Day 12 - Hakodate

11th February, 2003 - Returning to the port area, we had lunch in the "red brick warehouse" where there are some nice restaurants and cafes. There a few nice shops to spend your time in - but nothing too exciting. There's a really nice beer hall in here - and that should keep the cold at bay for an hour or two at least.

After lunch we headed across town to the Foreigners Graveyard... hmmm we seem to be spending a large amount of our time running around cemetaries! Actually - it's not high on the list of places to see in Hakodate, but it's a stark reminder of how isolated this town must have been way back then.

The graveyard itself is fairly small, and only really approached on foot. The scenery isn't that remarkable as it is desolate. The author of the words on this memorial may be un-attributed, but the feeling remains powerful today. (The poem is from Epitaph for Wolfe Tomb, and is authored only by "a shipmate"... The memorial remembers one of the crewman from one of Perry's ships in 1854). Now their spirits gaze forever westward; a long way from home.



Leaving the sad and last lookout over the seas off Hakodate, we then walked to Koryuu-ji...being built in 1633, it is the oldest temple in Hakodate - however, in that time it's moved to three different locations, the final one since Meiji times.

On the way to and from Koryuu-ji, it's worthwhile just walking around as you will find many interesting examples of "cross-cultural architecture"... and in some cases, you can't even tell where one architecture finishes, and the other begins.

 One of the things that is common in the architecture here are the window covers... they look like something that should be on an Egyptian tomb, rather than a window awning - but of course, here they need something to keep out the cold, COLD winds. Overall - the town towards the Onsen left a lot to be desired, but once you hit the older areas, you see a charm that is often missing from Japanese cities these days.

And on that note we made our way back to the hotel, and said good bye to Hakodate. It was two days of extreme cold, lots of walking and lots of different views of Japan - some dating back to the time that Perry shattered the wary peace of feudal Japan. After grabbing a take-away dinner we jumped aboard the train back to Sapporo (left around 5pm) and prepared ourselves for the 4 hour journey back home. What a trip!

Day 12 - Motomachi (Hakodate)

11th February, 2003 - Looking for inspiration, and a little more interesting things (compared to Goryoukaku fort) we headed out early in the morning by bus to the Motomachi district. Here is perhaps the heart of historic "european" Hakodate. Good ol' Perry - he'll look after us. Though I'm not sure if it's the cold, or the feeling someone's looking overy my shoulder, but I don't feel too comfortable here.

In fact there was something about the whole experience that left me thinking that people were watching me. The four kings of Hakodate (who amongst other things published the first newspaper in Hokkaido... hmmm - I hope their ghosts aren't haunting these pages) collectively stand - and sit - in silent reproach at all us undesirables looking over their old town.

And they have good cause to be boastfully proud of their community - it's a beautifully maintained neighbourhood with a strong mix of the traditional Japanese and the colonial western influenced buildings. Perhaps one of the most recognisable is the Old Public Hall of Hakodate which was constructed around 1910 - once again, whilst of european appearance, this was designed by a Japanese architect. Apparently it's about 300 yen to enter.

At this time however, we were starting to get a hankering for a mid-morning pick-me-up-coffee. One problem with having a historic district is that they didn't often have cappucino's back then. Not a Starbucks in sight. Having said that we did find a quaint cafe tucked not that far away.

Perhaps the MOST distinctive building in Hakodate is the Russian Orthodox church - seen here with the Hakodateyama lookout as a backdrop. This church is apparently known by locals as the ding-dong church.

 This church was first constructed around 1859 - at that time there was very much a thriving trading partnership between Japan and Russia... in only 40 or so years that relationship would come to a bitter end. This church itself was burnt down in a fire, and re-built in 1916... one year before the Russian revolution that would start to tear down the fabric of the Russian Orthodox Church.

There are other famous religious sites here - including the Roman Catholic Church. Strangely enough it's not a cross that adorns the hexagonal church steeple, but rather a weather-cock... I wonder which way this chill wind is blowing today? The church here was completed in 1924, however the original Roman Catholic Chapel was constructed around 1859. The West wasted no time in battling over the souls of the heathens!

Not too far away you find reminders that you are in Japan... and that the Buddhist religion has existed here for about 1,500 years before.

Day 11 - Mt Hakodate / Hotel (Hakodate)

10th February, 2003 - After arriving at our hotel (Yunokawa Prince Hotel) from an afternoon tour of Goryokaku, we prepared ourselves for a quick spot of onsen time - always a good idea after a tough day. The onsen here are pretty good - but more of the modern type. There's lots of variety, but it lacks a lot of the traditional beauty that often is the attraction of smaller onsen. As with any large hotel in Japan - there was plenty of touristy shops to buy knick-knacks. Food is one of the favourite Japanese gift items - based on local specialty foods.




