Land Ho, Ho, Ho

Over the next 14 days we will only touch land three times before heading across the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea making landfall in Vancouver.  First stop is Hakodate, a smallish city located on the southern end of the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido. Our first view of the city was not a particularly scenic one.

The cruise ship dock is located  in an industrial area some distance from town so the city provided a regular schedule of buses that run back and forth from the dock to the downtown.

From there you can travel on older electric trams that get you to or near to, all the city's scenic attractions.

Our main goal in Hakodate was to experience a Japanese onsen (hot spring/spa/ bathhouse).  We were headed to the Yunokawa hot springs area where we could find a number of public and private bathhouses fed by the hot springs.  So armed with bathing suits and pool towels from the ship, we jumped on a tram that would take us there.

The first spa we tried was closed for the season, the second one was down for maintenance, the third one didn't open till 3:00 pm, the fourth would only let us in if we were guests of their hotel and a fifth one, we never could find. Weather started to close in so spa-less we jumped back on a tram and headed downtown to see some of the Hakodate sights.

Goryokaku Park is home to Goryokaku Fort, the star shaped, western style fortress built about 150 years ago. Sadly, due to the weather, we opted to do a drive by. Tsk, tsk, tsk. In our defence, we have toured numerous star shaped fortress's all over the world.

Hakodate market had some of the freshest snow crab you could ever hope for.

While we missed the cherry blossoms in the south of Japan, the blossoms in the north were just coming on although there are considerably less trees in the north.

The next day we woke up in Muroran, a major port city for the island of Hokkaido.

Once again we found ourselves docked in an industrial area and again the city provided free buses that ran a circular route around the city providing access to all the city had to offer.

There is not much to offer in Muroran and the big ticket excursion was a trip to the city of Sapporo, approximately 3 1/2 hour round trip from Muroran. We chose to pass as we would spend almost as much time on a bus as  we would visiting Sapporo.

While Nonie stayed on the ship, I ventured out to do a little souvenir shopping for the folks at home. Perhaps it was the cool moist weather or the signage prominently displayed over much of the city, that kept Nonie on board.

Departing on time, we were serenaded by a large group of local students and a full symphonic orchestra. If anything, the folks in Muroran were very nice and accommodating.