After making too many detours in Furano, I arrived in Wakkanai at 22:00! As expected, the famous local restaurants were closed, so I explored Minami-Wakkanai and found "Iroha Nihoheto"! Just as I thought, chain izakayas have cheap highballs (^ω^) The sauce for the tsukune was too thick and delicious!

This is a chain izakaya in Wakkanai. It was convenient to have a place where a large group can easily enter and have a lively time. There were plenty of Hokkaido seafood dishes on the menu, more than I had expected.

After the B'z concert, we walked back to the hotel (25 minutes on foot), took a bath, and headed out to the bustling downtown area! My husband said, "Let's go somewhere cheap," so we ended up at a reliable chain restaurant called "Iroha." It was closer to Tsubo Hachi, but I had never been there before. When we entered, the staff politely asked us to take off our shoes. It was surprisingly busy for a weekday. The food and drinks took a while to arrive. The ordering panel was confusing because it was divided into categories like "grilled," "tasty," "fried," "fish," and "meat." You had to check the menu book to see which item belonged to which category before opening the panel. The "Potato Mentaiko Cheese" tasted like store-bought potato salad with mentaiko and cheese on top, giving it a mayonnaise flavor. The "Zantare" had a sweet sauce drizzled on top. My husband thought the regular zangi might have been better, but I found the sweet zangi to be a nice touch. We had two drinks each and some food, totaling a little over 7000 yen. My husband commented that it was pricier than Tsubo Hachi, which cost 5000 yen. The skewer menu was cheaper than Tsubo Hachi, but overall it felt a bit expensive. On our way back to the hotel, we noticed a long line of taxis waiting for customers on the one-way street. It was surprising to see so many in Wakkanai, unlike in Abashiri. There were also many young people out and about. It was quite a sight to see! I wonder how things are on the other side of Wakkanai Station compared to the South Wakkanai Station side...