Hey everyone, it’s Matt from Still as Life, and I’m super excited to share this amazing place with you! In all honesty, it is my absolute favourite place in 札幌 on 日本’s northern island of 北海道.
Question
Have you ever felt like you were Charlie in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory? If so, where? Let me know in the comments at the end of this page, I’d love to hear about it.
Getting to Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory
Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory are located in the north-west suburbs of 札幌, the largest city in 北海道, 日本. It can be a little confusing to get to though because it goes by two names which vary depending on what you read or who you speak to. To be honest, I’m still confused. The signage at the factory calls it Ishiya Chocolate Factory, as does some of the material you are given if you take the self-guided museum tour. However, you won’t find it on 到到网 under Ishiya Chocolate Factory, 到到网 lists it as Shiroi Koibito Park, the same name used for the official website. My assumption is that since Shiroi Koibito is actually the flagship cookie product made by Ishiya, the factory and surrounding park have become known as Shiroi Koibito Park. So what does this have to do with getting there?
Getting there by car
Well, if you are driving there, and search on Google Maps for Shiroi Koibito Park, even though that appears to be the official name for it, you won’t find it. You need to search for Ishiya Chocolate Factory.
The full address is:
石屋巧克力工厂
2 Chome-11-36 Miyanosawa 2 Jo, Nishi-ku, 札幌市 北海道 063-0052, 日本
You can also search for “White Lover Park” (the literal translation of Shiroi Koibito is “White Lover”), and Google Maps will find that for you too. One thing to note though is that the location marker for White Lover Park is located further away from the main museum and factory entrance so you may have to walk further if you park on that side.
When we arrived, we were directed to a car park across the road from the factory itself, located here:
Parking is free, and should you find yourself parked here on a rainy day, the thoughtful people at Ishiya have free umbrellas ready for you too!
Getting there by public transport
If you are travelling by public transport, then you are in luck because you can easily get here via the subway! If you take the Tozai subway line to the final station, Miyanosawa Station, it’s about a 15-minute ride from Odori station at the heart of 札幌 followed by a 700-750m walk to the factory. There is a slight uphill grade from the station, but it isn’t steep so most travellers should be able to do the walk with no trouble at all.
Not into the subway? You can also take the bus! Take the Chuo or JR bus from the JR 札幌 Bus Terminal headed in the Otaru direction and hop off at the Nishimachi Kita 20-Chome bus stop. It’s then about a 6-minute walk.
Getting there by tour bus
There are reasonably priced tour buses available from the 札幌 Station Bus Terminal operated by 北海道 Chuo that include a stop off at Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory in addition to other city sights.
Half-day tour booking is available online through 客路 for 2600 yen.
Full-day tours that include Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory are also available. The half and full-day tours can be booked directly with 北海道 Chuo buses at the terminal, or through their website 这里, starting at 2600 yen.
The half-day tours operate in the morning, departing the bus terminal at 9:30 am and returning at 1:35 pm in Summer or 8:50 am returning at 1:15 pm in Winter.
Most of the bus tours offer approximately 60 minutes at the factory.
A number of tour options are also available through 领航者 和 客路 to suit your budget.
Admission fees and other costs
Admission to Shiroi Koibito Park is free. This allows you to access the external park grounds and experience the beauty and merriment that exists here, including the rose garden. So whether you come on your own or by tour bus, you know you don’t have to pay any more, unless you want to.
To enter Ishiya Chocolate Factory and the self-guided museum tour, there is a fee of 600 yen per person for people high school age and older. For children, it is 200 yen, and for infants 3 years and younger, admission is free.
It’s pretty cheap for what it is and in my opinion well worth it. If you are here on a tour bus though you will definitely want to keep track of time. It’s easy to spend more than an hour inside.
100 yen discounts for adults are common and can be obtained quite easily. If you hire a 汽车租赁, be sure to check the travel magazine that comes with it as these often include vouchers for Shiroi Koibito Park as well as many other attractions.
There are multiple dining options on-site that are available at an additional fee, and there are also some activities available in the cookie-making workshop for an extra charge. Some tours do include some of these additional activities.
营业时间
Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory are open every day from 9:00 am until 18:00 pm with the last admittance at 17:00 pm. The store is open an hour longer until 19:00 pm.
About Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory
A place of wonder
As I saw the building, entered the park and began to explore the wacky world within, it struck me.
If Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were real, this is the closest experience to it that I’ve ever encountered.
Everything here is fun. It has been designed to entertain, educate, inspire, and bring out the inner child in everyone.
This place is where I had my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory experience of complete awe and wonder. Have you ever had that experience? If so, where? Don’t forget to let me know down in the comments below!
