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

Nara 奈良, Japan Trip (Day 12)

7th January 2015, Wednesday

Nara Mascot

Today, we were going to Nara as today was a nice day, no rain. So we went down to have our breakfast and went out to take the trains to Nara. It took us almost 1 hour to reach Kintetsu-Nara station (not the JR-Nara station). Once you are out of the station, there was a long stretch of shops and restaurants. So we started walking to Todaiji Temple as this is the biggest temple and oldest in Nara. We first passed by Kofukuji Temple, but the temple was under construction and only a part of it was opened to the public. Anyway, there were many deers roaming around, really a lot and there was an old grandma and grandpa selling biscuits to feed the deers. The deers were like so hungry, they were coming at us when we arrived there. And they wanted food from us and they don't like people to touch them...The deers' horns were all cut off as not to injure themselves or passerby. Anyway we bought a stack of biscuits for $150 yen to feed the deers. The deers were chasing me for the biscuits and even pushed me from the back. I stopped there, all the deers came and tried to snatch the biscuits...seems like they were very very hungry for a long time. I tried to run away from all the deers and passed some biscuits to my friend to let her feed them. The biscuits went out very fast and when the biscuits were out, the deers were still trying to get some food out of us. Then we continued walking to the temple and we saw other people feeding the deers too. We even saw there were 2 deers head banging each other and the couple who were feeding them tried to stop them by throwing the biscuits at them.

Deers outside the entrance

Todaiji Temple

Giant Buddha Statue

Then we walked under a underpass tunnel and there were deers along the path we walked. We bought a hot sweet potato outside the national museum, it was quite expensive - $700 yen something for one. Hahaha....we were so worried the deers will start following us while we were eating the sweet potato. A couple of deers did actually followed until the temple's entrance. One was not going give up until we finished the sweet potato and went into the temple. When we reached the temple's entrance, there were much more deers there and there were many poos on the floor too. Then we went into the temple and bought the entrance tickets. The temple was quite big and inside the Daibutsuden hall, there was a giant statue of Daibutsu Buddha. We walked slowly to see the giant Buddha statue and other several Buddha statues there. We lighted 2 small candles too for our blessings. Besides the candles stand, there was a giant replica of the lotus petals from the giant Buddha statue. Behind the giant Buddha statue, there was a model of the whole temple layout from the original state until the present day. And the monks were collecting donations to rebuild the temple by giving $1000 yen for a tile which will be placed in the temple for rebuilding. We donated for one tile and I got to write blessing words on the tile too. After that, there were some more statues to see and we came to a wooden pillar. What interesting with this pillar, was that there is a hole in its base that is the same size as the Daibutsu's nostril. It is said that those who can squeeze through this opening will be granted enlightenment in their next life.

My tile

Hole in the Pillar

Pindola Bharadvaja

There was a small kid, like 2 or 3 years old, kept crawling in and out the hole...hohoho...Then a group of ang mo came along and one of the guys from their group, tall and skinny. He tried to go through the hole and he did it...He managed to squeeze through the hole. Then i decided to give it a try, so i tried to squeeze in the hole but my jacket was in the way. So i took off my winter jacket and tried again. I went in with my hands first and pushed my way through the hole. And i did it!! ^-^.....hehehee....After i got out from the hole, another small sized lady gave it a try and she also did it. We gave her a applause after she came out from the hole, we were having fun there....After that, we continued to explore the hall and there were some devotees in front of the giant Buddha statue to have some blessing ritual. Then we went outside and saw a wooden statue at the side. It was a statue of one of the Buddha's disciples - Pindola Bharadvaja and on the description, it stated that it was believed in Japan that if one person touches a part of the image of Binzuru and rubs the corresponding part of his own body, the aliment there will disappear. So we gave it a try too, i rubbed on my shoulders to get rid of my shoulders ache...hehehe.... After that, we went to buy some souvenirs and then we went outside of the temple to walk. There was a very tall gold tower at the side of the temple, it was the On Asoka Pillar, the monument in commemoration of The "Thousand-Priests" service. There was a time capsule containing all the names of the participants and the messages for the Future written by the followers buried under it and this will only be opened in year 2038 which is the 1500th anniversary of the introduction of Buddhism to Japan (can consider to come here again in this year..heheee).

View from above

My lunch...Yummy!!

Then we continued walking upwards to explore the area, there were a couple of smaller temples on top. Most of the temples also need to pay entrance fees and we just went into those that doesn't need to pay.... :P
We went up one temple, which was having a great view on Nara from above. After spending some time on the top, we walked back down and we just walked without any specific directions in mind. Then we walked along the road and decided to walk to Isuien/ Yoshikien gardens. We walked past a house which looked the residence of the government. We walked further down to reach Isuien Garden but it required $650 yen to go in and the tea set looked expensive and there was no main courses. So we didn't went in, instead we went walked further in until i saw an owl statue. Then we stopped and took a look, it was a soba restaurant. So we took a look on the menu too, the pictures on the menu were quite plain and the colors had also faded. But we went in already, cos too hungry. There was no one in the restaurant and on the right side were tables and chairs and on the left side were the Japanese style seating. So i chose to sit on the ground and we asked the lady owner to recommend us their dishes. I had hot soda while my friend had cold soba, the food was very nice. And the tempera was nice, with their salt. And after we were done with the soba, the staff brought us the tea to let my friend drink. The staff said the tea was always taken after finishing the cold soba.

