Hakodate!
Top Ten Coolest Things about Hakodate
10. I Snaffle, Therefore I Am - I saw a sign saying right as I was getting off the train platform in Hakodate. It looked like mini cheesecakes. But usually things look like something and then taste like something completely different. On Wednesday I went into Snaffle's (a fancy pastry place) and bought a white and a brown Snaffle (about $1 each). I was sent upstairs to the dining area while they `prepared` them (which I think just meant putting them on a plate) and then about 3 minutes later they sat in front of me. And get this, they actually were mini cheesecakes! Really really good. I knew there was a Snaffle stand at the station so I didn't stop in again. But when I got to the station they were only selling them in boxes of six, no individual ones! The lady (who spoke no English) worked hard to convince me that finishing them all wouldn't be a problem. It worked and I bought the box. I had bought a bag of clementines at the morning market so I felt like they balanced each other out.
9. Art Show - There was some sort of art show/design contest thing going on at the train station. It was really cool. There was one area just for fancy design stuff for the city of Hakodate, one area of scrapbooking, and then a room with pictures by little kids with their designs either prettied up and printed on a t-shirt or made into a 3 dimentional object. It was really cool.
8. International - Hakodate actually cares about tourists!!! The guidebook said be prepared for less English but wow, people actually spoke English, or at least wanted to try! Also the tourist info center was super helpful and there was a lot of English around. And not just English, but Russian too! I saw 2 Russian couples.
7. It's Kind of Like Madison - First, the city is a peninsula, but, from the mountain, looks like an isthmus. Second, they're all about their dairy. Third, there was some crazy protest today. I didn't want to take pictures cause I was afraid someone might kill me but what I could get out of two girls I tried talking to was that it had to do with Russia. And I'm thinking anti-Russia because they had Japanese flags around their arms. It was a guy standing on top of a bus with a microphone screaming stuff. With about 10 people on the ground agreeing and then 20 police ready with big white board things.
6. Higuma (is the most fierce wild animal in Hokkaido) - There is stuff about this bear all over. He's kind of like Smokey I think. He tells you things like, `WARNING YOU MUST NOT BURN MY BED JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT EXCITED! Be careful that you, fire don't happen, and smoke a cigarette! You lose an important thing if it doesn't do so.Be careful enough specially not to cause a forest fire and so on. And, your health is likely to be injured. You reach death when much nicotine is taken. You keep manners, and smoke a cigarette. A message from the EZO BROWN BEAR.` If it doesn't say that, it says this.
5. Mt. Hakodate - Wow. If Madison (was bigger and) had a small mountain that you take a gondola to the top of, it would probably look similar. Here is a professional picture and I took two also. One from outside and one from inside with refelctions of other tourists. I was the only non-Japanese person the whole time. I think only Japanese people check out Japan in the winter.
4. Morning Market - I wish I liked seafood! Wow. So impressive. It actually didn't even smell that bad. So huge live sea creatures all over the place. There were crabs (alive and moving) on scales, more squid than I'll ever see again and lots of smiling happy people selling it all. I asked one guy if I could take a picture and he shook his head no and took my camera. Another guy brought over a live, moving crab and said, `Hold this and smile` and the first guy took a picture. Wow. Ok. Then he said, `Do you like seafood?` and I told him I was really sorry but I didn't. First guy was wearing a Seattle Mariners jacket so I told him I liked the Mariners. That was a lie, but less likely to result in be spending money on seafood. Oh he also asked if I was from America (I heard `(blah blah blah)... America (more sounds, voice going up)` and I nodded yes and then he said, `Doko` which means where and I knew that and I said New York and he nodded. That was the first time I responded to a question in Japanese!!!! The morning market also had stands for vegetables, fruits and watches.
3. Streetcars - I love transportation systems of new cities, especially if they involve streetcars. I got a one day pass for around $6 and it's actually a system used by people other than tourists. One thing I thought was strange was that there are only two lines, the Number 2 and the Number 5. I guess 1,3 and 4 didn't make the cut. The cost (for those not cool enough to be in possession of a one-day pass) was between 2oo and 260 yen per ride. There was a huge sign that had the price per stop according to where you got on. I thought that was really cool.
