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Published: October 8th 2008
September 29
Woke up this morning to find Hakodate, Japan outside our window. So nice to finally get to land! We typically order room service on the days that we are in port so we enjoyed that and then went to Japanese Immigration. That went very smoothly with them looking at our documents and taking a picture and our fingerprints! Hey, I have nothing to hide but I wonder if there were any people that objected to that?
Our tour today was "A Day In Hakodate" and began with a visit to the "Morning Market".
This part of Japan is where the most squid is caught. That was certainly evident here in the market! Live squid, dead squid, dried squid, squid on signs and even squid on the manhole covers!
Also, crab was in abundance here and Dave enjoyed some of that. Well, not this exact one!
They had roasted corn at one vendor that was excellent; very sweet! There were a lot of little tiny restaurants; most with as little as two tables. We had a way too short run through the market and then it was off to our next stop.
Next up was the Hakodate Ropeway. This was a cable car ride that went up to the top of Mount Hakodate which is 1,100 feet high.
The top of this is a dormant volcano! With the beautiful mostly sunny day, the views from here were very nice. It overlooks the city which is on a narrow part of land.
After that we went to the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse which is a reclaimed factory. There were several shops inside and outside I took a great picture of a rickshaw driver. He was very nice and gave me a great pose. I showed him the picture and he was quite happy!
Lunch was right down the road and was Western Style, which was fine with me! I was not looking forward to sushi or anything like that. We had soup, wonderful bread, salmon appetizer, salad and chicken. A nice dessert and a good strong cup of coffee and we were ready to continue our day.
Goryokaku Tower was next and is built by the fort of the same name. It is 300 feet tall and affords a great view of the city (it's located downtown) and the western style fort which dates back to 1853 The fort is now a park and is very well maintained for walking, relaxation and recreation.
We then travelled to what someone said was the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan. This was of the inside.
Our last stop was the grounds of the Our Lady of Angels' Trappistine Convent founded in 1898 by eight nuns that came from France. We only visited the grounds as this is a closed order.
Thus ended our day in Hakodate. We headed back to the ship too late for our dinner seating so we ate up in the Lido. Dave had steak and I had Chicken Cordon Bleu. Since we weren't leaving the port until midnight, local entertainment was brought onboard. This was quite different from anything that we've heard with Japanese instruments and singing!
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Irene Brodie
non-member comment
Beautiful
I loved the great photos and detailed descriptions, including dining choices. I practically feel like I was right there with you. I was impressed with how clear the sky was and how clean everything looked.