HAKODATE: A Tale of Two Trips, Part IV

Read Part I, Part II, and Part III.

 I still had two hours to burn until I could check-in to my hotel, so I decided to go to the ropeway up to the peak of Mount Hakodate. I was already at the bus stop in front of the train station, and the free tourist bus arrived shortly after I made my decision.

Approaching this mountain now for the second time, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t already done this. The mountain was beautiful and it was peak cherry blossom season in Hokkaido.

The ropeway was in an area with strong Greek influences in architecture and a Greek Orthodox church. Just outside the ropeway, there was a mural on a wall of some people that made me feel like I was in Greece two thousand years ago. That sensation passed, I saw the ropeway wouldn’t be open for another half an hour, and started to roam around. I soon found myself in a park at the base of the mountain, filled with cherry blossoms and an old fountain covered in verdigris. I took about 30 photos and a short stop motion sequence of the fountain and started wishing I hadn’t got a hotel so that I could sleep in this park. I also found a vending machine with the most enchanting orange soda I’ve ever had. I generally don’t drink many sweet drinks, but that soda was the nectar of the gods.

After a while, I went back to the ropeway and bought a ticket. I couldn’t help but notice that all the brochures and photographs of the view showed it at night time. I also noticed I was the only one going up alone. I didn’t care, I was fascinated by the view.

At the top, I figured I would go through the gift shop first and was happy to stumble upon a few real marimo moss balls. The ones I had bought for my friends were fake, but these were real and I figured I should get a few and keep them forever. They were tiny. The information on the package said they should grow about one millimeter a year. I started thinking about how large they could be by the time I am old, and how they could bring me back to this place. That was enough incentive to buy a set of two.

The outdoor observatory was windy as hell, but it was a beautiful sunny day. The mountain is at one of the tips of the island of Hokkaido, so looking in most directions, there was only the sea. I thought it was incredible. But the observatory was set up to mostly have a good view looking inland at the city. Seeing the shape of the land was cool, and I could tell from the pictures that this would be the case at night, but with lights from buildings forming the coastline. I saw there was an access road up the mountain and wished I hadn’t bought a round trip ticket so I could use it to walk down. I thought it was strange there was a one-way ticket up the mountain option before.

I was on a mission to get the most out of my ticket up the mountain, and after a while, I noticed that no one from my ropeway car was still on the mountain. The view going back to the foot of the mountain was just as incredible, and I made a short stop motion sequence of it.

It was late enough to check-in to my hotel, and this time I remembered that bikes were available to rent at the hotel. But the advertising was a bit misleading–there were literally three bikes, so none were available. In the hotel room, knowing I would either need to walk or take public transportation, I checked a map and thought about how far away the unexplored areas of town were. There didn’t seem to be much on it or nearby, but I couldn’t stop thinking about a place marked Midori no Shima—Green Island. 

I made my way there. It was, indeed, just a grass-covered island. I walked around the area for a while, but it seemed like I was suddenly in the suburbs and started walking back towards where I had spent the past few days. It was growing dark and I didn’t know where the day had gone. I stopped in what I thought was a coffee shop for a snack, but it was actually an Italian restaurant and I had a proper meal. I wasn’t ready to go to bed but had no appetite for alcohol and wasn’t sure how to pass the time. I felt like I had taken in all I could. I got back to the hotel and figured I would go back out later, but I took a bath and went to bed instead.

In the morning, I took a quick bike ride around the ropeway area to look at the buildings and cherry blossoms. At checkout time, I felt like I had spent enough time in Hakodate and checked out of my third and final hotel room for the trip.

I still had my notes about the ferry from the other day, so I got on a bus outside of Hakodate station. A few blocks from the stop, I seemed to be in a warehouse district. It was, without question, the least touristy part of town I had seen. The ferry was a few blocks away, the sea was hidden until it was right upon you. Other than the smell.

The ferry place wasn’t really a ferry place, they just used one of their cargo ships as a ferry across the strait once every few days. The notes I had were relevant for that day specifically. 

The guys at the ferry place seemed more confused that the situation wasn’t due to a language barrier than anything else. They called me a taxi and had them take me to a fulltime ferry. The guy in the taxi refused to believe that I could speak Japanese and had to call into HQ to make sure the destination I kept saying was correct. It was. He brought me there and I was just in time to catch the next ferry.

Onboard, I picked up some snacks and beer from a vending machine and found a place on the floor to sit where I could see outside. I wasn’t expecting the seating to be on the floor, but there were cushions. There were a couple of Chinese women on the ship with us and they shared my excitement for what felt like an adventurous way to travel. I took advantage of the fact that I was in Japan and left my valuables completely unguarded while I walked around to take pictures with the other two tourists. By the time I came back, all the other passengers were asleep and we hadn’t even left.

I sat down and drank a beer and ate some dried squid. The boat started moving eventually. Looking out into the sea was exciting at first, but after about an hour I had finished all my beer and snacks and fell asleep. I woke up hoping to get a glimpse of the shore before we arrived, but found that we had already docked and would be disembarking soon. We arrived in what looked like a parking lot and I was lucky enough for there to be a taxi left without a passenger. I put my bag in the backseat of the car and took one last look at the sea. I turned around and was shocked by the deep green of the great pine trees in the distance.

Read Part V and Part VI.

These days, I’m just tellin’ stories.