Lake Toya, Hokkaido Trip (Day 9)

19th May 2019, Sunday

Sunday Flea Market

Today we were leaving Hakodate and going to the next destination, Lake Toya. We woke up early and packed our bags. My friend also cooked some of the sausages we bought yesterday as our breakfast. After we were done with everything, we checked out from the hotel. However, we loaded our luggage onto the car and walked back to Lucky Pierrot and Misuzu Coffee cafe to have our last meal in Hakodate. This time, we walked past a Sunday flea market where there were people selling off their own stuffs for a cheap price. I bought a Mickey Mouse towel from one of the stalls for 50 yen and it looked new. Also, it was made in Japan.

Lucky Pierrot Clown

Curry Rice

 After that, we continued walking to Lucky Pierrot place but it was not opened for business yet. There was already a short queue outside the entrance, so we just queued and waited for the store to open. Everyone looked so excited when the store opened. After some while, there was a elderly couple came in the store and the elderly man kept thanking everyone in the queue. Then we saw them walked into the store and the elderly lady walked into the counter and to the kitchen. It looked like she was giving her thanks to the staffs for their hard work. When the couple left the shop, they still gave their thanks to us and the people queuing. When it was our turn to order, we ordered their chinese chicken curry rice and the chinese chicken burger. The curry rice was yummy too.

Misuzu Coffee

Musical Concert @ Yakumo

After the breakfast, we walked to Misuzu Coffee cafe to get their coffee and cake to go. After buying, we walked back to the hotel to collect the car. Then we drove further in front to have the petrol pumped. It was my first time to pump petrol, so we were trying to figure what we suppose to do....hahaa..it was a self-serviced petrol station. It appeared the petrol was pumped into the car based on the options you chose on the machine. So we tried with one of the options first to test and then continued to pump slightly more. After that, my friend took the receipts and went to the office to make the payment. It wasn't full after the pumping but we guessed it should be enough for the next few days. Once done, we drove out on the road to Lake Toya. We even stopped by the same stop and ended up buying small packets of uncooked rice and some snacks before we continued on the road. There was even a music concert held there and there were more people compared to the previous time we came.

Beds in living room

Mini Jacuzzi tub

It took us around 3 hours to reach Toya area and we were surprised to find the hotel which we were staying was soooo far away from the town centre. Nevertheless, we managed to find the hotel with not much problem. The only problem i had was i was not able to park the car into the hotel's parking lot in the reserve way. Even i tried to drive in the car in, i ended up scratching the car on the left side (quite bad scratch though but we didn't really thought of reporting it to the car rental company as it wasn't really a serious accident. That was where i was wrong when i returned the car on the last day). In the end, i had to give up and parked the car in the open on the side. After that, we unloaded our luggage and went into the hotel for check-in. We were brought to our room by the hotel staff. Once we entered our room, we were blown away by the view from the glass window. We could see the whole view of Lake Toya and the town centre behind it. The next best thing was the room had a mini Jacuzzi tub. The toilet itself was as big as a room size. There were so much space in the living room and toilet.

Lake Toya giant photo frame

Foot-bath

Corn Soup

Hamburger steak

Pork Cutlet with Rice

We rested for some time before we drove out to the town center. We tried to navigate to the town information building in the town center on the car's gps and we drove to the place. Luckily there was available parking lots there where we could park our car. Then we walked down to the lake to explore. There were ducks boat where you can rent out into the lake but it was late and was closed for the day. We also found a foot-bath while walking the lake, so we decided to go and had a nice foot bath. We had our foot soaked for about 20 mins and decided to look for a nice dinning place. We decided to have our dinner at Boyotei, a western style restaurant where they were famous for their hamburger steak. The place was very cosy and we had a table further inside. We ordered their famous hamburger steak and pork cutlet rice set. The pork cutlet rice set came with a corn soup an and a drink. The pork cutlet was very tender and the rice was nice. My friend had the steak and it was yummy too.

