JIJ Vol 004 - Leaving Hakodate back to Tokyo

It's a wonderful day today! I am at a webcafe close to Hakodate Station. Hakodate is the first largest city when entering Hokkaido by rail. It is beautiful here! My stay in Hokkaido has had its ups and downs - but like I say - try to make the best of things.

I arrived in Sapporo rather late on Monday night, and I stayed at the Sapporo House hostel very close to the station. I spent most of the night updating my previous email. Then treated myself to Sapporo's famous "Ba-ta Kon" (Butter Corn) Ramen. It was delicious and goes well with Sapporo beer. I spent the rest of the night walking around close to the station because there was a 10pm curfew at the hostel. But when I came back to the hostel I was sharing a room with two girls from Portugal (but live in Austria). So we talked for a while and where they had been and what not and what places to go, what foods to eat.

I left Sapporo early morning and made my way to the industrial port Kushiro which is east of Sapporo. From there I took a bus north to Lake Akan Kohan. The bus ride took 3 hours and on the way I ended up seeing parts of Kushiro (which is definately an industrial town), and then the farms of Hokkaido. It was interesting driving through the farm lands - it was a change of pace for once compared to the urban upbeat in all the major cities.

Arriving at Akan Kohan I spent the late evening visiting the Lake, and then going to Bokke. Bokke is a designated area close to the lake where there was hot volcanic action happening (small scale water boiling). The mud was boiling and you could see steam and the stench of sulfer. You couldn't miss it for miles. It was definately quite a site!

The next day I was supposed to go hiking - but sadly it started raining. It rained all day. Actually the rain came from the travelling Typhoon that had hit Okinawa and Kyushu earlier in the week. Now... when it comes to News I am WELL aware about the Hurricane in New Orleans. But I dont think anyone out in the US knows about how many typhoons japan gets. Actually this one that JUST past was as devistating as the hurricane katrina. a good portion of Kyushu was hit and many houses were lost, roads fell through because of all the rain water and soiling getting washed away. there were 80 - 100 people who were also killed. and this typhoon hit Okinawa, Kyushu, bits of Shikoku and was making its way up to Hokkaido. I had a really hard time sleeping when i was at Akan Kohan in fear of the typhoon. If it would have hit right through Hokkaido - all transportation would stop and I wouldnt be able to get back for quite a while... and the first point it was going to hit was Hakodate which i was heading to the next day.

Trying not to worry - instead of Hiking up Mt. Mekan Dake I ended up taking a boat out to the Marimo Observation Center. Akan Kohan is most famous for their Marimo balls and can only be found at Akan Kohan and no where else in the world. Marimo is actually an interesting alge plant build up that becomes little tiny balls and take about 200 years to grow to the size of a baseball. So After seeing the Observation center, and returning to shore, I took some time to go shopping and bought little Marimos for myself (you can buy little ones in all the gift shops). I spent the rest of the night worrying about the Typhoon.

Lucky enough the day I was to travel to Hakodate the skies had cleared up. When checking out of the hotel - i watched the news on TV and found out that the typhoon nearly missed all of Hokkaido and went further north then projected. It only ended up hitting the very tip of Hokkaido. Though when at Kushiro - the train was actually 20 minutes late... and I realized that if i were to be travelling it would have been a lot slower since most of the rail i were to be travelling on is close to shore. actually the winds were still very high and the waves were VERY rough. you could definately tell the difference in water levels. In one day we got about 200mm of water or so.

I arrived at Hakodate last night and it was a lovely evening. So I checked into the hotel and headed my way to the bus station. I took the bus up to Mount Hakodate and you could see the entire Hakodate bay from the mountain. It was BEAUTIFUL. I highly recomend anyone who visits Hakodate to take the bus up at night.

I spent earlier this morning having seafood at the morning market close to the train station. there is sea food EVERYWHERE and it is definately FRESH and DELICIOUS. Actually - this is the first time since I have arrived in Japan that I have come across "don". I was wondering when i would come across this. Actually it is called Donburi. Donburi is basically a HUGE bowl with rice on the bottom and something on top - it can range from anything like chicken and egg, or tonkatsu, or like this morning i had a seafood donburi which had raw shrimp, raw scallop and cooked crab on top. the great thing is that it came with miso soup and that had crab in it too! the morning market is definately a sight to see - they even have squid that they caught swimming in tanks!

Hakodate has been described to be much like San Francisco and I think it is. There are definate parts of the city where it just felt like San Francisco. There is a lot of history behind this city, and the trading port to other countries - so its definately something important to think about when in Hakodate. There are also cable cars here too! Which i find most amusing. I guess I find it most amusing since I live so close to San Francisco. But I really like Hakodate a lot, if i could i would say a few more days and visit the other strange amusements here. There are many foreign churchs alongside temples and a lot more seafood to taste. But alas, time is short and I will be leaving momentarily to catch the train(s) back to Tokyo. Until another time... I am thankful that Typhoon has passed and that its a bright sunny day today.

Also:
Thank you Burento Sensei (Brent Sensei) for recomending a stop in Hakodate. I love it here.
Thank you Lawrence for your Nihongo - Eigo dictionary it has helped me out so much so far!