what do you see?

Well, yesterday was a very early start for Christine, who had to attend a kindergarten "graduation" (this to me, being from England, seems very incongruous - graduation from kindergarten is surely just automatic, right? I mean you don't really have to do much, just turn up (or rather get dumped off there), do some blowing-bubbles-in-paint and sticking pasta on paper and then you're out!).
So after she got back we got a few things from Jupiter (the international food place under Sapporo station - we coincidentally got most of these sale items) and then had a late lunch at the "dessert and light meal buffet" in the Grand Hotel. As you could guess from the name, this was mostly desserts, and the "light meal" component consisted of chicken nuggets, chips (some of the best I've had in Japan) and spaghetti. Coffee, tea and juice too. The centrepiece was a chocolate fountain - which is apparently a "current worldwide craze" (Wikipedia), and this might be true - try searching Google if you don't believe it - with marshmallows, pineapple, kiwi and lady-finger biscuits provided to thrust into the eternally-flowing warm cascade. The buffet sub-culture, lovingly called "Viking" here, is something that I need to investigate more I think. I'd rate the Grand Hotel as good value, although the surrounding are not really as "grand" as they should be, tending instead to veer towards a 70s interpretation of art-deco. But it does come complete with smoothly obsequious waiters wearing bow ties and sporting almost unbelievably greased down hair.