Cruise ship

Our cruise boarding tickets

Interior of the ship

Night view from the lake

After the nice dinner, we walked back to the lake and booked a cruise ride where we can see the fireworks from the sea. We waited for the cruise to dock and headed out at the specified time. We bought the tickets for 8pm cruise. The cruise boat was very huge and looked very wonderland. It looked some time before we headed out deep in the lake and waited for the fireworks to start. There were two speedboats speeding left and right the lake and the fireworks were lighted. The fireworks performance lasted about 20 mins and it was lighted from right to left. It was quite nice but the sound of the fireworks was very loud as it exploded in front of us. Anyway, this was one item we won't want to miss as the fireworks performance was only available during summer period. When the show ended, we were brought to the pier and we walked with fast pace to the car as it was super cold. After that, we drove back to the hotel slowly as the road was quite dim. But we reached the hotel safe and sound where we had our turns in the jacuzzi tub....hohoho...

Did i also mention we noticed the rental car's gps always say we had reached near our destination instead of saying we had reached our destination most of the times when we navigated to the different places (kind of weird)? Hahaaa....

Places visited:
Lucky Pierrot
Misuzu Coffee Daimon Branch
Yakumo
Boyotei (Address: 049-5721 Hokkaido, Abuta District, Toyako, Toyako Onsen 36-12)
Toya Lake Line Cruise

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Cocoa

Hakodate, Hokkaido Trip (Day 8)

18th May 2019, Saturday

Toast with hot chocolate

Coffee cake

Live Squid

Grilled Scallop

Today, we just planned to have a relax day in the city since we had not been driving even since we reached Hakodate. So we got ready and walked back to Misuzu Coffee cafe for our breakfast. This time, we ordered toast and a coffee cake. We even bought more coffee powder to bring home. After that, we walked to Hakodate Morning Market. This time, we decided to have a try to fish the squid. So we queued for our turn and i tried to fish a squid. It feel weird to try to fish out the squid as you can feel the pressure from the squid but it took me some time to fish out the squid. And once the squid was fished out, it spilled out water as an attack. We took photos with the squid happily and gave the squid to the stall owner. The lady inside then cut the squid alive in front of us. The head was actually still moving while the lady cut its body into slices. After that, she passed us the prepared squid for our consumption. We also ordered a grilled scallop from the opposite stall. The squid was super fresh and nice to eat. You have to try it at least once. We also bought 2 slices of honey drew for 700 yen, it was still verry sweet.

Sausages Set

Carl Raymon Exhibit

Some items left by Carl Raymon

After that, we walked to Carl Raymon Cottage to buy the sausages. We also ordered some sausages to try in the place. It was also yummy, so my friend bought some of the sausages home but we were worried to over-buy and not allowed to bring back. Plus, it had to be keep cool. So we bought a small quantity. They even had the service to ship your purchases back if you were planning to buy large quantity. Then, we went upstairs to have a short visit on the museum regarding Carl Raymon. We even left a note on the board as an appreciation. Then we made our way up to Mount Hakodate Ropeway station as the sky was quite clear today. So we decided not to miss the chance to see the view on the summit. We bought our tickets for ropeway to go up to the summit from the ticketing machine. There were many people going up too.

Summit view

Does it look like a whale's tail?

Mount Hakodate Sign

It was really breath-taking when we reached the summit, it was said that the Hakodate landscape looked like a whale's tail and it was a million-dollar view when you view it in the night. However, we missed to view it at night but we enjoyed the view as much as in the day time. We stayed up there for some time and had our mini picnic there with the corn we bought in the market and other snacks. After that, we left the summit and walked back to restaurants place where we had our ramen last night. There was a public foot-bath somewhere there, so we decided to have a warm foot-bath before we go for our special dinner (which my friend made an reservation before flying over). We took a whole good 20 mins to relax ourselves there.

Public foot-bath

Uni Murakami entrance

Tempura Rice

Sea urchin Rice Bowl

Sea urchin gratin

Grilled mackerel

Once we are done with the foot bath, we headed to our dinner place, Uni Murakami which was located in the Hakodate Market (in fact, it was just beside the place we had the ice cream the other day). And the restaurant building looked small from outside and the name was in Japanese. We didn't know we reached the correct place until we went in to check with the staffs. Anyway, we were brought to the table and were told we only had a 1-hour dining time. So we didn't waste any time and made our orders. The food items on the menu looked amazing and yummy. They were famous for their sea urchin and of course, we had to order their specialities to try. The food was really yummy and the sea urchin...ahhh...yummy...covered with cheese on top (i don't normally eat urchin). We had a great and wonderful dinner there...so heavenly (prepare to pay more for the uni here)...And the staffs were kind of rushing us to finish our meal as they were having other reserved guests coming soon.

