The last stop on my whirlwind tour of Hokkaido was Hakodate, a port city on the southern end of the island that’s famous for it’s night view of all the little sparkly lights and historical foreign settlements. And for their squid and sushi too!! Oh, and for micro-brewed beer!
I took a later train from Sapporo since I had a late start and was trying to recover from lack of sleep and beer beer beer the night before. I was actually really sad to leave Sapporo; I had such a good time there and really regretted that I met my new good friends (Miki & Horifuji) so late during my stay in Japan. And that they lived so far north. It was a relaxing train ride, a lot of it right next to the sea side.
After I arrived, I checked into the hotel which I was extremely excited to see I had my own tiny private room!! The staff wasn’t friendly in any way but I didn’t really care at that point. They did, however, have a really handy map of the area with some restaurants listed. I ventured out to the nearest sushi bar and was very pleased to see a small menu with pictures (point & order!!). It was the most delicious sushi I’ve ever had……….and I’ve had a lot! I tried uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) and wasn’t particularly pleased with the taste sensations. It was just something about having your mouth completely full of something that didn’t necessarily taste very good but felt really weird. Yah. Anyway. The other sushi was super tasty and the feeling and ambiance of the place was great!
After dinner I went for a stroll around the areas that have the historical buildings. In the 1800s, Hakodate was opened up to foreigners due to an agreement reached with Commodore Perry. And of course the westerners brought their religion with them so there are a lot of really old churches sprinkled around.
Apparently the Russian Orthodox one was the only one that I found interesting since I didn’t take pictures of any of the others!! Hahah. But there were all different types, really near to each other. If you arrive before 5pm (I didn’t) I think you can go inside too….. But next it was off the the cable car to go to the top of Hakodate Yama (mount hakodate) to check out this night view that everybody talks about. Unfortunately, I was there on a Sunday. So it was PACKED!! Almost more fun to watch the hordes of people with digital cameras aglow (of which I was one) than it was to try to squeeze in and see the lights below.
I walked around a bit the next day. Had intended to go to an Ainu/Northern Peoples Museum but it was closed!! Don’t know why as it didn’t list Monday as a regular closed day, but whatever. Walked around the port area. Got a little bit of a sunburn. :-) And eventually took the train back to Tomakomai to catch the ferry back to Nagoya.
The ferry trip was pretty uneventful…not nearly as many people on the boat. Had a slightly nicer bed this time around. Instead of just a curtain it had a slide down shade that you could lock yourself into if you wanted. More claustrophobic too!
