Our second port in Japan was Hakodate. This city, like Otaru, is on the island of Hokkaido. It is also like Otaru in that it is a port of call that was added after our planned stops in Alaska were canceled. It is about twice as large as Otaru and was, overall, more interesting. We walked to two points of interest in the city: the “morning market” and the Red Brick Warehouse shopping area. Rain arrived – contrary to forecasts – while we were walking in the morning market but stopped by noon. Marlene left the ship a few minutes before I did and texted a request – or possibly just a suggestion – to bring our rain covers. I didn’t (because I trusted the forecast of 0% chance of rain) and regretted it. She won’t let me forget that mistake.
The morning market is primarily a seafood market but also offers some produce. All kinds of fish can be found there – fresh, smoked and dried. King crab is everywhere and they are HUGE. But fresh squid is also everywhere. Marlene and I sampled both fresh, raw, shredded squid and some dried squid.
The Red Brick Warehouse section reminded me a bit of Quincy Market in Boston – old warehouse buildings renovated into shopping space. Marlene found the shops interesting but shopping bores me to tears. We found some nice gifts for friends and family, though, so it was productive boredom.
We learned, after we returned to the ship, that Hakodate has a cable car – the Mount Hakodate Ropeway – which we could have taken to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. Those who took this cable car to the top returned with some spectacular photos. Lesson: do more research on what is available in a port city.
After our return to the ship we got together with Dottie and Maureen for cards. We played Oh Shit again but also did one game of Oh Hell (do you see a theme here?).
After dinner we danced a bit then saw Jonathan Timpanelli’s variety show in the theater. We also saw him on the TC2. He is very good.