Jenn in Japan: Cemeteries, baths and towers.

Well that is a random assortment of things for a title. But that is just the kind of random stuff I saw my first day in Hakodate. I arrived in Hakodate at around 10:30 pm so all of the street cars had stopped running. So I had no choice but to take a taxi to the hostel. Turns out that was a good thing because my hostel was at the the top of a HUGE HILL. The last thing I would have wanted to do was carry myself up that hill much less myself AND my huge bag.

Man hole cover

In the morning I had wanted to make an early start but it didn't quite happen. I eventually did get out, late morning. I was leaving at the same time as another English speaker. His name was Aaron, and he turned out to be from Australia. We just wandered around for a bit. We made it to the Old Public Hall, which is this amazingly beautiful Western style home completed in 1910.

I think it is interesting how many Western style buildings there are in Hokkaido. One could almost forget they were in Japan.

They had period costumes for you to dress up in for a fee of about $10. I opted to just take pictures of the Japanese people all dressed up. They were really pretty.

And after reading a few of their signs it seems they are quite proud of their Western buildings. We also made the trek out to the Foreigner's Cemetery.

It was a disappointment considering we couldn't even walk among the graves and look at the tombstones. That's why I visit cemeteries, so I can look at the gravestones.

It was rainy and slightly chilly, which was perfect weather for an onsen. Aaron and I parted ways and, I went back in the direction of my hostel in search of Yachigashira Onsen. On the way I also found the cheapest soft cream I have ever seen in Japan, 100yen. I had vanilla and mocha mix. I wanted to go back and get more later but it was closed when I went by. The onsen was nice and SUPER hot. I think the super hot one was 45 degrees Celsius (113 F, ouch) nobody was in it. The cooler one was still like 42 degrees (107 F). But this one was nice because the water was rust colored and filled with salt and iron.

This is a foot bath near the port with the same water as Yachigashira Onsen, so you can see what color the water was. It was great.

A nice Japanese lady started talking to me and was telling me about the water and said to taste it. I did, but only after she did. And sure enough it tasted salty. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay there too long because the water was too hot. The nice Japanese lady also told me about another onsen in the area, with slightly cooler water. I was able to make it there too, more on that one later.

Next on the itinerary was a trip to the five pointed star fort. This place was recommended by my Japanese co-worker, Yuka. Thanks, Yuka. It s a big park that used to be a fort and the cool thing about the fort was that it was shaped like a star. It was also nice to be in a big park again. There aren't a whole lot of those in Japan. I decided to fork over the 840 yen for a trip up into the tower.

Gororakyu Tower. It recieves mixed feelings from the residents. Some people think it looks like Big Brother.

They have the elevator situated in such a way that as soon as the doors open you see the star shape of the fort. Its really cool, but the best part is all the Japanese people oohing and aaahing once the doors open. I love the Japanese.

That's the view they were oohing about. It is nice.

The pretty view and me.

One of those awesome cardboard face cut out things that they love so much here. The squid is the lifeblood of this town, so they put it everywhere too.

Before all of this, while I was wondering around the park a woman on a bicycle came up from behind me and did a double take, then she stopped her bike and started talking to me. She asked me the usual questions: where are you from, what do you do, where do you live and so on. Then we got to a point where I couldn't say any more in Japanese and she didn't know a word of English, but I didn't know how to end the conversation, usually the Japanese person does it. So we just stood there smiling in awkward silence. Finally, I just excused myself and walked off. It is fun when I can have a little conversation in Japanese, unfortunately what I can say is still so limited! I really should study more.

After the tower, I just wandered around the city and looked at the pretty buildings and took pictures before heading back to the hostel and turning in early.