Japan!: Catch-Up! Hakodate (May 27-29)

I'm way behind on blogging... I think I kind of forgot I had a blog. But now I'm ready to do some catching up.

While Chris was on reconstitution (the two weeks of vacation he received after returning from Iraq), we took a short trip north to Hakodate. Hakodate is a port town on the southern edge of the northern island of Hokkaido.

We stayed in the brick warehouse district, full of shops, restaurants and tourist traps. The first day we were there we had a rare bit of sunshine... the rest of the trip was pretty overcast, but at least we didn't get rained on.

We had a weekend pass for the trolley, which took us anywhere we wanted to go.

One of our first stops was the British Consulate. It came highly recommend for the excellent tea.

One of many strange experiences I've had while living in Japan... Afternoon tea and scones at the British Consulate in Hokkaido.

After our afternoon tea, we took the ropeway to the top of Mt Hakodate for one of the "most famous nighttime views in the world".

It actually was a pretty awesome view.

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The brick warehouse district was all lit up at night...

And the lights led Chris directly to the Hakodate brewery:)

If there is a brewery in the vicinity, Chris can sniff it out.

The highlight of the trip for us was the open-air, rooftop onsen in our hotel. For all the 'Mericans reading this blog, an onsen is a public bath. The hotel provided these unisex-one-size-fits-most-Japanese-and-only-a-few-American pajamas to wear around the hotel and to the onsen. The provided slippers were just barely big enough for my feet, but Chris had to delicately balance on the balls of his feet in order to walk.

We even got baskets with towels and disposable combs/razors for use in the onsen.

Coffee the next morning was fresh ground, French press goodness... way better than plain ole' fresh brewed coffee. I could get used to this (except my arm was getting sore right about now from grinding coffee beans).