Land of Cuteness and Squid

A belated thank you to the folks at the Light Fellowship for the funding that makes this travel, and thus this blog, possible!

Just spent a busy weekend exploring Hakodate, the city where I'll be spending the next two months. Saturday was devoted to exploring 五稜郭公園（Goryokyaku Park) and its environs, which we reached by tram. The park actually is actually the site of a nineteenth century fort, the first Western fort to be built in Japan and the base for rebels loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the Meiji era. What makes it so distinctive is its shape--the fort is a five-pointed star, surrounded by a moat.

We rented little rowboats to circle the fort and played on the playground at its center, much to the confusion of the few Japanese children there. We also were able to watch what appeared to be a rehearsal for a massive historically themed spectacle set to occur later in the summer to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of port Hakodate. We had dinner at a sobaya before beginning another evening of karaoke that was cut short by the fact that the city tram line stops service by 10 pm.

Sunday afternoon I visited Yachigashira Onsen, a very large public bathhouse fed by mineral springs. The water there is so laden with iron that it is a rather disconcerting rusty brown color, but the heat was lovely, particularly when juxtaposed with the rather chilly outdoor air. The outdoor tub was even shaped like a star in honor of Goryokyaku.

In the evening I went with friends for a curry dinner and then a beer at the local brewery. I'm no beer fan, so what interested me most was in fact the brewery slogan, shown at right. Roughly translated, it means "the beer that CEOs often drink." The live music was something of a surprise as well--though American music is ubiquitous in Japan (even the seafood shop plays "Hollaback Girl"), I didn't expect to hear an instrumental version of Disney's "A Whole New World" in a brew pub...

Cuteness is no longer a surprise though--it is truly EVERYWHERE, as these few pictures show.

Apparently these taxis' horns actually sound like mooing!


Move over Chiquita banana.
Because it is not enough for manhole covers to be functional...