Golden Week Part III: Hakodate

To read Part I (Tokyo) and Part II (Nikko) of our Golden Week travels in Japan, head here and here!

I don't know when I came to consider myself a Hokkaido-ner, but when our plane landed on Japan's big island to the north from Tokyo, I somehow felt like I was back "home" in familiar territory. Although this was my first visit to the port town of Hakodate (also referred to as the gateway to Hokkaido), the laid-back people, bland 1970s-era buildings, and general non-Japanesey-ness let me know that we were almost home, and that the vacation would soon be over.

But it wasn't all sad. In fact, I learned that it's kind of impossible not to have fun in a town whose official mascot is a squid:

It was nice walking along the town's Maine-esque misty port, especially while knowing that it was one of the first three ports opened up to international trade (for which we thank Matthew Perry--and I'm not talking of Friends here) after Japan's 200 years of solitude!

Hakodate is known for it's extensive (still) use of cable streetcars, and people come (especially from the large island of Honshu) just to get pictures of and rides on these blasts from the past:

One of the really cool parts of the town is the turn-of-the century Kanemori Warehouses, which have been restored into shopping boutiques, sweets shops, restaurants, and seafood stalls down on the port. The whole revitalized area really comes alive at night (which can't be said for the rest of the town, which gets all packed in and closed down at around 7:30-8pm):

And of course, if you've heard anything about Hakodate, you know that it's most renowned for it's spectacular night view (a result of the town's occupation on the length of an isthmus). The Japanese say that it's one of the top three night views in the world, but knowing their obsession with ranking the top three of everything in their country, my bet is that it's just the top in Japan. Nevertheless, it's still quite nice:

Mom and I, on the otherhand, were a little more obsessed with funny packaged fish. Here are our top three packaged fish sightings from Hakodate:

1. The "heavy-guts-n-all" air-vacumed-for-freshness fish:

2. The dehydrated edible squid bath mat:

3. And the angry, body-less fish heads (reminds me of a song I know, actually):

Our guesthouse we stayed at, complete with a nice view of the bay:

And because of the lateness of the cherry blossoms this year, we were juuuuuuust a little early to catch them all out in full bloom (about 3-4 days early, in fact). While this was fairly disappointing (Hakodate has some amazing sakura trees and areas), we did at least get to enjoy the Japanese determined to have their hanami (cherry blossom-watching picnics) come full bloom or bare branch:

Our last morning in Hakodate, we decided to stroll around and have breakfast in the colorful, crazy Morning Market:

What better way to power-up for a long bus ride than with shell-grilled hotate (scallops) and cold bottles of Hokkaido milk:

And for our five-hour busride back to Sapporo, we were delighted to step on to this three-row bus, complete with full-on lounging, a TON of leg room, and slippers at each seat! Genius. Relaxing genius.

So Sapporo is where we will end the trip, and the Golden Week blog series...hang on for some good times in the Sapps...

Golden Week Part II: Nikko

Check out Part I (Tokyo) of my mom's Golden Week visit to Japan here.

From Tokyo, Mom and I boarded a train heading north to the little mountain town of Nikko. The 3-hour ride there took us through a gorgeous (not to mention, extremely relaxing) slideshow of blooming gardens, farmsteads with pagoda-trimmed buildings, and rice paddies filling every corner of land while glistening in the sunset. It was beautiful.

Nikko, whose kanji spelling (日光) literally means "sunshine," is located at the base of the Tochigi mountains and is a popular destination for both the Japanese and foreigners. Needless to say, it is quite a contrast from the planet of Tokyo:

And the town's train station was even designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, further elevating Nikko's level of coolness in my book:

The big draw here, however, was built way before Mr. Wright had even heard about the place. Nikko's many shrines and temples (along with their awesome natural surroundings), are all on UNESCO's World Heritage list because of their history and architectural achievements. Some of them date as far back as the 8th century B.C., and although we had to fight massive Golden Week crowds to get our fill of them, they definitely didn't disappoint:

Out of all the structures within these complexes, a thick cloud of camera-snapping tourists almost always encompasses the base of this building: the stable:

And the reason for all the commotion? A tiny carving of the "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, and See No Evil" monkeys, which represent one of the tenants of Buddhism. Didn't you always wonder where those originated from?

It's pretty easy to get "templed-out" after awhile so to speak, but we throughly enjoyed the colorful buds and blooms coming out the whole time we were in Nikko. Everything from cherry blossoms to pansies, and a few unknowns in-between:

Nikko and the surrounding area are particularly known for producing high quality Yuba, the skin that forms on top of heated soymilk during tofu production. It's usually folded up into "noodles" or wrapped around other foods such as dim sum. Here, it even makes an appearance in my tasty bowl of ramen:

And speaking of food, I can't leave out the quaint little restaurant we happened upon. With only three tables and 20 years worth of traveler's memorabilia plastering the walls and ceilings, a mother and daughter serve up tasty hot noodle and tempura dishes. We even left our own "business card" and had a picture with the owners after chatting a bit. Definitely recommended if you make your way to Nikko with an empty stomach:

While in the area, we used one of our days to take a bus into the mountains and over to the town Chuzenji, which is located on the banks of a caldera lake of the same name:

The hot springs town is most famous for waterfalls (namely the famous Kegon Waterfall) and monkeys. We took in the waterfall, but the only monkey we saw was this one:

After another relaxing train trip back into Tokyo (followed by some not-so-relaxing scurrying through the subway with all of our luggage to the airport), we caught a plane up to our island of Hokkaido, and began in its gateway town of Hakodate, which will make-up Part III of our trip...