Day 10

Day 10 (May 16) Hakodate city:

The day was spent exploring the city. We re-visited some of the sights we saw the previous night on our cab-tour.
We took the tram in and explored the Motomachi district at the foot of mount Hakodate. We passed on the gondola ride, Karen and Hidemi are not fond of heights. The first place we visited were the 3 churches. There is a catholic, roman and greek churches within the same city block. They were all great, but we didn't go into any of them. We found a local artist who was drawing a ink drawing of the greet church. We chatted with him for awhile about the local art and gave him a pin. Very friendly man.
A short distance down the road we came across a road we were at the previous evening. It's a famous street in the city that you can look straight down the hill to the water. Yesterday evening Karen took an amazing picture at street level, so we got the same shot but in the day time. Here we met a older couple with tri-pods and cameras. They were thrilled with Karen's photo being taken from street level (she actually put the camera on the pavement for the shot) and we talked with them for a bit. Very nice couple, they got a pin too! People here are SO friendly!
A little ways down the road we got some soft icecream. I had soy-bean flavour which is almost black, and Karen for mattcha (green tea powder). The shop owner explained that they make the ice cream from their own cows. Talk about fresh!
The old city hall was the next stop. From here there were some great shots on the hall and the harbour below. I even got a couple animal statue shots for my "personal" collection.
Then we snaked our way down through the waterfront plazas to the Hakodate beer brewery. We ate lunch here, and with lunch had ox tongue, adamame (soy bean pods often served in bars with beer), potato croquettes and garlic bread. Oh... did I mention the 4 beer sample pack of their 4 popular types of beer? They were all good, my favorite was the ale, as was Mel's. Karen liked the sweet bitter and Hidemi likes the clear. There was a fruity beer that no one really liked, but we drank it anyhow... waste not want not. We ordered a big glass of our favorite beer and headed out exploring again, full and a little buzzed.
The squid statue will take a little explaining. Yesterday Mel claimed to have seen a 15 foot squid statue 5 minutes down the street from our hotel. We walked for 1/2 an hour only to find out this statue was another 1/2 hours down the road. Note: 5 minutes Mel time is actually 1 hour. So we went questing for this statue. Before we got to the squid we took a little break in a hotel lobby and the front desk guy let us use the Internet for free! What a nice guy... he got a pin.
After we got to the statue and took our pictures we hopped on the bus for a 5 minute (real time) ride to our hotel. Mel was right,it was 5 minutes... BY BUS.
Supper was great again, this time Mel had the meat selection instead of the fish. Karen and Hidemi said it was a lot better than the previous nights, mine was the same... yummy.
Now it was onsen time. Karen and Hidemi took the 1st turn while Mel and I looked after Chisa, then we went down after. It was a great experience. There are a lot of things to remember when going to one of these baths when it comes to etiquette... and we all know how kooth I am, so I was a bit worried. Mel and I luckily had it to ourselves, so Mel got to show me how to do it all properly. The bath was over looking the ocean, you could hear the waves crashing on the beach, very relaxing. The main rule is to ensure you are VERY clean before entering and never let your towel (which you use to bath with) touch the hot springs water. We soaked for a log while and returned to the room warm and "mineralized". My skin is so soft.
From our room we can see the ocean, and hear it as well with the windows open. Both nights we slept with the windows wide open with the sound of the waves lulling us to sleep. So relaxing, if I could sleep like that every night I would never be tired again.