Day 28 & 29 - A great location and moving day to Sapporo

Day 28: September 18, 2023

Hello everyone,

Today is our last day in Hakodate and so we wanted to tick off a few more items from our list.

There is a great park 200 meters from our Air Bnb that we wanted to check out before picking up our seat tickets in Hakodate at the train station. We also wanted to look at a nice street and wander around a bit.

When we got to the park we were in such a good mood. Just to briefly describe the atmosphere: we stood on a small viewing platform in a pavilion surrounded by trees and bushes, but with a good view of the sea and the coast. It was 27 degrees, the wind was blowing and the sun was shining. Down in the park, children were playing in a fountain and crickets were chirping somewhere. It was just beautiful and quiet.

“I would move here” we kept thinking to ourselves. It was just so peaceful.

After enjoying the view, we wanted to move on. But I (Jule) had to go to the toilet first. I was lucky that there was a toilet 100m away. Unfortunately, it was just a kind of hole in the ground. I was really hoping to avoid that, but whatever...

As we walked further we discovered animal enclosures where some animals were inside. But we were just very sorry for everything and had to move on quickly because the lonely tanuki in particular made us sad.

We walked over a bridge into a meadow where there was a large pond with koi fish and turtles. We liked that more! We were particularly impressed by the turtles. They were so cute!!

After we were in the park for about 1 1/2 hours, we took the train into the city to the train station, where we wanted to pick up our tickets. I pre-ordered it yesterday and all I had to do was receive it somewhere by 9 p.m. (online reservations are of course not possible in one of the most progressive countries!)

After brief complications, an employee saw our confusion and helped us. Picking up went smoothly.

Next we should continue to the beautiful street. This was a 25 minute walk away and now watch out, Moritz really said that we could walk it! Maurice? Run? I also had to confirm three times that I had understood it correctly.

The path was nice, we got an ice cream and walked along the sea.

The road we wanted to see was of course on a hill and so we made our way up the hill. When we got to the top we saw that it looked really beautiful! From above you could see down the street to the water.

A little further up there was a small Shintō shrine, which of course we had to take with us. There we left our 1 and 5 yen pieces with a prayer and looked around. It was very pretty and calming here again!

We spent the next bit of time strolling along the street. The houses here looked completely different than the normal Japanese ones. Some were painted in pastel colors and constructed of wooden floorboards.

As we walked one street further was the tourist photo spot for this pretty street. A woman was sitting cross-legged on the street and someone was supposed to take a picture of her. With that she stopped everyone, really EVERYONE. 20 people stood on the sidewalks left and right and a car had to wait until she was finished. It was very uncomfortable to watch...

There were also a lot of Orthodox churches in the area, which was a bit bizarre. We also visited one for our cultural section.

We then continued down the road again, which was perhaps even more strenuous than going up.

When I got to the bottom I really wanted coffee and we happened to end up in a great pancake café. Here in Japan there is a special type of pancake that is very thick and fluffy. They were really very tasty! Only the butter on it was a bit too much. Somehow you only ever get things like butter, maple syrup, red bean paste or other things here, when all we really wanted was Nutella... but it was still delicious! Moritz had another matcha drink and I had a coffee shake.

Moritz started to have muscle tremors from the caffeine and the air conditioning. That's why we'll be out of there soon.

Since it was already 4 p.m. and it was slowly starting to drizzle, we drove back before dinner.

We decided to actually find a restaurant for our evening meal today! We couldn't have endured another sad convenience store meal...

At around 7 p.m. we drove back into town and found something after 15 minutes: a small local restaurant run by an old couple. We ordered fish ramen and two beers. It was delicious and we were happy to have real dinner.

We didn't do much else because we have to get up at 7 a.m. tomorrow because tomorrow is moving day again.

Day 29: August 19, 2023

On the 29th day of our Japan tour there was once again a parade. The destination of this trip is Sapporo, the largest city on the northern peninsula of Hokkaido. Since we still hadn't packed, we had to get up a little earlier to catch up. We also had to eat breakfast. When the alarm clock rang, the whole world was once again questioned and we had to drag ourselves out of bed. After we finally managed this, we started packing and then had breakfast. After a short rest, we continued. So once again we had to get on the tram that was far too small, with luggage that was far too big. The looks practically pierced us. Well, luckily it started to rain when we had to get out. It's safe to say it's been a bit of a rocky start. But it can always get worse and the mood remained good. At the train station we were able to find our train quite quickly and we were soon off and running.

The journey passed quite uneventfully and after about 4 1/2 hours we arrived in Sapporo. One thing is perhaps worth mentioning and that is that due to our late reservations we were once again not sitting right next to each other as the aisle separated us. Nevertheless, the seat next to Jule remained free throughout the entire journey. If only we had known that beforehand. Nevertheless, we survived. In Sapporo we only had to travel two subway stations to our hostel, which was also directly at the destination station. The hostel is very nice and rustic, only one thing bothers us, there is no elevator. Since we had a room on the fifth floor, that meant we had to carry our luggage up the narrow stairs. That was an act, I (Moritz) tell you. But we did that too. Unfortunately, there was no time left to catch my breath because I had to quickly go to an information event about my master's degree. It also went on for quite a long time and after 2 1/2 (at halftime!!!) I left because there was another way to get the rest out and the mass of information confused me rather than helped. In the meantime, Jule explored the area a little.

When I was finally done with the meeting and got my nerves, we looked for something to eat. We wanted to go to an Indian restaurant nearby to see if they had something for Jule. Since I had already forgotten about looking, I just stormed into the restaurant without looking first. Since we didn't want to just get up while sitting at the table, that had to be it. There was nothing vegetarian on the menu, but since the owner of course spoke English, it wasn't a problem to sort it out so that Jule could eat something too. The food was very good, probably the best Indian food I've ever had. There was also a mango lassi, which was also excellent. The owner was also so friendly that you felt like giving a tip. Well satiated, we got a beer and explored Sapporo. We soon went back to the hostel and ended the day relaxing before going to bed. Thanks as always for reading and best regards from both of us.