We offered to fetch them around with us to visit places at Hakodate. Our first stop - Hakodate morning market.
On the way there we saw an elderly man picking up rubbish from the road! Talk about civic consciousness. The Japanese people have such great respect for their property and facilities.
Morning market at Hakodate
Parking was inexpensive and we found a parking near the market. We browsed around the stalls and took photos with the gigantic snow crabs. The meat appear to be in legs.
Spoiled for choice we decided on the food court at the morning market. I was so intrigued by the green tea latte and decided to try it. It turned out to be best I have ever drank. P told us that any drinks or ice-cream made with Hakkoido fresh milk is simply delicious. I had to test it out. It was delicious.
There were also lots of samplings at the market although some of stuff appear to be raw and gooey and definitely not something I will buy to bring home.
G and P were so grateful to us for taking them around that they paid our drinks and also treated us to lunch at Lucky Pierrot, a popular fast food franchise in Japan (at the Red Bricks Warehouse area) - a shopping area at downtown Hakodate.
Goryokaku cherry blossoms park
Next stop we decided to visit the famous Michimoto Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church. Known for their beauty, it was a photo-stop worth the visit. On top the garden of the Greek Orthodox Church, we could see the amazing view of Hakodate and also the Pacific ocean coastline.
Next the beautiful cherry blossoms park near the Goryokaku Tower was so beautiful that we could only look at them and sigh in wonder. Truly one of God's beautiful creation. The cherry blossoms were delicately beautiful just like our life.
We are as fragile as the cherry blossoms yet we should bloom like them in our time and season. They top almost everything we had ever seen. The cherry blossoms trees grow for only a week in Hakodate and then die off the next week. In Hakodate, they bloom in the first week of May. In different parts of Japan they bloom at different times. This was what I had come to see - the sakuras!
The whole park was a canopy of cherry blossoms trees. They seem to go on forever and ever. There was a also a lovely canal for people to go boating. Photo opportunities posing with the trees were irresistible. The flowers were in full bloom. Many Japanese picnicked under the trees with rented stove and food.
It was simply beautiful. The park was to be the best cherry blossom park we have ever seen (although I have not seen such a sight until now). We were later to see more cherry blossoms in Sapporo but not on the scale that we saw at Goryakako. We even saw a couple taking their wedding photos at the park.
Red Brick Warehouse
A told us that the Warehouse was a must see in Hakodate. We decided to make it the next stop. We chose to have lunch at a burger joint called Lucky Pierrot.
We were later to see many such joints in Hakodate some very near one another. The burger, curry rice and drinks were scrumptious and healthy to eat but portions were really big. Indeed they meant to be shared as the Japanese waitress told us.
The Warehouses consists of small stalls selling traditional Japanese stuff such as as boots, clothes, bags, clothes, scarfs and little knick-knacks.
At one of the stall, we decided to try the rose ice-cream delicately sharped like a rose. Beautiful to look at and even more tasty to eat.
It was here that we parted with G and P as we had to make the long journey to Kutchan, Niseko a popular resort near snow capped mountains.
For dinner, we stopped at Siecomart to buy prepacked food such as ramen, rice, friend chicken to eat at the lodge.
It was a long journey and we only reached at night. We had to use google map before we found the place in Kutchan. The host was a friendly Australian guy (Rhys) who came to Japan and loved it so much that he stayed on operating the lodge.
He was very friendly and on his recommendation we made a trip to the local onsen for a hot spring bath. T had to join the men in the men's onsen but he chose to dip indoors.
A and I were the only ladies in the onsen. We felt shy to strip down to nothing so A went to the outdoor onsen and I stayed at the indoor onsen. At the onsen, we also took advantage of the free massage (massage chair) that was simply awesome. All our body aches fell away!
Rhys place turned out to be a lodge with many foreign guests such as Australians, Americans, a British guy from Manchester who made his own sushi for dinner (ate it with wasabi too) and also Japanese. This was really like a hostel for young people and most of the guests were around A's age range (20s). Some have lodged (Kara) more than 2 weeks. A had a great time chit chatting with them. She was having the time of her life!
The key highlights in Kutchan are the skiing, snowboarding, gondola riding, ropeway or cable cars. Although it was spring, snow was still on the mountain. Yoichi-yama (yama meaning mountain) loomed majestically in the landscape. I heard that the snow was soft like shaved ice making it difficult to walk. The only time I had played with snow was in Switzerland but the snow was very hard and slippery. Here A told me that the snow was very soft and if you do not slide down the snow, you will find it extremely difficult to walk.
I decided to stay in the warmth of the lodge as I felt that I was not properly attired. No boots, gloves, beanies or warm clothes. Spent the whole morning reading the Bible and praying!
They came back in the afternoon and we then checked out of the lodge to our next stop Otaru.
End of day 2.
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