trip to Hakodate with Karen
Apr. 24th, 2007 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ifeelbetterBe warned, ye of the faint hearts: from here on, there be photos as far as the eye can see.
No seriously. There are a whole ****load of photos. I'm just saying.
First on the agenda: we went straight up the mountain to see the "world's third best night view"
Judge for yourselves. Anyone have an opinion? Are there two better views in the world at night?
After a brief soujourn to the beddie-bye, we got down to the serious business of "playing silly buggers"
Karen, what was your name for this statue? "Angry Chicken"?
Hakodate is built on a slope. Can you see the slope?
Hakodate is also only modern in SOME places. Others...they never got the memo.
For those not in/from Japan, politicians are incredibly annoying here (as elsewhere, but especially so here) in that they drive around with loud speakers on EAR DRUMS ARE EVIL AND MUST BE PUNISHED volume. These guys were saying, I assume from the fragments I picked up through the screams of the passerbys, "Thanks for electing us!" and other cheerful things.
Karen shares my love of random statues. The plaque next to this statue said, "Let's sit together!" so we did.
A statue only a few feet away from the one of the sitting lady.
The Perry statue from Perry Square.
A very official house last rebuilt in 1910. Emperors have stayed there while in Hakodate.
And I figure these must be the guards of the emperor: Sir Sitsalot, Lord NoIsaidYOU, His lordship of CanesRUs, and the younger Sir Sitsalot.
A poster from inside this historic site:
Don't ask me, I just live here.
People were dressing up for about ten or twenty bucks and wandering around taking pictures of each other. We joined the fun only up to the point where we were taking pictures of OTHER people in the marshmallow dresses.
The room before this had only a bathtub and me and Karen laughed and cracked some jokes...then we went next door, to "Japanese style bathroom" and it was EMPTY except for the sign. So..."silly bugger" time!
The view from the ballroom's balcony.
Down the street a bit, thanks to the power of my newly discovered timer!
An important moment to document, I think.
Did I mention the slope?
Outside a very serious and very empty shrine
The mini shrine next to the shrine
This is, of course, textbook shrine behavior
Down the street a bit
This is what he was drawing
Since Hakodate has such a long history of foreign relations, it has some pretty old and well-established churchs. This is the Russian Orthodox Church, I think.
Later, at the British embassy's tea room.
At the British embassy's tea room's gift shop
The creepiest advertising display since ... the dawn of time, maybe.
The joke here is that I've had a red spot above my eye for a week or so...so the "nice spot" is where I'm pointing.
This is the actual "nice spot"...dunno, man.
Look what we found!!!
A child tracing the directions in the sidewalk.
A beer fountain of water.
Outside this restaurant complex, there was a mini-hotspring. People were bathing their feet.
We joined them.
Some kids came over to say "Harro!" and then run away, only to run back moments later with "Harro! Howahyou?" and such.
They posed as we left.
The view by daylight
Some fellow tourists
Can you guess Karen's opinion of me, Americans, and our crazy ways?
A taxi. We met the driver later on the hill and he was laughing at us for taking pictures of his cab.
That night, at a souvenir shop, we were attacked by bears.
I took a picture of our side-alley hotel and hostess when we left. She was the crown jewel of hotel owners.
More statue fun
And more.
One of the more famous historical sites and less impressive to us. It's the Goryukaku Tower by the remains of Goryokaku Fort which is now a park.
Karen + Goryokaku tree that we liked
This is a photo I took for Maggie
The squid boats in the harbor
and, finally...at last...completely tuckered (but cheerful) Karen and I returned on the train.
No seriously. There are a whole ****load of photos. I'm just saying.
First on the agenda: we went straight up the mountain to see the "world's third best night view"
Judge for yourselves. Anyone have an opinion? Are there two better views in the world at night?
After a brief soujourn to the beddie-bye, we got down to the serious business of "playing silly buggers"
Karen, what was your name for this statue? "Angry Chicken"?
Hakodate is built on a slope. Can you see the slope?
Hakodate is also only modern in SOME places. Others...they never got the memo.
For those not in/from Japan, politicians are incredibly annoying here (as elsewhere, but especially so here) in that they drive around with loud speakers on EAR DRUMS ARE EVIL AND MUST BE PUNISHED volume. These guys were saying, I assume from the fragments I picked up through the screams of the passerbys, "Thanks for electing us!" and other cheerful things.
Karen shares my love of random statues. The plaque next to this statue said, "Let's sit together!" so we did.
A statue only a few feet away from the one of the sitting lady.
The Perry statue from Perry Square.
A very official house last rebuilt in 1910. Emperors have stayed there while in Hakodate.
And I figure these must be the guards of the emperor: Sir Sitsalot, Lord NoIsaidYOU, His lordship of CanesRUs, and the younger Sir Sitsalot.
A poster from inside this historic site:
Don't ask me, I just live here.
People were dressing up for about ten or twenty bucks and wandering around taking pictures of each other. We joined the fun only up to the point where we were taking pictures of OTHER people in the marshmallow dresses.
The room before this had only a bathtub and me and Karen laughed and cracked some jokes...then we went next door, to "Japanese style bathroom" and it was EMPTY except for the sign. So..."silly bugger" time!
The view from the ballroom's balcony.
Down the street a bit, thanks to the power of my newly discovered timer!
An important moment to document, I think.
Did I mention the slope?
Outside a very serious and very empty shrine
The mini shrine next to the shrine
This is, of course, textbook shrine behavior
Down the street a bit
This is what he was drawing
Since Hakodate has such a long history of foreign relations, it has some pretty old and well-established churchs. This is the Russian Orthodox Church, I think.
Later, at the British embassy's tea room.
At the British embassy's tea room's gift shop
The creepiest advertising display since ... the dawn of time, maybe.
The joke here is that I've had a red spot above my eye for a week or so...so the "nice spot" is where I'm pointing.
This is the actual "nice spot"...dunno, man.
Look what we found!!!
A child tracing the directions in the sidewalk.
A beer fountain of water.
Outside this restaurant complex, there was a mini-hotspring. People were bathing their feet.
We joined them.
Some kids came over to say "Harro!" and then run away, only to run back moments later with "Harro! Howahyou?" and such.
They posed as we left.
The view by daylight
Some fellow tourists
Can you guess Karen's opinion of me, Americans, and our crazy ways?
A taxi. We met the driver later on the hill and he was laughing at us for taking pictures of his cab.
That night, at a souvenir shop, we were attacked by bears.
I took a picture of our side-alley hotel and hostess when we left. She was the crown jewel of hotel owners.
More statue fun
And more.
One of the more famous historical sites and less impressive to us. It's the Goryukaku Tower by the remains of Goryokaku Fort which is now a park.
Karen + Goryokaku tree that we liked
This is a photo I took for Maggie
The squid boats in the harbor
and, finally...at last...completely tuckered (but cheerful) Karen and I returned on the train.
