In which Roz and Layla venture to the north of Japan for star-shaped parks and non-humid air

by Roz

Regular readers of this blog might be thinking: “gosh, another holiday, but you’ve only just been on vacation”.  And, of course, you’d have a point.  But this holiday marks the end of the year-long slog of language learning that I’ve been doing ahead of starting my new job in August.  And once I’ve started, holidays are apparently not really on the cards once until Christmas ish (which seems a very long way away, so we’ll see!).  Anyway, we are yet again embarking on a holiday that is far from a well-worn path, involving Japan, Vancouver, Alaska and LA.  I feel that the 19^th century young men who went on their Grand Tours really weren’t imaginative enough in their combinations…

Our first stop was Hakodate.  This is a port town in Hokkaido, the north of Japan, and is known for being the first Japanese trading port for foreigners and for its comparatively pleasant temperature in the summer (as opposed to the baking humidity of Tokyo).  Following my exam on Friday, we hopped over to the airport and were shortly afterwards delivered to this very pleasant city.  As we gazed out of the taxi window we were bemused to find that in many ways it’s somewhat reminiscent of Iceland scenery or some parts of northern Europe: the houses are not at all Japanese, being low lying and far from identical.  Having dropped off our stuff in the hotel we headed out to dinner in a local brewery, with vaulted ceilings and shiny beer-making facilities.  We enjoyed not only delightful beer, but also various vegetables and the star of the evening: corn pizza (which we convinced ourselves was a Hokkaido speciality rather than a travesty).  

Next morning, after a speedy yoghurt breakfast in our room (ever classy!) we set off to explore Hakodate town.  We first headed towards the old part of town (where foreigners first came) and meandered first through some linked red brick warehouses (now home to some cheery shops and restaurants) before heading towards the original British consulate (now used as a tearoom - which I very much regretted not sampling).  We pottered around the area, musing how strange it would have been to visit Japan when it was completely closed to foreigners and almost managed to avoid noticing we were climbing up a San Francisco style hill towards a cable car.  Though the weather was far from optimal for a cable car experience, we had a plan to go to the top of the mountain and then walk down again.  This we did, and were somewhat surprised to find ourselves on what was a really excellent hiking path (notwithstanding the mist!). 

Back at the bottom of the hill / mountain, our need for lunch was pressing.  We poked our noses into a few places hopefully but without success, before finally settling on a soba restaurant, which was entirely delightful and seemingly entirely unphased by our vegetarianism.  We then hopped on a tram to the other side of the city and went to the city park, which is built around a fort and has a star-shaped moat.  We wandered around, sniggering at (but also secretly envious of) the determined folk who were lying on the grass as though the weather wasn’t as dricht (dreich – Layla) as it was.  After a stoic walk in which we endeavoured to ignore the chill, we headed to what seemed to be quite a famous cake shop for, well, cake.  (Side note: the problem with writing a holiday blog is the requirement to confess to eating far more meals than most people do.  Sigh.)  After this delightful stop (hooray for hot cakes even if I did begrudgingly let Layla have some of mine) we headed back to the hotel for a rest / watch of Netflix ahead of dinner. 

We intended to go somewhere new and exciting for dinner, and then felt flummoxed when our favourite options turned out to be booked up.  However, we booked one for dinner on Sunday (me revelling in impressing the easily impressed restauranteur by being able to write my name in Japanese) and then headed back to our beer venue for more beer and corn pizza.  We felt somewhat ashamed, but enjoyed ourselves very much, so there. 

Next morning, we were off on a little daytrip.  Near Hakodate is what’s called a “quasi national park” called Onuma.  I’m not exactly sure what a quasi national park is, but this was a very cheery experience.  As we arrived in the town (which had a sort of holiday town feel to it) locals were setting up with bands and such like at the entrance to the park.  We headed in, and then followed a number of different paths along beautiful little lakes and ponds, going past water lilies and  (oddly) Scottish thistles.  After this delight, I could hold Layla back no longer and we hired a rowing boat and went out on to the water.  This was just lovely – there was quite a large lake and few people.  I lay back and looked like the Lady of Shallot (well other than the being dead bit) whilst Layla looked moderately masterful and rowed us around.  We stopped to eat the packed lunch we’d brought with us (telling ourselves 12.01pm was definitely lunchtime) and then, after an hour on the water, reluctantly returned to shore to console ourselves with an ice cream.  There was one more path to explore, and this we did.  It was a bit more obscure, so we had it pretty much to ourselves in a very serene fashion – which was all the more of a treat because it had a superbly beautiful view. 

Before getting the train back to Hakodate we stopped off for tea and iced chocolate which was very pleasant indeed.  Once back in Hakodate we went and went back to the brick warehouse area first to put our feet in some (allegedly) magical water (a hot spring foot spa – Layla) and then (ah the shame) to hang out in the Starbucks in the red brick warehouse area so we could use their wifi to phone a friend and Layla could speak to her parents.  We then went back to our hotel, watched a little more Netflix (musing on whether the TV series we have picked – Outlanders - is just too violent for our tender sensibilities) before dinner.  Dinner was a delightful meal at the soup curry place in the warehouse buildings that I had booked the night before.  We bemoaned our vegetarianism since everyone else was able to have some exciting dish which they made themselves on a domed hotplate– but it was jolly to watch them – and our soup curry was delicious nonetheless.  And then it was back to our hotel ahead of a fairly early train to Sapporo the next day. 

And it is from that train that I type now, having just received the news that I passed my exam.  Hooray for passing exams, for the end of full-time language training and for holidays.