The room we had included a room-served dinner which was really quite nice. Having said that, we had snuck some beer in from the local convenience store to have for dinner... and in between the waitress bringing in our dinner - I accidentally knocked over the beer. That's most likely from tiredness rather than drunkeness. Or as T-chan would say, I'm just very clumsy.

After dinner we took the tour to the top of Hakodate-yama - purportedly one of the three best night views in the world. There are tour buses that pick guests up from the various hotels, and the price includes the cost of the ropeway. Though where this is decided - who knows. The Japanese like to categorise things. Was it such a good view? Well, it is a nice view no doubt - but in the middle of winter, I have to say you need to be prepared for the cold, cold weather. Ha-koDATE! You get to the top via a ropeway car, that takes you the 334 m to the summit where you can brave the cold night air to get the best views.

On retiring from Hakodate-yama, we returned to the hotel (as there's not much else to do in Hakodate), and enjoyed the small private onsen in the room... a strange thought given that we were perhaps 15 floors up! It might not look much, but it's heavenly to just sit back there in the comfort of your own room with the windows open to let the cold brisk air into to cool off your head, whilst your body soaks up the onsen-goodness. Hmmm onsen smell. I have to say that night was a late one, and a bit exhausting!.... Be warned - onsen can be a little dangerous if you over-do it. T2-chan (T-chan's best friend) has fainted at onsen through over doing it!


Speaking of onsen - here's a quick lesson if you're new to Onsen. Onsen are not a bath in the Western-sense, in that they are not for cleaning (i.e. with soap)... but are really about absorbing the salts and removing "toxins" from your body. As such, you should always clean your body before entering into the onsen baths themselves. They will have a wet area near the onsen bath where you wash yourself... normally seated... Make sure you get all the suds off! Very embarrassing! Of course, there are some older people that have long since given up on the niceties - and will forego this and just plunge in. Still considered rude.


Like many good nights of drinking and shinanigans, the morning after can be somewhat of a let-down. It's the view from the hotel room that reveals that Hakodate maintains a strange truce between development as a tourist attraction, and a more rustic rural city. It may have one of the three best night-views in the world, but the down and dirty reality is somewhat less attractive. Don't get me wrong... the panorama may not be great (ok we skimped by getting a city-view rather than a sea-view) but the stay was very nice.

Day 11 - Train Travel (Hakodate)

10th February, 2003 - One of the great presents that T-chan gave me on this trip was a side holiday to Hakodate (which is in the southern end of Hokkaido) about 4 hours (and about 8,500 yen) by train away from Sapporo. Every one ot T-chans family said that Hakodate would be much more mild, being by the sea... so we took their advice and packed for lightness rather than for the cold. We left early in the morning - a hard task, first catching a train into the city then the line to Hakodate. Looking at the schedule now, it appears to leave around 10:21am arriving just before  2pm. Not all trains in Japan are shinkansen - the train we caught was a stock standard train... hence the long travel time.

Travelling past Tomakomai... this is a fairly industrialised port city - with a large dependence on oil transport. During my stay in Japan, I didn't experience any earthquakes - but just before my second trip to Japan, later in the year, Tomakomai was made famous due to a huge oil storage fire caused by a very large earthquake (8.0 on the Richter scale - which is a VERY BIG quake).

Arriving in Noboribetsu you might be forgiven if you thought you'd suddenly stepped through a tear in the space-time continuum... and found yourself in Europe. Actually - you might find this hard to believe but this replica Dutch castle (Castle Nixe) is also a famous marine park and contains one of the largest acquariums in northern Japan. It's perhaps most famous for it's penguin parade where penguins are marched (perhaps a little unceremoniously) through the crowds. Japan has a number of these tourist attractions that seem to be from a different age...

Noboribetsu Station. Noboribetsu is a Japan-wide famous Onsen-town... and as such the stream of tourists through the small town has lead to the inevitable tourist-cringing moments. Nothing like being welcomed by a cardboard cut-out, and a moth-eaten bear. Maybe this is like some form of totem - warning off all tourists with good taste. We visit Noboribetsu in a later trip - but for now it's full steam ahead... we're half way there.

You see some strange sights on the train - for example, I had not thought to see ice-fishing in Japan (don't ask why not... it just seemed... foreign to Japan to me). Not being a fisher-person, I think this is taking the past-time to new extreme (obsesive) lengths.

The scenery on the way to Hakodate is fairly bleak - the mountains bereft of most of their cover feel like ancient bones uncovered from ground. A hard place to live.

It's an interesting way to see Hokkaido - but if you don't have a JR pass, it's pretty expensive and slow... but much quicker than driving!