Yunokawa Prince Nagisatei 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.

... wanted to see some Cherry Blossoms and landscaped gardens. We decided to navigate the local bus system and go to Goryoukaku (Go-roo-kah-koo) Park. Brad's Japanese is really coming along too. He used it today asking a random local waiting with us if he had the right change for the bus: Brad (points to sign): Goryoukaku? Local man: Hai (yes) Brad (holds out 230 Yen): Good yen for bus? Local Man (checks the yen): Hai. (switches to ...

... 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.

... prendre les photos. Les Chinois n'ont pas la meme politesse que les Japonais ! Bref, rien de tel pour nous remettre de nos emotions qu'un bon repas dans un Sushiya. Nous avons de nouveau deguste des Sushis delicieux en testant cette fois des nouveautes : oursin, crabe, anguille (cuite), oeufs de saumon, calamar et tantacule de pieuvre. Mais notre sushi prefere restera le maquereau. Le lendemain nous nous sommes rendus a Mastumae ou on comptait voir ...

... peninsula jutting into the Pacific, facing Honshu. First impressions are good; despite a long, tiring journey, I dig the wide streets, the fresh air and the general slowness of the city. The town is spawling...for a city of 250,000, it has a lot of area. This is probably because it's not crowded. Unlike areas with apartment blocks up the wazoo (Osaka) or packed Chinese roof tiled Japanese houses abutting one another (Kyoto), here it's just 2 story small western looking ...

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 ...