Octopus Post Box outside JR station

After that, we headed to Hakodate JR station and explored around as it was still early. There wasn't much to shop there except we got to have the station's stamps before we left. Then we walked slowly back to the hotel as we will have to hit the road to our next destination, Lake Toya.

Places visited:
Misuzu Coffee Daimon Branch
Hakodate Morning Market
Carl Raymon Cottage
Mount Hakodate Ropeway Station
Mount Hakodate
Uni Murakami (Address: Otemachi 22-1, Hakodate-shi, Hokkaido)
Hakodate JR Station

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Paco Hakodate

Hakodate, Hokkaido Trip (Day 7)

17th May 2019, Friday

Today, we just planned to explore more in Hakodate city as we found there were more to see in the city. We woke up slightly late and got ready to explore the city again. We actually planned to have our breakfast in Hakodate Morning Market again, but when we were walking towards there, we got drawn by coffee smell from a cafe. But it wasn't opened yet but it was 10 mins before the cafe opened. So we decided to wait for the cafe to open for our breakfast. It was really cold standing outside while waiting but we were so excited with it. There was a couple of people who also came early to buy their coffee from the cafe.

Available Coffee Beans

Roast Machine

Our Wonderful Breakast

Finally the cafe opened its door and off we went in. The cafe's name is Misuzu Coffee, they do sell coffee beans (by weight) and they will roost the seeds for you. You can even request them to grind it into powder. We took a look on their menu and ordered a breakfast set that was curry rice. There were many cakes available too. We ordered coffee, hot chocolate and a cake too. The hot chocolate was nice (but this was the only place i got to drink hot chocolate so far)...lol....but i like it...We also bought some coffee beans to bring back home.. My friend even bought a coffee-flavoured ice cream to go...She can't get enough of their coffee...hahahaa....

Cakes in Snaffles

Mini Store

Dried Fishes

Available Food Products in the store

After the breakfast, we walked towards Hakodate-Meijikan, Hakodate's old Post Office which was now a shopping mall. Along the way, we passed by Snaffles and went in to buy their mini cheesecakes and pudding. After that, we continued walking and ended up a mini store where it was selling all sorts of dried fishes and even crabs. We went curious and went into the shop to check the fishes. The store auntie was quite friendly and introduced us the dried fishes. She even let us try out the fishes (tara and kamari) before buying. The dried fishes were actually quite nice. My friend had a great time shopping the fishes and she even asked the lady how to cook the fishes. Of course, she bought a couple of the dried fishes to bring home. We were also surprised the auntie was still using the manual weighing scale...The lady even showed us how they use the weighing scale...think the auntie was also having a good laugh with us although she can't understand English well.

Hakodate Beer & Potato Croquettes

Cute Musical Box

Ancient Musical Box

Introduction

After that, we continued walking and we saw Hakodate Beer building. So we decided to go in to try their beer and food. We ordered potato croquettes and a peach beer to try. The croquettes weren't that impressive. After that, we hit the road again and continued walking towards Hakodate-Meijikan. We finally reached the place without stopping for food again. There was a square in the central of the mall where there was a performance by playing music using ancient musical boxes. The performance times were set daily. So we waited for the performance to start and the shop lady will do an introduction on the musical instruments in Japanese. She showed the musical disc (like our music CDs except hers was very big and contained only 1 song). She then put the disc into the instrument and started to play the music. The performance lasted about 15 mins.

