My Trip to Japan: Hakodate 2

Actual date Oct 29th

Hey Everybody!

So tomorrow I'm leaving Hokkaido FINALLY. I've liked it here but I feel like I'm behind schedule! I looked at my budget/ calendar, and I've already been here for 6 weeks! So 3 of those were with Dad and I spent some money, and bought my cell phone and such, and 3 weeks I've been by myself. I did have to buy one bus ticket twice and a little extra for the manga-kissa, but I did stick around Sapporo for so long and didn't have to spend on transportation so much. So I've already spent almost exactly 1/4th of my money, but it's been about 1/3rd of the time I'm here alone, with about 6 weeks left. Going to more cities will cost more than staying in less, just from the traveling costs, but I think I'm looking good.

Also, this evening I've been trying to find somewhere to stay tomorrow, and even in the Japanese version of the travel site recommended by Fuji (http://travel.rakuten.co.jp/) almost everything was pretty expensive. There was one reasonably priced place in my book that was 40 minutes out of town by bus, so I would also have to consider the bus fare, especially if I wanted to go anywhere. And there weren't really any hostels at all on any of the hosteling websites I know about. Though I did end up finding one pretty cheap business hotel, (2500 yen) but in Japanese. So I then took my netbook over to the hotel front desk and showed them the web page I had up, and conveyed to them that, even though it had gone through Google translator, I still couldn't really tell if staying there was a viable option. The front desk guy (an actually very nice guy, a little shorter, maybe in his 40s) then volunteered to call the hotel and possibly reserve a room for me right then.
It was a pretty cheap hotel and it turns out theres only desk staff there from like, 1 to 10, and right then was about 10:15, so he couldn't get through. With getting to tomorrows ferry and such, I was going to leave before 1pm as well, so there wouldn't be any calling before then either. So then the front desk guy told me the place I'm staying at now is part of a group where single rooms cost only about 2500 to 3000 yen. So he then wrote down the the Japanese name of the association, as well as the phone number and the name of the cheap hotel so that I could give it to the Tourist Information and Reservation Center in Aomori Station, and they could help me when I got there. So I thought that idea might be a little risky, but not bad and that it would do, and at worse I would just end up staying somewhere nicer but more expensive.
I then got back on the internet to look things up and such, and then front desk guy also got on one of the lobby computers, and about 5 or 10 minutes later he asked me I wanted a no-smoking room, and if I would need any meals with my room too! (not necessarily, and no meals) I told him thank you! and excuse me! and I'm sorry!, but if he could actually find me a place beforehand, I would feel a little better, so I really appreciated it and let him keep looking. He actually did find a place that looked nicer than the cheap one, but about 1000 yen more per night. When he called though, he was able to get a discount on the price! So tomorrow afternoon I'll go over there and should be able to stay for 3000 yen. Which has also been about the price I've been paying at other places, including hostels.

So that was cool. I actually can't tell if that place has internet though, so otherwise I hope they have a lobby computer, or I'll have to find the place listed in my book.

It's getting late again though and I haven't even told you what I've done yet! So yesterday I went up Mount Hakodate, twice! I wanted to hike the mountain, and you can pretty much only do that during the day. At night it gets dark, and its been reeeallllyy cold. I also wanted to see the view of the city and the surrounding area, not just the night-lights. So the hike up was nice. The view was great. I tried to take pictures. So then I hiked down. I actually got really cold at the top, so I ended up like, running down the top half of the mountain until I finally started feeling warm again. Ate some dinner, hungout. Then, I took the bus up! It actually only runs in the evening too, which is interesting. It was pretty crowded, but the view was really nice. I wore both my coats (I only wore the my shell earlier!) so I was warm, but my hands were sooooo cold! Also, on the way up, I noticed a huge part of the night sky/ clouds were it up, like around a big stadium, or even a city. Turns out (I believe) it was squid boats! There were a bunch of single bright lights out on the water maybe 5 or 10 miles out at sea, and I've heard of boats with squid lure lights, and squid is hugely popular here. So their squid lure lights lit up the sky more than the city of Hakodate did! I seemed to be the only person who noticed though. So going up Mt. Hakodate was good.

Today, I walked around the historic area around Mt. Hakodate where one of the first western ports in Japan was opened up, and through the waterfront/ historic warehouse/ retail area. And tried to figure out where I'm staying tomorrow and how to get there and what to do. I decided to not go to the other sights around town here.
Okay, now its really late (again!!) and I gotta get goin in the morning to catch my ferry, so I'm gonna go! Love you guys! I'm trying to stay safe and healthy. I've been shaving and doing laundry. I still hope everybody is good! I'm having a great times still! And I'm gonna run out of time here! Okay, I'll talk to you guys later!

I saw these pastries that looked either like HUGE bugs, or like, jumbo shrimp or lobster tails, and had to take a picture to share

Me and my Capsule!

The Hakodate Asa-Ichi (morning market)

The Hook your own squid tub, and then eat it sliced up while it's still twitching! (Simultaneously sounds fun and really tasty, and also horrifying and revolting to me at the same time)