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| Ikuratei Restaurant (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Hali's Lunch (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Mike's Lunch (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Ikuratei is a popular seafood restaurant in Hakodate's Morning Market. Hali said that her lunch was quite good . . . certainly looks good! Mike's lunch - a bowl of miso soup - was good as well!
Of interest was the television set tuned to one of the U.S. World Series games between the Dodgers and the Yankees.
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| World Series Game (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Cranes (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Evening Clouds (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Photos taken from our room in our new - unplanned - hotel (Danshaku Club Hotel). A nice place, close to the Hakodate Train Station and the Morning Market. I was quite pleased to find that our room had views of the old-fashioned cranes at the port and Mount Hakodate in the distance.
And for the next several days my diet was very bland indeed.
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| Banana, Tea, Bread: Mike's Breakfast (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Digital Thermometer (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Was it the raw chicken served at the Osaka Food Tour? Was it the dicey hamburger served at Lucky Pierrot? Was it the seafood restaurant they ate at that night? Hard to say, but Mike was up all night with some kind of intestinal bug. Plus chills and a fever.
So the scheduled day trip to Onuma National Park just north of Hakodate had to be canceled. No photos that day either.
We were going to travel to Morioka on the 29th via shinkansen, but that had to be canceled as well due to Mike's lingering tummy problems. We ended up staying in Hakodate an extra two nights, changing hotels to do so.
Anyway, now we have a cool Japanese thermometer showing temperatures using centigrade units.
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| Northern Territories Sign (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
"Even after Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and made it clear its intent to surrender, Soviet forces continued its offensive against Japan and occupied all of the Four Northern Islands from 28 August 1945 to 5 September 1945.The Northern Territories have been under illegal occupation by the Soviet Union, and then Russia."
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
I saw this sign as I was walking back from my ocean view walk.
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| Gull (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Detail from yesterday's ocean visit. Bird was observing a lone tourist taking photos in a deserted section of town located on the coast.
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| Ocean (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
I leaned over the sea wall to take a few photos of the surf crashing onto the shore. No cranes or ships, just the ocean and the waves. After I spent some time enjoying the view I turned around and headed back to the hotel through oddly vacant streets and weather-beaten structures.
No crowds here!
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| Street near Ocean (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| House near Ocean (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Temple (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| House, Ocean (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
That morning we visited some shops that were adjacent to the harbor. While strolling around I could see some interesting cranes and ships in the distance, so I decided to take an afternoon walk down to the port for photos.
Somehow I got turned around! I wandered through a deserted temple, then down some empty streets with older weather-beaten houses. The sound of waves gradually became louder as I came upon an ocean-facing sea wall.
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| Sea Wall, Ocean (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Lucky Pierrot (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Lucky Pierrot Interior, Self-Portrait (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Fairly well-known hamburger place; we had dinner there our first night in Hakodate. Alas, can't give it a good review since the sauce they used turned the bun into a soggy mess. Of interest: the only beer they had was Budweiser in a can. (?)
We walked around a bit, then I returned for one of their soft-serve ice cream cones. That was good.
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| Lucky Pierrot Cone (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Tracks (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Tram (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Top: some evening photos of the Hakodate rail tracks for their tram service. Possibly quite extensive and convenient . . . but we never got around to using it, alas.
Below, a daytime photo of one of their colorful trams.
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| Tram (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Buildings, Ocean, Afternoon (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Buildings, Ocean, Sunrise (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Views from the balcony of our hotel. There were chairs for sitting and enjoying the view, but this was late October, so pretty chilly.
Our reservations included breakfasts! We normally don't bother with hotel breakfasts, but this was the exception. Very nice.
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| Hotel Breakfast (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Villa Concordia (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Villa Concordia Room (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Our room(s) at the Villa Concordia were undoubtedly the most spacious of our trip. Two bathrooms! Plus the nice furniture pictured above.
By the way, the original photo of the hotel exterior shown above had perspective issues due to vertical convergence. Photoshop could redo the perspective, but had to cut out the lower corners (see below). So I used Photoshop's AI tool to fill in the blanks (top image). Interesting, I guess.
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| Villa Concordia (missing corners) (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
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| Large-billed Crows (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Our friends the large-billed crows, last seen in Tokyo in 2023. Somehow not quite as scary here as they were in Tokyo.
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| Hokkaido Fields - Japan 2024 |
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| Airport Sign (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
We were intrigued by all the languages used in Hakodate Airport's signs. Russian! Wouldn't think there would be that many Russians visiting Hakodate.
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| Welcome to Hakodate - Japan 2024 |
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| Itami Airport Ad (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| J-Air Plane, Itami Airport (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
Our time in Osaka was relatively short, giving us some time to adjust to the new time zone. The plan now was to fly via Osaka's Itami Airport (domestic flights only) to Hakodate, a city located on the northern island of Hokkaido.
As the plane gained altitude it circled around, giving us a last view of Osaka.
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| Airplane View (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Waiting to Cross (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Kids (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
Top photo: she was quite anxious, because her friends were across the street. We were a little concerned that she might jump the gun, but no, she waited for the green light, then dashed over.
"Early in the morning or late afternoon, you’ll see them traveling in clusters; small, near identical boxy bags strapped tightly upon the backs of only slighter larger Japanese elementary school children. These bags are known as randoseru. Carefully crafted, incredibly durable and often rather expensive, they’ve been a staple of everyday Japanese schoolwear for over a century."
Next: taken from the hotel's shuttle bus.
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| Men Drinking (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Cycleland (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
Other Japan drinking photos: Shinjuku Night, 2008, and Tokyo Food Tour, 2017.
Cycleland was located under a train overcrossing.
Below: taken from the hotel's shuttle bus.
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| I Love Osaka (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Standing Bar, Day (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Standing Bar, Night (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
Top: as seen when we were walking around on our own. Next: as seen during our food tour.
Below: Google Translation as captured off of my computer monitor. The "bee" seen in the upper right hand corner is part of the word ビル (Biru), I.e., beer.
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| Standing Bar (Google Translate) |
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| Pachinko Parlor (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Pachinko Parlor Exterior (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
As part of our food tour we got to visit a pachinko parlor! Just a walk-through, but a first time experience for us.
The food tour wandered through various Osaka street food establishments, serving small plates along with quantities of beer. At one venue we sampled horse meat, whale meat and raw chicken: that's an adventure!
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| Food Tour Food (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Dogs, Dog Owners (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
Lots of dogs in Japan. Alas, no other animal pix taken in Osaka . . . no particular reason.
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| Tenjinbashi (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Osaka Hall Sea Series (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
"Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street in Osaka’s Kita district stretches a whopping 2.5 kilometers long. More importantly, it’s home to over 600 shops and restaurants to browse. Its mix of old and screamingly new might prove to be sensory overload at times, but it’ll give you a great insight into one of Osaka’s oldest merchant areas."
"Osaka Hall" is a pachinko parlor. This area was where our food tour was located! (The only food tour of the trip.)
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| Yodobashi Camera Halloween Display (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
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| Osaka Station Interior (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
The hotel offered a shuttle service over to Osaka Station, located amidst a quantity of department stores and other high end shops. Very confusing area! The first time we needed a 7-11 employee to help us find the Yodobashi Camera store. The second time a lady volunteered to help us find Hankyu Department store.
Google Maps wasn't helpful in this situation! The app seemed to have problems as we walked underneath train track overcrossings, and in addition there were a number of elevated walkways that Google couldn't recognize. Aside from train stations, the app seemed to work fine though.
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| Hankyu Department Store (Osaka) - Japan 2024 |
