Hakodate: Winter Has Come

Oh Hakodate, it would have been fun if I had a coat and boots, mostly if you decided not to snow when we were there.  If Hakodate just did that, I probably would not have salt with it.  But regardless of me not being prepared for winter, Hakodate was a very interesting visit on the trip.  I was not too thrilled to visit Hakodate because I never heard about it and it was not Tokyo.  But to its credit it did surprise me.

Some of the highlights of the trip to Hakodate was the local monkeys.  I am usually not the one for animals on a trip, but the monkeys were one of the best parts of my entire Japan trip.  I think it was due to me being able to feed the monkeys by throwing food into there enclosure.  It was fun and I had a lot of laughs out of it.  Oh, a bigger plus, I got a free postcard where the monkeys were located, so I was happy.

Another highlight was visiting a museum about the Ainu, the local people who lived in the Hakodate area originally. Similar to how the Native American's were in America first.  It was actually really cool to look at some of the clothing and items they used.  It reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender, where one of the groups of people on the show are water benders, who happen to look and dress very similar to the Ainu, who also in the show was not up to speed on certain technology and was also in very cold regions.

The last few highlights from Hakodate was the foot sauna.  It was strange that a foot bath was just in the middle of the city but I was not complaining since I was very cold and I would not mind if my feet were getting heated up.  Next was the observation tower.  The observation tower gave a fantastic view of the whole city of Hakodate.  The final highlight was my, um I guess American cheeseburger, even though it did not taste the same it was still pretty alright.  I also went to Mcdonald's for the first time in Japan at Hakodate, let's just say the quality of the food was 2 times better than back in the States.  Although I felt really bad for the workers who saw us come through there doors,  I have never seen terror to take someone's order before this.