Chisun Grand Hakodate

Sunday, we finally went ashore to Hakodate, Japan. It felt so good to be firmly on terra firma. We did a bit of sightseeing and shopping. It was a very clean Japanese town. Hope all is well at home. Also, due to the typhoon, we will not be going to Tokyo. Instead we will spend the extra time in Kobe. Cub has put a positive spin on our detour; he...

Just the deep blue SEA!



This is our fifth day on the high seas, and we are about 1704 nautical miles from Seattle. We should arrive in Hakodate, Japan next Sunday, Oct 4.

So far our Pacific voyage has been interesting. We were all so worried about Cub being well during our journey, but it turns out that I have been "s...

Our train chugged in to Hakodate around noon. The sky was overcast and the weather was chilly. The only thing on our schedule was a castle where the samurai had their fabled last stand. After we went there and tramped all through the mud trying to find something interesting in the castle, we were stumped. And then it started raining. We retreat...

Hai Hakodate! Hakodate (pronounced Hack-o-dah-tay) is a lovely port on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. It is famous for seafood. Isn't it interesting though that this simple word 'seafood' can mean different things depending on your culture and upbringing. For Brad and I, looking forward to 'seafood' kind of (naively) meant "we'll have some pra...

We've stayed about 1 week on Hokkaido and went to 4 different places. The first one was Toya-Ko, a volcanic area with some smoking mounts. The last eruption happened in 2000 from Mt. Usu, an active stratovolcano. This national parc has splendid sceneries and was very interesting, but we wouldn't really want to leave there knowing that a volcano ...

Nous avons passes nos derniers jours sur Hokkaido et le nord du Japon dans la baie d'Hakodate. Nous avons loge dans une petite auberge tenue par un couple de 60 ans qui tient le magasin de crabes au coin de la rue ! Saito-San a fait en sorte que nous nous sentions bien chez elle et nous a donne toutes les informations necessaires pour visiter sa...

So the night train is a little bumpy and little noisy but I got some sleep. Awoke to the first station in Akita at 6AM. The station was cloudy, rainy and cold...not a good sign. Tried to get some more sleep, but did not happen. Instead ended up sitting in the corridor as the other elderly passengers were staring out the window. And somewhere aro...

I travelled through the world]s longest under water tunnel to get to Hokkaido. The scenery was awesome on the journey here. I only had one day in Hakodate but it was a pretty good town from what I saw.. There is a lovely waterfront area with a fleet of squid boats lined up. The squid boats have rows of lanterns running along the decks to attract...

apres 4 heures de train, dont 30 min danss un tunel de 58km sous l'ocean! je suis arriver a haakodate en hiver. Aceuilli par des flocons de neiges intensement soufles par le vent, le contraste avec les plus 30 degre d'okinawa il y a 5 jours est tres grand! Hakodate est la premiere grosse ville sur l'ile de hokaido. mais les hotels cheap sont rar...

With a few days left to burn on my Japan Rail Pass I decided to make the most of it and investigate Hokkaidō Island to the north. Seeing as this was very much a spur of the moment decision on my behalf, I had no real idea of what I would find there. The day started pretty badly, as running late into Tokyo station I jumped onto the platform ...