2 November 2016
Running with the buses
Hiking up the road at night for the view from Hakodateyama
As suggested earlier, it was time to go to the top of Mount Hakodate to do the tourist thing and take photos of the city lights.
I thought to myself, how to make it not so touristy, run up of course, in the dark.
There was no one else doing this. I walked up the hill to the cable car station, and noted that at 5pm it was already dark, there would be no hiking trail tonight, instead the road was the only option.
So up I went, jogging, it wasnt too steep, but there were no street lights. This made it a feast for my other 7 senses. Every squirrel or fox or whatever else I could here in the forest was obviously a bear, run faster I did.
Every now and then a bus or a taxi would come past and shed some light on the situation, or I would be on the side of the hill / mountain lit by the city below, but most of the time it was really dark, in a valley with tall cedar trees covering the road.
Once at the top, there were thousands of people and tour buses. Also a small shopping mall, over 100 vending machines and two restaurants. Both restaurants and the cable car down had huge lines.
The cable car was also about $10 one way! Bugger that.
Only one thing to do, run back down. Those bears know I am coming now. I flew down at top speed, it was constantly down hill. Taxi drivers going past thought I was a lunatic, and I guess I am. All this to save $10 and waiting in line. Actually all this because I am a lunatic who likes sprinting down an unlit road in 0 degree weather in a jacket carrying a camera.
One option to go up the mountain is to take the moo moo taxi. No.
The road to the cable car goes past the old seafood processing factories, now of course a shopping mall and a starbucks.
More of the shopping mall area and floating restaurant boats.
Here I am at the bottom cable car station, there is a huge parking area for buses. Actually Hakodate seems like Toyama in that everything is parking.
The first clearing of trees is about halfway up. As I was taking photos here taxis would stop and the drivers would enjoy the view and have a smoke.
Looking towards the top, looks kind of sci fi.
View from the top of a cable car on its way down. Supposedly the best night view to be had anywhere in Japan. I kind of think Shimonoseki would be better, even though I was only there during the day.
However here in Hakodate, you have the ocean on both sides.
Its freezing but after running up I was hot and thirsty. Luckily theres no shortage of vending machines. This is just one of at least 10 similar setups devoted to them.
One more photo from the top of people taking photos.
This is part of the shopping area at the top, it is too crowded to go in there.
Back down now, after my super fast bear outrunning descent, and I am back at the seafood factories converted to shopping malls. Only problem is they close at 7pm, including the restaurants. Its 7pm. Maybe tomorrow.
Hakodate is super proud that the Shinkansen comes under the sea to a location near their city now. In this picture it shows the train right in the city. Not so. The actual stop is 22km north of Hakodate.
Eventually the line will go all the way to Sapporo, at which point no one will stop at Hakodate anymore.
Dinner options that were not raw seafood were scarce. I dont mind a bit of sashimi for lunch, but not an entire meal in freezing weather for dinner.
This place is one of the non seafood joints, and its a hamburger place called FABULOUS PIERROT. There are 3 similarly sized outlets of this brand within 100 metres of each other, all with the same decor.
Not for me though!
Eventually I found this little series of streets selling raw seafood. All except one was selling raw seafood. I had some ramen. Unfortunately my photo was very blurry. It was not great ramen, but it was hot.