe, a diorama of historical Chocolate production in Europe, and finally windows overlooking the factory floor.

While the museum was interesting enough, my favorite part of the location was the rose garden in the courtyard. This was free to tour, and I believe I spent more time looking at roses than chocolate. Each variety had its name and country of origin labeled in English. Surrounded by roses in full bloom and clock towers I felt like I was in a European fairy tale despite being on the exact opposite side of the globe.