Our first stop was the foreign import store in Nanae, where we found (wait for it) taco seasoning and tortillas (Bueno!). Next, we ate at our first conveyor belt sushi restaurant. You can grab anything off the line of your choosing, and more expensive dishes are labelled, otherwise everything is 110 yen. There was whale.
Into Hakodate proper, we stopped at my first recycle store, aptly named:
I don't know why I said aptly...because the store is likely to give you the opposite. It is nothing like U.S. thrift stores: clean, well organized, high-quality stuff. I suppose that's because it's more like a pawn shop than a thrift store, as they will buy your high value items from you. They had an amazing selection of laptops, musical instruments, TVs, etc.
From there, we drove to the bay area and saw the trolleys. Remind you of San Francisco? Me too.
We drove up Mt. Hakodate, which is open to traffic before 5pm and after 10pm, but closed during the winter because of its winding roads and steep inclines. Hokkaido is very much a motorcyclist paradise. There were some amazing views from the top.
More exploring, squid ink ice cream (actually quite tasty!),
and a visit to Cape Tachimachi aka "The Suicide Cliffs" from where, on less cloudy days, Aomori can be seen!
Last, but not least, I learned about a starling character from Hokkaido named, "まりもっくり" wherein Marimo is algae and mokkuri is a guy's erection. Sorry for all the sketchy content in this post, but this is Japan:
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