So what makes this place so magical? That is a long story that almost has to be experienced to really understand it!
There are actually five parts to this factory:
- The museum
- The factory
- The Chocolate Lounge
- The store and Candy Labo
- The external park
The Museum
Museum and factory entry are available for the small fee of 600 yen for adults which includes a Shiroi Koibito cookie each, and a “passport” to get stamped throughout the museum if you wish to.
The ticket desk is located at the museum entrance near the base of the clock tower. Make sure you have cash though as cards are not accepted. English is limited depending on who you speak to, but it’s easy to point to adults and children and show on your fingers how many tickets you need for each.
Once you enter, the first room is absolutely breathtaking and left us speechless…
The Fountain
The centrepiece of this room is the ornate, blue and gold Aurora Fountain situated below a detailed ceiling mural.
Made in approximately 1870 by the English Royal Doulton Company, this piece feels like it belongs in a palace.
The cornices are gilded and everything has been crafted with care and attention, even down to the regal doorways and fireplace.
An official photographer is available to take your photo in front of the fountain, both on their own equipment, and on your camera if you have one.
Around the outer edge of the room is a raised balcony that gets you up close and personal with the ceiling details and also takes you to the photo stand to buy your professional photo print if you wish to.
The Stained Glass Room
Next is the stained glass room, with stained glass ceilings and windows.
The detail continues here with delicate carvings everywhere!
This long narrow room takes you across the raised walkway from the museum entrance to the factory, but don’t worry the museum isn’t finished yet.
The Hot-Chocolate Cup Room
From the stained glass room, you step into the hot-chocolate cup room.
A room dedicated to the history of hot-chocolate cups.
There are cabinets full of cups and saucers from all over the world, some more than 100 years old.
This room is dedicated to the fineries of hot chocolate drinking with gold-inlaid cups, and finely painted porcelain. Feeling regal yet?
Demitasse-Package Room
Enter the Demitasse-Package room. This is an interesting room focused on packaging used over the years. It isn’t just any packaging though. A demitasse is a small coffee cup, so the packaging is actually for small cups.
It is remarkably intricate and delicate.
Package Label Room
From chocolate to cookie packaging over the years.
There is a room dedicated to all sorts of historical boxes and wrappings. Some of them are remarkably detailed!
Of course, these rooms and the hallways are decorated with such detail, like these intricate sconces!
And then, of course, there is the ceiling!
Chocolate Time Tunnel
The chocolate time tunnel takes you through the historic process of converting cocoa pods into chocolate in miniature form. It’s actually quite cool.
Cookie Factory Production Line
On the other side of the Chocolate Time Tunnel is the Shiroi Koibito cookie production line.
It takes you through the process right from the start. Unfortunately, the chocolate making and first part of cookie production, the mixing, is only shown in diagram form.
From there though, you can see just about everything and even touch a few things.
The first thing you can see is the chocolate conching, preparing it to just the right smoothness for the cookie centre.
Next is the baking room, a giant series of ovens.
You can’t see a huge amount inside, but it also has a touch panel to feel the heat.
Next up, you can see the chocolate being sandwiched between the cookies while they are still warm.
From here on, the production line has been decorated with children having fun, sculpted and painted all around the upper sections of the walls.
It is really, really fun just looking around and seeing all the different activities that these children are getting up to.
Of course, it’s also interesting to watch the workers making these yummy cookies.
Next, the cookies go through a chiller for 10 minutes to cool them down to 6 degrees or less and set the chocolate.
There is a touch point here too so you can feel how cool it is!
Continuing on, there are more children dancing around the walls, watching the production as we enter quality control and packaging.
The cookies are checked for imperfections or damage, tested for weight and thickness, and then fed into the packaging machine.
Next, they are run through a metal detector and an x-ray to check for foreign contaminants.
Finally, they move along to boxing.
Sugarcraft
Just outside the Chocolate Lounge cafe are, there is actually another piece of the museum, sugarcraft.
This sugarcraft is insane! There are detailed piano’s, dolls, enormous cakes, detailed flowers and much more!
The Chocolate Lounge cafe
A trip to Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory would not be complete without a pit stop at the Chocolate Lounge.
Here, you can indulge in a variety of sweets, from enormous parfaits to chocolate fondue and other assorted desserts.
Don’t go past a hot chocolate though. This is what the Chocolate Lounge is known for, and there are a variety of gourmet options to choose from.
I went with the dark chocolate “Valrhona”, and wifey opted for the milk chocolate “Felchlin”. We also got one of the small, Gianduja Chocolate parfait’s to share.
