Hotel Ekimae 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 ...

Just the deep blue SEA!<br><br><br><br>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.<br><br>So far our Pacific voyage has been interesting. We were all so worried about Cub being well during our journey, but it turns out ...

... 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!

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 could wake up anytime ! After that, we headed to Sapporo where we met the rain and even some ...

... 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.

... the office made it sound. Figures, it was just a load of hooey to get me to pay for the cable car. Took a pleasant hour with snack break and viewings, walking up a well traveled path. The train continues to Cape Tachimachi, but I left off at Mt. Hakodate...at 4 PM, waiting for sunset. So I waited, ended up being 3 hours until the sun disappeared and the famous night view appeared. Bascially, Hakodate is fan shapped--it's bordered by 2 bodies of water that make semi ...

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 ...

... 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.

... provide the city with a fine place to walk and do a bit of birdwatching. For those who are less energetic, there is a ropeway that runs up to the highest peak, and it spared us the walk down. During our walk we encountered several small groups of seniors out for a mid-morning constitutional, and were humbled as some of them passed us. Coming upon a group of older women who had stopped for a snack, one approached us, offering us some chili ...