Five Storied Pagoda

Apple Pie with Ice Cream

Deers in Led Illumination

Dinner, Yummy!!!

After the nice meal, we thanked the staff and went walking towards the train station. We went back to Kofukuji Temple but the main hall was under renovation. So we went to see the five storied pagoda which was the national treasure and the three storied pagoda. After visiting the pagodas, we walked back to the shopping street near Kintetsu-Nara station. We went into Daiso and then we went into MacDonald's to hide from the wind. We had twister fries and apple pie with ice cream and we just stayed there until 5 plus or 6 pm. Then we walked on the same route to Todaiji Temple and all the deers were not around anymore, don't know where their homes were. We went to the night illumination which 100 thousands led lights were being used and we had to walk to the botanic gardens to see it. But it cost $1000 yen per pax for the entrance fees... :(... Anyway we bought the tickets and went in to see the lights, there wasn't many people around (only like 4 people including us). The led lights were quite nice to see there, there was a trishaw and some deers, all having led lights on them. Other than these, there wasn't anything much attracting. We spent about an hour walking inside the garden and we went off, went out looking for dinner. We came upon a dinning restaurant and ordered a pork cutlet rice set to share. After having the dinner, we went off trying to find direction to walk to JR Nara station. At first, there was some signs to direct to the JR station but at a point, there was no more signs. So we asked a lady for directions and the lady was kind enough to tell us the directions though she was having some difficulty talking to us in English.

Pudding Roll Cake

Milk & Chocolate Puddings

So we followed the directions and walked to the station and we did managed to reach there safe and sound...hahhaa...The station was big and there was a mall connected to it too. We went inside to explore and saw a shop selling puddings and cakes. The puddings' bottles were having a cute Buddha image printed on the cap. We bought 2 puddings to go back to eat, we also wanted to buy their roll cakes but it was sold out for the day. My friend was a bit disappointed as we won't be back to buy it. And with this, we took the JR train back to go back to our hotel. The puddings were nice and yummy too!

Hotel Stayed:
Humor Resort New Oriental Hotel

Nikko 日光, Japan Trip (Day 4)

30th December 2014, Tuesday

Nio-mon Gate

Today, we were going back to Nikko again but this time we will be visiting the popular shrines and temples there. We left the hotel early today too but this time we bought our breakfast from 松屋 and then made our way to Tokyo Train Station. Then we went the same way as the day before to Nikko, but this time there was super foggy when we passed some towns. It was totally white in color, cannot even see anything outside and we saw a lot of snow. The temperature in Nikko is 0 degrees celsius and it was drizzling too. Today, we noticed there were more people going to Nikko, compared to yesterday. We reached there around 10.30 am and then we took the public heritage bus to the first temple which was the further away, Taiyuinbyo Temple (This time, we didn't alight on the wrong bus stop). There were some remaining snow around the ground and the ground was also very wet. The temple was also under repair works, so one of the main gate was covered with scaffolds. There was a golden door which was shinning very brightly as the sun shone on it, when we first saw it, we were wowing. There was a Haiden-Honden Hall, which the halls were connected in a 'H' shape and it was built with gold too. There was a golden arrow which costs around $8800 yen and it is meant for you to put at home as a charm to ward off evils. The golden arrow was a weapon used by one of the gods standing guard at the gate.

"Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil"

 After exploring this temple, we walked to another temple. At the entrance of the temple, there were boxes where you put a small amount of money (eg: $100 or $300 yen) to buy a fortune paper/charm for yourself. We bought 1 small little stone, in the form of crescent shape which has different meanings for each individual color. Then we went in to another temple ground with the entrance fee $200 yen. Not sure what temple was that, there was some mini games which you can also play with them as you walk by. There were also very big trees which were more than hundred of years old. After spending some time exploring the temple, we walked down to Toshogu Shrine, which was the oldest shrine in Nikko. The entrance fee for this temple costs $1300 yen per adult and there were some famous cravings like the sleeping cat, the see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil monkeys. As we walked in, we saw the monkeys cravings on one of the houses. There were many difference cravings on the monkeys with different explanations like a mother monkey is looking at the future of the child...and the child grew to be independent. There were 2 big storehouses opposite the cravings too. After this, we reached the Yomeimon Gate. The Yomeimon Gate was under repairs, so the whole gate was covered with scaffolds. And as we entered, the golden door of the main shrine greeted us. The door was shining brightly too and it was made of real gold.