Depending on when you go, the cafe can be very busy, so be sure to allow a good chunk of time for it. It took us about 10 minutes to get a seat, and another 30 minutes to place our order and enjoy the decadence.
The process is:
- Line up to put your name down on the list for a table.
- The attendant will take your name and the number of seats you need – to our amusement, the attendant spoke no English and had me write down my own name amongst a sea of Japanese writing.
- You can either wait and if you are lucky there might be a space available on the waiting bench, or you can wander through the sugarcraft section.
- Once a table is ready for you, they will call your name out. If they don’t speak English, they will probably just came and find you as they did for us (it might not hurt to stay somewhere obvious)!
- Once you are seated, you will be given menus, and soon after, your waiter will take your order. They will also leave a slip on your table.
- Times vary, and since the small parfaits are pre-made they come out quite fast. Freshly prepared items like the hot chocolate can take longer if the cafe is busy. We waited about 15 minutes for ours.
- Enjoy!
- Your waiter will confirm if there is anything else you need, and when you are ready they will take the slip of paper and come back with your bill.
- Take the bill to the cashier and pay for your mouth-watering treat.
Our hot chocolates came out in Shiroi Koibito’s signature, gold-detailed mugs, including gold embossed saucer and gold stirrer.
They were also served with a syrup the waiter explained was an orenji sweetener. For the uninitiated, it turns out that it’s a sweet orange syrup that gives your hot chocolate a Jaffa flavour.
Our parfait came out with two beautifully presented parfait spoons, and we were blown away.
The parfait is unbelievably rich. It was a struggle for us to get through it and the hot chocolate, but we made it. It also turns out that the chocolate syrup used in the Gianduja parfait has a coffee liqueur in it that wifey was not keen on.
As we waited, and while we were enjoying our treats, we were amazed at the detail-rich finishings in the cafe.
As with the rest of the museum and factory, there are intricate carvings and sculptures all around the large atrium-style room. The raised ceiling I supported by Romanesque columns and the large, window wall looking over the park makes it feel extremely open.
Much to our delight, we were treated to a musical show opposite the window.
The wall below the clock-tower opened up and a number of robotic animals and people appeared, dancing and playing instruments to a catchy tune.
It was one of the most enjoyable dining experiences I’ve had, and if you loved the mugs, you can take one home with you! They are sold at the cashier’s desk for 8100 yen each.
The Inner Court
As we made our way down the stairs from the cafe, we saw a little bit of a show in the Gramophone Theater situated beside the stairs.
At the bottom, they opened out to the gallery on the second level above the inner court. This space gives a perfect photo opportunity for the beautiful court stairs in Tudor House.
The details and regal setting continue here with a hot air balloon chandelier and unbelievable wall and roof details.
If an entertainer is working in the court it also gives you a birdseye view of their act. While we were there, a mime was doing his thing, and he did a great job of it!
The Toy Museum
On the other side of the gallery, the museum continues. This section is actually free to access if you come in via the Tudor House store entrance. Here, it takes a step back from the world of chocolate, but doesn’t leave the fun behind at all!
This museum is a museum of toys and Americana.
There are action figures, superheroes, tin toys, planes, ships, dinosaurs, beetles, animals and more!
There are even JFK memorabilia and moon landing artefacts.
The Store
Downstairs, on either side of the inner court is the store. This is also accessible through the Tudor House entrance and is free to get into.
Here, you can purchase from a huge selection of Ishiya chocolates and Shiroi Koibito biscuits.
Candy Labo
Also in Tudor House is Candy Labo. Another space for fun and entertainment with colourful candies everywhere.
There is a regular candy making show, and of course, it can all be purchased. This is not much different to Candy Kitchen at Coffs Harbour’s Big Banana, so we didn’t wait for the next show to start, but it’s something that kids especially would love!
The Hells Angel
I really don’t know what this has to do with anything at all, but as we made our way out, we were met with this intense, piped motorbike sculpture by Nathan Watton called “The Hell’s Angel”.
The Park (Shiroi Koibito Park)
The outdoor park area of Shiroi Koibito Park is freely accessible and can be entered without a museum/factory tour ticket. If you don’t want to spend the money or don’t have time to do the full tour, this park is worth a visit on its own, and it will be different depending on what time of year you visit.
We visited in early August, and as you can see the flowers are in full bloom, so the park is full of vibrant colour.
It’s an unbelievably beautiful place. Even without the flowers though, you can enjoy the unusual combination of architecture.
With inspiration from all over the world, parts look like factory, other parts like large houses, and still others like they could be from a town hall.
There are street lamps dotted around the park, and with their gold detailing and almost British appearance, they could be straight out of Narnia.
