Cowbright: Hokodate (Hokkaido), Japan

Today we were in Hakodate, a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Hakodate is our 9^th and next to the last stop in Japan. The weather is finally cooling down for us and two showers a day are no longer necessary! We actually left the ship wearing jackets this morning and never took them off.

Hakodate is surrounded by the ocean on 3 sides so the fish in any restaurant will be fresh here. It’s specialty is squid and it can be found in a variety of forms from raw and wiggling to deep-fried and even in ice cream! I remember how shocked I was to see squid when we visited here back in 2016. I had no idea that calamari was squid, or what a squid even looked like! Ramen is also popular here, served in a broth with added kelp, seafood or squid. However, we didn’t have any of that – we ate BBQ ribs on the ship! Haha

Our outing this morning cbegan with an hour drive to Onuma Quasi-National Park. It is an extremely wooded setting around a lake and home to an active volcano, Mt. Komagatake. Unfortunately, there was a thick cloud covering so we could not see it. Many in the group hiked for about an hour. Others who did not hike (myself included) just wandered through the shops that were there, took photos and people watched. Ronnie also took some photos during his hike which I will give photo credit for.

water lilies (photo credit: Ronnie)

photo credit: Ronnie

boats for rent

photo credit: Ronnie

interesting tree trunk

I watched a mother/toddler exercise class, then later some type of event with parents and preschoolers. After the walkers returned, we boarded a boat to ride across the lake, then disembarked and rode back to the ship.