2. Lucky Pierrot - It's a fast food chain only in Hakodate. I had read about in Lonely Planet buy couldn't find one until walking back to the Niceday Inn from Mt. Hakodate. There were a lot of lights on an otherwise dark street so I went to look. The outside sign said `Hamburgers and Curry Santa Claus has come to Hakodate!` What? Yeah. And then it said it again and then I realized there were like 30 lit up Santas on the front of the building. I went inside and they were playing a Christmas CD and everywhere you looked there were Santas and other Christmasy things. Woah. First I thought maybe they were just getting ready for the holidays but then I realized it was way too serious to just be temporary. I ordered ice cream (duh) and went upstairs. There were glass cases of Santas in every direction. Woah. I stayed there for a while thinking about the planning that went into it. I only got to see one other Lucky Pierrot before I left. I wash hoping it would have another crazy theme but it was just kind of black and white. I got a burger, which was fine, but the exciting part was the bun. The sesame seeds on it were real sesame seeds. I was surprised everytime I would find one in my mouth (which happened a lot thanks to the wisdom teeth holes) and it would really taste like sesame. I got into sesame at the hippie house. That may have been the only flavoring they used. Another weird thing about Lucky Pierrot- Lonely Planet said something like, `frequented by young ladies` which I thought sounded silly, but the two times I went the only other people were groups of `young ladies` and older ladies who now had kids but looked like they were trying to remember when they were young ladies. I bought a pair of Lucky Pierrot chopsticks and learned the word for chopsticks is hasu, maybe.
1. The squid dance - They're really into squid and every year in the summer they have a big festival where around 10,000 people come out to, um, dance like squid. It makes me want to come back in the summer.
Other cool things.
- No McDonalds! This was the first place where I didn't see 5 McDonalds in my first step off of the train. Then getting back on the train today I realized I hadn't seen one in the whole three days! There was a KFC and I did eat there Wednesday morning after a really bad night of trying to avoid the KFC (and therefore spending way too much money for way too little food).
- Cheap! Internet was 400 yen/hour and it came with either coffee, iced coffe, tea or juice.
- People were nice and tried to speak English to me!
- Even after the markets were over there were still tanks of sea things in the streets all day long.
- One of the fancy hotels had `The Main Building` and `The Other Building,` and the post office had three post offices named after the neighborhood they were in, plus a fourth called `The Other Post Office.`
- Niceday Inn. This really cute `inn` I guess with three rooms, each with a bunk bed in it. So total capacity: 6, capacity when I was there: 1. Just me and the owner lady. She's super nice, super helpful and speaks English kind of. She speaks well but really fast and with a very thick accent so at first I didn't realize she was speaking English. She has postcards from people who had stayed there in the past. One from University of Maryland!
- Tuesday night I walked by boys breakdancing and from where I ate dinner I could see some kids skateboarding. I hadn't seen either of those things while in Tokyo (or Ohara).
- Tons of used clothing stores. A surprising number of them were closed on Thursdays, so I did't get to go inside. I went to one place and tried a lot of stuff on but it was all too small. I'm monster-sized Japan. I ended up buying a shirt. Ooops.
-Live music (kinda)! I saw my first show flyer of Japan. Also, Hakodate Beer (a brewpub I guess) promises Live Music Every Night! So I checked it out and it was a young girl in a dress playing classical music on a grand piano. So not the cheesy Japanese bar band I was hoping for, but that's ok. They also had speakers in the streets that sometimes had cool music. And one suvenior store I went into was playing an Old 97's album. And I only heard Nickelback once I think.
- Community Radio - Hakodate is home to the first community radio station. I tried to check it out but I think I had bad timing. It seemed to be empty.
-I ordered and ate ramen for the first time after a conversation with Errol...
Me: When I get to Niigata, we should go to a ramen shop.