There are cubby houses and tiny spaces everywhere with matching tiny tables and chairs, including under flower gardens, that make it feel almost like you are in the Shire from Lord of the Rings (AKA Matamata in 新西兰).
奇怪的是,还有一个苹果树花园,在那个花园里有英国和日本的警察局。
这些小痣会检测到运动,如果你的手臂离苹果太近,砰!鼹鼠警官会弹出来,有话要对你说。
这里有小小的白色尖桩篱栅、一座童话般的桥、一辆双层伦敦巴士,甚至还有一座树屋。
有一个充满百合花的池塘,里面有喷泉和河马。
有一个美丽的玫瑰园,藤蔓爬满建筑物的墙壁,几乎与花园融为一体。
这也是第二个专业拍照机会,在玫瑰园前,背景是迷人的建筑。
如果您有兴趣,还可以坐在白色恋人公园的双人座上,与心爱的人合影留念!
Shiroi Koibito Park Shows
在这里至少待 15 分钟,您将享受到节目的待遇!这是我们在咖啡馆看到的同一个节目,但还有更多内容。请务必查看上面的 YouTube 视频,尤其是最后一分钟,以了解该节目!
从咖啡馆的窗户,我们只能看到钟楼的那部分。
彩绘玻璃房外是三台机器人小号手,花园上方是跳舞的厨师五人组!
这首曲子是一个真正的假发,后来几天都在我们的脑海中挥之不去!
暂时不要离开。主秀结束后,Grand Meister 在钟楼下方启动。
他在他的金色音乐盒上演奏曲子,并从凉亭的顶部释放气泡。
足以激发任何人的内在小孩!
外
好吧,我们最终确实不得不离开,但我们花了一些时间查看工厂外的细节。即使在这里,乐趣仍在继续。栅栏上挂着金雕猫,一排排开满鲜花的窗框。
大门是镀金的,里面有很多小细节。
甚至排水管也用金饰装饰,构成了这座建筑的一部分。
难怪我们的 GPS 租车 用“艺术”符号展示公园,它本身就是一件艺术品。
优点
- 我喜欢它的乐趣。这家工厂的每一个方面都是为了享受它而设计的。这让我想起了吉百利“欢乐谷”的广告,吉百利绝对可以从这里学到一些东西,因为对我来说,这个地方就是“欢乐谷”的定义,吉百利自己的工厂不是。
- 开车或火车都很方便,离地铁站很近。
- 适合所有年龄段。
- 值得一看的免费选项。
- 便宜的门票折扣一应俱全。
- 许多现成的英文信息和标牌。
- 巧克力,饼干,巧克力,哦还有巧克力。
- 有婴儿车或残障人士可以使用电梯。
- 无论您在一年中的什么时候去,您都会在花园中获得不同的体验。
- 一年中的每一天都开放。
缺点
- 有很多东西可以参观,孩子们花时间享受博物馆部分可能是一个挑战。
- 你可能会增加体重。
- 花园因季节而异,因此要观赏花卉或观赏冬季装饰品,您必须在一年中的各个时间进行计划。
- 讲英语的员工非常有限。
总体
在 到到网, Shiroi Koibito Park 被标记为购物的地方而不是做的事情(我认为是错误的),并且在购物中,它被评为 札幌.
我认为它应该被归类为一件要做的事情,因为它不仅仅是购物,而且在我的投票中,它是第一个要做的事情 札幌 远远地。
它对每个人都很有趣,易于访问且价格低廉。唯一的缺点是你可能会在那里呆太久而没有意识到这一点!
像这样, 我会把它评为我的 #1 必看景点 札幌.
Hotels near Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory
白井恋人公园步行范围内没有任何酒店。最近的车站靠近JR车站,也有一些靠近东西地铁线。对于大多数选择,我会看向靠近东西地铁站的市中心。以下选项是距离地铁站最近且在步行范围内的选项。
您还可以使用下面的搜索框搜索附近的酒店。
Helpful links
- 白色恋人公园官方网站 (英语)
- Shiroi Koibito cookie 信息 – 在 Ishiya 网站上(英文)
Don’t forget
我很想听听你的查理和巧克力工厂时刻,如果你有过的话。在下面的评论中让我知道。如果您来过这里,我也很想听听您对白色恋人公园和石屋巧克力工厂的看法。
《Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory – My number one thing to do in Sapporo》有2条留言
嘿马特,
石屋巧克力工厂的惊人帖子。我正在计划我的第一次日本旅行,札幌是第一个目的地。你的帖子肯定给了我很多期待!谢谢!!
真是太棒了维罗妮卡!希望您旅途愉快,札幌、北海道和日本其他地区都是如此美丽而独特的地方。我喜欢那里!