Hakodate Motomachi Hotel

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 ...

... rough waters. So far so good, anyway.<br><br>Cub has gone to all the historical and geological seminars, and I have gone to the spa seminars about weight loss and nutrition. Today, I&#8217;m going to join the knitting group.<br><br>I hope all is well with everyone back in the States.<br><br>Later,<br><br>Elaine and Cub

... raining.<br> Somehow we made it back to the bus stop without getting completely drenched, but by that point we were all groggy, hungry, and tired of being illiterate. For dinner we went to a cafe that was pretty unremarkable except for, I kid you not, pokemon shaped ice cream cones.<br> We wandered back to the hotel and expected to fall asleep. But, of course, we caught a second wind stayed up to the wee hours of the morning. Tomorrow's train ride will be fun.

... You good. Australia? Brad (switches to Spanish suddenly): Si (yes). (switches to Japanese): I mean Hai. (then switches to Homer Simpson): Doh!!! Local man (also fluent in Homer Simpson): Doh!! Good job. Goryoukaku in spring is Cherry Blossom heaven! There were trees everywhere, with snow-capped hills and fabulous Japanese geometric touches everywhere. We were absolutely gobsmacked. And it was all free! We'll let the photos tell the story!

... sea lions, pinguin and walrus shows beside many fish we've never seen before ! Finally we reached our final destination of north Japan: Hakodate, big city in the south of Hokkaido where we could go on top of Mount Hakodate to have a view of the city by night (very crowded place indeed). We wanted to see cherry blossom for a last time in Matsumae, unfortunately only 1/10th of the 10.000 trees were blossoming, the rest would come later.

... 10 000 cerisiers en fleurs. Dommage pour nous, a cause du froid du mois d'avril, la floraison est en retard. Meme s'il y a a priori 250 especes differentes, 5% seulement des arbres etaient en fleur... Ca sera pour la prochaine fois ;-) Avant de partir pour Tokyo nous avons fait le tour du "Morning Market" ou etaient etales des centaines de crabes, mollusques divers, oursins, ormeaux, coquilles St Jacques... qu'on pouvait deguster sur place passes au BBQ.

... inroads into the city and at night with the lights, you get a nice effect. Nice, but nothing to write home about. But the tourists all started packing in at 6-7PM, Japanese and Chinese tour groups mostly. Just to get this view. After 3 hours of waiting for sunset, I had to battle the other tourists for a view to take the damn photo in 0 degree weather. Finally did, not without some pushing and insistent nudging. And walked back in the deserted streets in the cold to the ...

... lanterns running along the decks to attract the squid. Fish is all the rage on this island. Think I might be facing my fears again sometime very soon! There was a serious blizzard going on here for most of my stay so I missed the usually beautiful view across the bay sadly. Oh well... on to Sapporo....

... etait celui ou il y a tous les anciens batiments et aussi l'eglise russe. ensuite je me suis prommener dans le vieux port. hakodate est une ville qui vit de la peche, surtout le calmar et le crabe. ensuite, a la tomber du jour, j'ai pris un autobus touristique pour monter jusqu'au sommet d'une petite montagne et avoir un tres beau point de vue sur la ville qui est construite sur une petite peninsule.

Got up early(ish) and caught the train from Sapporo to Hakodate. The views from the train were truly amazing as we followed the coastline and saw a national park or two en ...