Curry Rice

Salad

Skewer

After that, we went shopping at the shops around the area. Later, we decided to visit Hachimanzaka Zaka slope and Russian Orthodox Church. So we walked towards the church area. It was quite a distance away from where we were. After some time, we stumbled upon a turkish restaurant named Pazar Bazar before the slope going up Hachimanzaka. The smell of the curry was drawing us into the restaurant. Since we haven't eaten our lunch, we decided to give it a try. There was no other customers except us as it was almost 3 plus. We had curry rice set (which included a salad) and grilled chicken on skewer. The food was quite nice except my friend preferred the Misuzu Coffee over the coffee here.

Higashi HonganJi Temple

Carl Raymon Cottage

Hachimanzaka Zaka slope

 After lunch, we continued to climb a very steep slope up to see the Hachimanzaka Zaka slope and churches. First stop, we arrived at Higashi HonganJi Temple (Hakodate Branch). Inside the temple, it was very quiet. However, the door was quite low and my friend had a hard hit on her head when she exited the temple...kekeke....When we came out from the temple, we caught the attention of a cottage looking building opposite and it was like calling to us to go in which we did. What we found in the building was that it was selling sausages under a brand named Carl Raymon. They were selling a lot of different sausages there and you can even order sausages to eat in the store. So we decided to come back tomorrow morning for our breakfast as we were full from our lunch. After that, we continued up the slope and reached Hachimanzaka Zaka Slope. We took some photos on top of the slope and continued walking towards the churches. There were a couple of churches around the area.

Roman Catholic Church

Russian Orthodox Church

Episcopal Church of Japan Hakodate Episcopal Church

The first church we visited was Roman Catholic Church, it was huge and there was a tree with no leaves standing in front of the church (like in those vampire movies)....hahaha... We went into the church to have a look and of course we had to remove our shoes and wear the slippers provided. After that, we wen to the next church - Russian Orthodox Church. The building was white and beautiful. The bell sound can be heard around the area too and it only sounded at certain times. After that, we went to Episcopal Church of Japan Hakodate Episcopal Church. The uniqueness of this church was that the building was built in a cross-shaped. We didn't managed to have a look into as the church was closed. After that, we made our way to Mount Hakodate Ropeway station.

Mount Hakodate Roepway

Mount Hakodate Radio Station

Weather condition streaming

Inside the station, there was a mini radio station where you can see the radio dj having the broadcast live. Also, there was also a monitor to show the live steaming of the weather conditions on top of Mount Hakodate. Unfortunately, the fog was very heavy on the summit and nothing can be seen. My friend asked the staff if the fog would be cleared later in the evening. The lady told us that it can be hard to say, however she suggested us to check the weather condition through the website. So we decided to try again tomorrow if the fog can be cleared. So we walked back to Red Bricks Warehouse there and went for a bay cruise under Blue Moon (wasn't cheap). It was a 1-hr cruise and the wind was blowing very strongly, it was also foggy even out in the sea. The sky got dark by the time we came back from the cruise.

Cruise tickets

Warship at the port

Fog and more fog

Our cruise

Pork Ramen

Spicy Ramen

Daimon Yokocho Entrance

Eating Alley

Later, we had our dinner at Ajisai Ramen where we ordered a non-spicy ramen and a spicy ramen. However, we found the ramen so-so but the place was quite packed with customers. After that, we walked to Daimon Yokocho, an eating alley. Coincidentally, the entrance was just behind Misuzu Coffee (the one we went in the morning). The alley was quite quiet with the restaurants there. But we were full with the earlier dinner, so we ended up not trying any of the restaurants. Therefore, we went back to the hotel to rest as we had a long day.

Places visited:
Misuzu Coffee Daimon Branch (Address: Hokkaido Hakodateshi Matsukazechou 7-1)
Hakodate Beer
Hakodate-Meijikan
Pazar Bazar (Address: 17-19 Suehirocho, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0053, Japan)
Higashi HonganJi Temple
Carl Raymon Cottage (Address: 3-92, Suzuran’oka-cho, Hakodate-shi, Hokkaido)
Hachimanzaka Zaka slope
Roman Catholic Church
Russian Orthodox Church
Episcopal Church of Japan Hakodate Episcopal Church
Mount Hakodate Ropeway Station
Ajisai Ramen (Address: 12-7 Toyokawa-cho, Hakodate)
Daimon Yokocho

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Paco Hakodate