Errol: Sure, we can do that, but you can just go in, sit down and say `ramen` and you'll get it.
Me: Are you sure it won't come with like squid or fish eggs or anything? There are pictures of smiling crabs and squid all over this town.
Errol: At most it might have pork and vegetables. No weird seafood though. I promise.
Me: Ok, cool, I think I'll try it.
(an hour later)
Errol: Beth, did you eat ramen yet?
Me: No, why?
Errol: I was just reading online about Hakodate and it says, `Hakodate is famous for their ramen, which instead of traditional pork and vegetables, often features squid.`
Right. I decided to go to the restaurant in the train station and not a straight up ramen place. I saw something I recognized (gyoza) so I ordered that really fast (I was really hungry). Then realized I promised myself I would do the ramen thing and there was a girl assigned to me that spoke English so I asked if they had ramen and she said yes and I ordered a bowl of miso ramen. It was in the biggest bowl I've ever seen served to one person. It was everything I had dreamed of (no squid). But I was already mostly full from the gyoza and the Snaffle so I couldn't even eat that much of it. Another fun thing about Japan is that you're supposed to slurp your soup. Apparently, it helps bring out the taste. I wonder how it was decided that slurping would be no good in the West? Tonight when I got into Tokyo I went to a diner type place that I had come to with Lindsay and Sarah and ordered ramen again. It was topped with breaded pork this time. Still good.
So I'm in an internet cafe again. I'm going to go to sleep now for a couple of hours. Tomorrow morning I'll go to Niigata and hang out with Errol! Yay!!!
Here are my Hakodate pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1387631/
10. I Snaffle, Therefore I Am - I saw a sign saying right as I was getting off the train platform in Hakodate. It looked like mini cheesecakes. But usually things look like something and then taste like something completely different. On Wednesday I went into Snaffle's (a fancy pastry place) and bought a white and a brown Snaffle (about $1 each). I was sent upstairs to the dining area while they `prepared` them (which I think just meant putting them on a plate) and then about 3 minutes later they sat in front of me. And get this, they actually were mini cheesecakes! Really really good. I knew there was a Snaffle stand at the station so I didn't stop in again. But when I got to the station they were only selling them in boxes of six, no individual ones! The lady (who spoke no English) worked hard to convince me that finishing them all wouldn't be a problem. It worked and I bought the box. I had bought a bag of clementines at the morning market so I felt like they balanced each other out.
9. Art Show - There was some sort of art show/design contest thing going on at the train station. It was really cool. There was one area just for fancy design stuff for the city of Hakodate, one area of scrapbooking, and then a room with pictures by little kids with their designs either prettied up and printed on a t-shirt or made into a 3 dimentional object. It was really cool.
8. International - Hakodate actually cares about tourists!!! The guidebook said be prepared for less English but wow, people actually spoke English, or at least wanted to try! Also the tourist info center was super helpful and there was a lot of English around. And not just English, but Russian too! I saw 2 Russian couples.
7. It's Kind of Like Madison - First, the city is a peninsula, but, from the mountain, looks like an isthmus. Second, they're all about their dairy. Third, there was some crazy protest today. I didn't want to take pictures cause I was afraid someone might kill me but what I could get out of two girls I tried talking to was that it had to do with Russia. And I'm thinking anti-Russia because they had Japanese flags around their arms. It was a guy standing on top of a bus with a microphone screaming stuff. With about 10 people on the ground agreeing and then 20 police ready with big white board things.
6. Higuma (is the most fierce wild animal in Hokkaido) - There is stuff about this bear all over. He's kind of like Smokey I think. He tells you things like, `WARNING YOU MUST NOT BURN MY BED JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT EXCITED! Be careful that you, fire don't happen, and smoke a cigarette! You lose an important thing if it doesn't do so.Be careful enough specially not to cause a forest fire and so on. And, your health is likely to be injured. You reach death when much nicotine is taken. You keep manners, and smoke a cigarette. A message from the EZO BROWN BEAR.` If it doesn't say that, it says this.