Sleeping Cat

600 years old Spiritual Tree

We turned to the left side and went to the Sakashitamon Gate, where the staff checked our tickets for the sleeping cat shrine. There were many people around the temple, today a busy day it seems. We had to queue to go to the sleeping cat shrine. There was a famous craving on the sleeping cat on the gate and once we passed the gate, there was a long flight of stairs to climb up and it was very tiring to climb in cold weather. By the time we reached the top, we were panting. And the shrine wasn't very big, there were a priest that will ask everyone to come closer and he will start doing some ritual to bless all the people who came. Then he will ask everyone to walk in one direction to the back and back to the stairs for exit. We had to walk in single line and slowly, as we walked, we noticed there was another queue to pray to a big hole in a 600 years old super big tree. There was a sign that indicated that if you pray to the tree, your wishes will be fulfilled. We just walked up to the front and prayed at it and left...hohohoho...Then we went to queue to buy the sleeping cat bells for keepsake and went down the stairs to the main shrine. After that, we went to the main shrine which we had to take off our shoes to enter. Photography is not allowed in the main shrine and we just went in to take a look at the shrine. After visiting the main shrine, we went to the crying dragon shrine. Here too, the staff checked our tickets again. But my friend doesn't want to take off her shoes to go in the shrine. So i went ahead, my feet were frozen the whole day as we had to take off shoes a few times. Inside the shrine, i had to queue for my turn to go in the hall (at least no need to climb stairs again). As i moved in to the hall, i saw a very big drawing of a dragon up on the ceiling and there was a priest standing there and got everyone to come in as much as we can before he began. Then he began and introducing the crying dragon hall in Japanese...heheee...of course i don't understand what he is explaining. But at the later part of his speech, he took 2 blocks of wood and clapped them directly under the mouth of the dragon. And there was a bright ringing sound echoing back, but when he moved away from the dragon's mouth and clapped the woods again, there was no echo returned (very interesting..). So that's why the shrine is being called as Honjido Hall. There were also 12 Luo Han statues in the hall, which later i realized each one of the Luo Hans represent to each Zodiac animal. After the introduction by the priest, we were told to leave the hall by the other way, where purchases of the bells and charms are along the way out.

Crying Dragon Bells

Long-shaped Bao

Shinkyo Bridge

I bought 2 of the crying dragon bells, cos the ringing of the bells was different from the normal bells. Very unique...hehehee...I gave 1 of the bells to my friend, cos she didn't went in to see the crying dragon.  After the crying dragon shrine, we went out of the temple where there were some stalls outside the temple. We saw a stall selling baos, there was 1 interesting bao, it was long in shape which costs $50 yen. My friend so funny, she still asked me to wait for an ang mo to buy and then see his face whether he is happy or sad after taking the 1st bite. And guess what, the guy overheard us and turned around and told us the bao was still very hotz and he couldn't take the first bite yet. lol....Anyway we went ahead and bought 1 for ourselves to try...it wasn't that bad, quite nice actually. Then we walked down to Rinnoji Temple, we ended up there but the main entrance was covered by a scaffolding, which had us confused. We thought we haven't reached the temple but actually we had reached. But anyway we saw the staffs starting to sweep the floor of the place and the tickets office were closed. So we didn't went in to visit this temple. Then we just walked the way down and saw the founder of Nikko Temples statue and the Shinkyo Bridge, which was the entrance point for Nikko's shrines and temples. It costs about $200 yen to enter the bridge. We took photos outside (without entering the bridge) before walking down the streets of Nikko to walk back to the JR train station. We passed a snack shop selling bbq rice balls, which we bought 1 stick to eat and post office where i posted postcards back to SG. It costs $70 yen to post to anywhere in the world...hehehe...Then we passed a Hello Kitty shop, where everything is Hellow Kitty item. It even has Hello Kitty Lucky bags, which i asked my friend to buy 1 for her friend who is crazy about Hello Kitty.

Fried Red Bean Buns..Must Try!!!

BBQ Salmon

Then we saw there was a long queue queuing at a stall, which was selling deep fried red bean buns. It was just opposite Tobu-Nikko station. We just went to queue for it too, without knowing what the stall selling at first. We bought 3 of them to eat on the train on our way back. And after getting the red bean buns, we walked to the JR Nikko station. Then it was the same route back to Tokyo station, the fried red bean buns were very yummy, should buy more of it. Went to check out the toilet on the train too, it was very big and spacious. This time we alighted in Ueno station and took the metro to Shinjuku. As this time was abit early when we reached there, most of the shops were still open. We went in to Uniqlo to shop around, it was a whole building with 4 or 5 levels of clothes to shop. We also went to BIC camera building to shop around and went to Japan's biggest pachinko building. First time went inside to have a peek on the mini balls machines. We had our dinner at Ootoya inside one of the buildings there. I ordered pork cutlet set and my friend ordered the salmon. The salmon tasted much nicely than the port cutlet and so i was stealing her share on the fish...hehehee...After the dinner, we walked on the streets to find the Apple Store there. But we found out that the Apple Store is located in Shibuya and not Shinjuku using the displayed ipads in BIC Camera shop. After which we took the metro back to the hotel and rested after a long day.

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho