GOING SOLO IN JAPAN – 5 Hakodate

After visiting the lake district we reached Hakodate by train.

We had a doctor friend in this city. He received us and took us to our hotel.

 In those days there was no Shinkansen trains available from Hokkaido to Tokyo.

We stopped for an overnight  break as we were doing a long journey by train from Hokkaido to finally reach Narita Airport with a stop over to visit Toshiba factory on the way.

All the trains went through an underwater tunnel and stopped at Aomori on the way to Tokyo. To our surprise Hakodate turned out to be a very interesting city.

Hakodate is a very popular tourist destination in Hokkaido.

One thing not to be missed is a sightseeing tour of Hakodate for the night view from top of Mount Hakodate. Looming over the town is 334m-high Mount Hakodate. The mountain’s summit, reachable by aerial ropeway gondola, offers dramatic nighttime views. We took a bus tour which was filled with all Japanese people.

The guide was talking non-stop in Japanese about the history of this town. All the people clapped when she ended. When we reached the top, the night view of city with lights was stunning. It spread in a fan shaped panorama.

At its base is Motomachi, a neighborhood of steep streets with Western-style, early-20th-century buildings.

Next day we visited Onuma Quasi-National Park which is located 30 minutes away by JR express train from Hakodate. There are multiple islands in the lake. These islands are connected by small bridges. This makes it very easy to stroll around the park.The landscape consisting of an active volcano, Mt. Komagatake, lakes and islands, is a grand sight.

Strolling in nature, mountain climbing, cycling, canoeing, skiing, snow trekking-one can experience various seasonal activities.

Next day we continued our long journey. The train passed through under water tunnel and we came out at Aomori. We had to change the train again to reach Morioka.

From here on we travelled by Shinkansen. As planned way we stopped at a small station and stayed overnight for a visit to Toshiba’s factory. Visit to Toshiba factory was an eye opener for me. Factory was laid out on a large plot of land. When we went there it was lunch break. Lots of workers were out on a play ground , exercising or playing ball games.

After 2 night’s stay we straight reached to Narita international Airport. This is one of our longest train Journey in Japan.

We had a chance to visit Hakodate one more time as my husband was invited to teach at one of Tokushukai group hospital. We went a day ahead and stayed at a hotel close to Ohnuma lake. Next day we were picked up by a car to go to hospital.This time the visit was during cold season. After work we were taken for a dinner at Japanese restaurant and then went to the top of mountain by car. We could not much enjoy as there was very strong blistering cold wind.