5. Mt. Hakodate - Wow. If Madison (was bigger and) had a small mountain that you take a gondola to the top of, it would probably look similar. Here is a professional picture and I took two also. One from outside and one from inside with refelctions of other tourists. I was the only non-Japanese person the whole time. I think only Japanese people check out Japan in the winter.
4. Morning Market - I wish I liked seafood! Wow. So impressive. It actually didn't even smell that bad. So huge live sea creatures all over the place. There were crabs (alive and moving) on scales, more squid than I'll ever see again and lots of smiling happy people selling it all. I asked one guy if I could take a picture and he shook his head no and took my camera. Another guy brought over a live, moving crab and said, `Hold this and smile` and the first guy took a picture. Wow. Ok. Then he said, `Do you like seafood?` and I told him I was really sorry but I didn't. First guy was wearing a Seattle Mariners jacket so I told him I liked the Mariners. That was a lie, but less likely to result in be spending money on seafood. Oh he also asked if I was from America (I heard `(blah blah blah)... America (more sounds, voice going up)` and I nodded yes and then he said, `Doko` which means where and I knew that and I said New York and he nodded. That was the first time I responded to a question in Japanese!!!! The morning market also had stands for vegetables, fruits and watches.
3. Streetcars - I love transportation systems of new cities, especially if they involve streetcars. I got a one day pass for around $6 and it's actually a system used by people other than tourists. One thing I thought was strange was that there are only two lines, the Number 2 and the Number 5. I guess 1,3 and 4 didn't make the cut. The cost (for those not cool enough to be in possession of a one-day pass) was between 2oo and 260 yen per ride. There was a huge sign that had the price per stop according to where you got on. I thought that was really cool.
2. Lucky Pierrot - It's a fast food chain only in Hakodate. I had read about in Lonely Planet buy couldn't find one until walking back to the Niceday Inn from Mt. Hakodate. There were a lot of lights on an otherwise dark street so I went to look. The outside sign said `Hamburgers and Curry Santa Claus has come to Hakodate!` What? Yeah. And then it said it again and then I realized there were like 30 lit up Santas on the front of the building. I went inside and they were playing a Christmas CD and everywhere you looked there were Santas and other Christmasy things. Woah. First I thought maybe they were just getting ready for the holidays but then I realized it was way too serious to just be temporary. I ordered ice cream (duh) and went upstairs. There were glass cases of Santas in every direction. Woah. I stayed there for a while thinking about the planning that went into it. I only got to see one other Lucky Pierrot before I left. I wash hoping it would have another crazy theme but it was just kind of black and white. I got a burger, which was fine, but the exciting part was the bun. The sesame seeds on it were real sesame seeds. I was surprised everytime I would find one in my mouth (which happened a lot thanks to the wisdom teeth holes) and it would really taste like sesame. I got into sesame at the hippie house. That may have been the only flavoring they used. Another weird thing about Lucky Pierrot- Lonely Planet said something like, `frequented by young ladies` which I thought sounded silly, but the two times I went the only other people were groups of `young ladies` and older ladies who now had kids but looked like they were trying to remember when they were young ladies. I bought a pair of Lucky Pierrot chopsticks and learned the word for chopsticks is hasu, maybe.
1. The squid dance - They're really into squid and every year in the summer they have a big festival where around 10,000 people come out to, um, dance like squid. It makes me want to come back in the summer.
Other cool things.
- No McDonalds! This was the first place where I didn't see 5 McDonalds in my first step off of the train. Then getting back on the train today I realized I hadn't seen one in the whole three days! There was a KFC and I did eat there Wednesday morning after a really bad night of trying to avoid the KFC (and therefore spending way too much money for way too little food).
- Cheap! Internet was 400 yen/hour and it came with either coffee, iced coffe, tea or juice.
- People were nice and tried to speak English to me!
- Even after the markets were over there were still tanks of sea things in the streets all day long.
- One of the fancy hotels had `The Main Building` and `The Other Building,` and the post office had three post offices named after the neighborhood they were in, plus a fourth called `The Other Post Office.`
- Niceday Inn. This really cute `inn` I guess with three rooms, each with a bunk bed in it. So total capacity: 6, capacity when I was there: 1. Just me and the owner lady. She's super nice, super helpful and speaks English kind of. She speaks well but really fast and with a very thick accent so at first I didn't realize she was speaking English. She has postcards from people who had stayed there in the past. One from University of Maryland!
- Tuesday night I walked by boys breakdancing and from where I ate dinner I could see some kids skateboarding. I hadn't seen either of those things while in Tokyo (or Ohara).
- Tons of used clothing stores. A surprising number of them were closed on Thursdays, so I did't get to go inside. I went to one place and tried a lot of stuff on but it was all too small. I'm monster-sized Japan. I ended up buying a shirt. Ooops.
-Live music (kinda)! I saw my first show flyer of Japan. Also, Hakodate Beer (a brewpub I guess) promises Live Music Every Night! So I checked it out and it was a young girl in a dress playing classical music on a grand piano. So not the cheesy Japanese bar band I was hoping for, but that's ok. They also had speakers in the streets that sometimes had cool music. And one suvenior store I went into was playing an Old 97's album. And I only heard Nickelback once I think.
- Community Radio - Hakodate is home to the first community radio station. I tried to check it out but I think I had bad timing. It seemed to be empty.
-I ordered and ate ramen for the first time after a conversation with Errol...
Me: When I get to Niigata, we should go to a ramen shop.
Errol: Sure, we can do that, but you can just go in, sit down and say `ramen` and you'll get it.
Me: Are you sure it won't come with like squid or fish eggs or anything? There are pictures of smiling crabs and squid all over this town.
Errol: At most it might have pork and vegetables. No weird seafood though. I promise.
Me: Ok, cool, I think I'll try it.
(an hour later)
Errol: Beth, did you eat ramen yet?
Me: No, why?
Errol: I was just reading online about Hakodate and it says, `Hakodate is famous for their ramen, which instead of traditional pork and vegetables, often features squid.`
Right. I decided to go to the restaurant in the train station and not a straight up ramen place. I saw something I recognized (gyoza) so I ordered that really fast (I was really hungry). Then realized I promised myself I would do the ramen thing and there was a girl assigned to me that spoke English so I asked if they had ramen and she said yes and I ordered a bowl of miso ramen. It was in the biggest bowl I've ever seen served to one person. It was everything I had dreamed of (no squid). But I was already mostly full from the gyoza and the Snaffle so I couldn't even eat that much of it. Another fun thing about Japan is that you're supposed to slurp your soup. Apparently, it helps bring out the taste. I wonder how it was decided that slurping would be no good in the West? Tonight when I got into Tokyo I went to a diner type place that I had come to with Lindsay and Sarah and ordered ramen again. It was topped with breaded pork this time. Still good.
So I'm in an internet cafe again. I'm going to go to sleep now for a couple of hours. Tomorrow morning I'll go to Niigata and hang out with Errol! Yay!!!
Here are my Hakodate pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1387631/
posted by beth at 4:57 AM
4 Comments:
what an exciting, wonderful place you found! (I guess that goes without saying if it reminds you of Madison)
favorite picture: you, the man and the VERY BIG crab.
Hay Beth,
Loved reading about Hakodate. Glad you found Madison's sister city.
I looked at all the pictures. That bowl of Ramon looked like it could feed your whole family!Your trip is really educational for me. I look up each place you mention, and try to learn more about it.
Looking forward to the next episode.
Love,
Barbara
YAY Hakodate!
Very good. Now to look at the photos. I met 300 Brookside kids today and saw Ms. Sipos. Good days for everyone.
Hi Beth - Nice to have you back on line, esp. with the old stuff recovered. You do this blog thing really well - interesting, fun and very much in your own voice.
The Seattle Mariners was not random. The team is owned by a Japanese company - maybe Sony- and it's star is Ichiro Suzuki, probably one of baseball's 10 best players. Big hero where you are.
Keep writing.
Love you. DAD
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