函館 (Hakodate)
My first trip of the New Year was to 函館 (Hakodate) in 北海道 (Hokkaido). The trip was planned by the town Board of Education as a means to “strengthen work relationships”. So, I figured that this trip would be like one of those retreats where we have meeting and discussions and so forth and have leisure time afterwards. Actually, the trip turned out to be just a vacation to one of Japan’s most famous cities.
Note: Next time I’ll keep a running diary with times because you won’t believe what my co-workers did at certain times of the day.
So on Friday the 8th of January, the 西川町 (Nishikawa Town) Board of Education set out on its trip to函館. I got on the bus from my work at 6:30 p.m. and left on a 2 hour bus ride to the train station in 仙台 (Sendai). Right upon sitting down in my seat on the bus, I noticed about more than half my co-workers’ faces were already red from drinking alcohol (beer, wine, sake). Right when I sat down, I was already being yelled at to hurry and start drinking. So, opened up a can of Asahi Super Dry beer and chugged away. I sat there thinking to myself that this was going to be a long trip before we end up at 函館.
Our first stop was at a convenient store where we picked up a few snacks and foods, stocked up on some liquids, and picked up the last of my co-workers, the one who can actually speak English pretty well. At this time, I believe my co-workers are already drunk out of their minds, let alone that it was only 7:30 p.m. in the evening.
In an attempt to get them to stop pestering me about not drinking, I take up drinking a very cute and quite tasty drink of いちごミルク(Strawberry Milk). So, everyone had their laughs since it is considered such a “girly” drink. But, at least it stopped them from having me drink more beer/sake/wine.
So after about 2 hours of drinking on the bus, we reached Sendai where we all had a really nice dinner and more drinks. The boss at the B.O.E. branch office sat next to me and halfway through dinner, he lied down and fell asleep. He actually doesn’t drink, but he sleeps like crazy everywhere. So at this second instance of eating and drinking, my co-workers are getting drunk out of their minds now to the point where I needed to help a couple of them to just walk to the train station which was only about 3 blocks away.
Upon reaching the platform where our train was going to be located, everyone was on their cell phone since they couldn’t find the designated cab area of where we were supposed to board the train. I found it quite easily actually and it was my thinking that they were all just two drunk to figure it out. And so, when they finally believed me that I knew where it was, the coordinator of the trip yelled my name and hugged me. In my previous entry, he’s the dude with his glass raised next to me in the last picture. My other co-worker was already knocked out and sitting sleeping. So what did we do? We took funny pictures with him of course.
We’re pretending that he’s Buddha. The guy to the left is the one who doesn’t drink but is constantly sleeping. He’s a weird but interesting fellow.
So as we waited about 30 minutes until our train arrived, my fellow co-workers found it a good a time as any to start drinking sake. Everyone was poured a cup of sake and drank until the train arrived. As for myself, I headed upstairs to the convenient mart so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. =P
So the train finally came and we got into our compartments. The compartments were 2 beds stacked on top of each other on each side making a total of four beds. It was my first time on an overnight train since the train ride lasted about 7 hours. I wasn’t really sleepy so I headed out to the lounge area where a bunch of people were eating, drinking, and conversing with each other. I was followed by about 10 of my co-workers where they found a nifty little area with a table and started another drinking session. At this time, it was about 11:30 p.m. and we had to be awake and out at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. So counting this drinking session, this is the 4th time in a span of 5 hours. Realistically, my co-workers haven’t actually stopped drinking since my time on the bus. So after having some short chit chat with the foreigners, I went back and hung out with my crew since they were way more interesting and entertaining. I think I went to bed at around 2:00 a.m., but that’s just a rough estimate.
It was actually hot in the compartment, and since I had a hard time sleeping, I woke up at around 4:30 p.m. Got my stuff together, put on a bunch of layers of clothing, and waited until the train stopped. We got of the train and arrived at函館 around 6:30 p.m. We waited at the train station for about an hour until our cabs arrived to drop our stuff off at the hotel. Looking around the area, there was a lot less snow than in my town. However, it was much colder and the ground was really slippery. The average temperature was about 10 degrees to give you an idea about how cold it was.
So, for breakfast, we went to the nearest restaurant strip that also had a small fish market. And, as 函館 is known for, there was a place where you can buy live crabs. There are two types, the smaller fatter type crabs and the huge legged crabs that put the Alaskan king crabs on Deadliest Catch to shame. Not only that, but the small crabs cost as little as $30 and go as much as $60 while the huge ones can go higher than $100.
And they taste absolutely delicious too.
The place where we ate breakfast was pretty expensive. Many of the meals averaged about $15 and they weren’t typical breakfast food. They were mostly bowls of rice topped with an assortment of seafood like crab meat, squid, いくら (salmon eggs), and うに (uni a.k.a. sea urchin). It was about 7:30 a.m. at this time and the most shocking thing happened next as we ate our breakfast. Most of the guys from our group ordered beer as drinks. Yeah, they ordered BEER from breakfast. I mean think about it, “Beer. The breakfast of champions.” I was more shocked at the fact they were all drinking beer for breakfast let alone having been drunk 5 hours earlier for drinking about 8 hours straight the previous day. That is why I will keep a running diary with times on our next trip.
So after breakfast and drinking (note: I didn’t drink beer for breakfast. I draw the line at breakfast and that line is solid and clear.), we hopped on the street car (you know, those trains in the middle of the streets with the lines running above them) and headed to the local おんせん (onsen) for a bath.
After having the feeling of being boiled alive in the おんせん, the whole crew relaxed in the lounge before we headed out to our next destination. Before we left, everyone had a couple more rounds of beer and sake. Actually, it was quite refreshing having a little to drink after a very nice bath. It would of probably felt even better if it wasn’t already the 6th time the whole gang has been drinking in a span of 15 hours. And finally, we all went on our way to do some sightseeing.
For the first real tourist spot, we visited 五稜郭タワー (Goryokaku Tower).
In the tower, there’s a 360 degree view floor where you can see much of 函館. Even more famous is its view of the五稜郭(Goryokaku) area.
And so we went into the 五稜郭 area and walked around for a bit while taking pictures and looking at the area itself. I believe I saw a beware of bears sign in the area. @_@
The next area we went to was the famous fish market with fresh seafood that was practically caught minutes earlier. There were some pretty good deals and there were also seafood items that were well worth over a hundred dollars; the カニ (crabs) for example.
After looking at all the seafood, we all started to get hungry and decided to go and have lunch at the Waterfront of 函館. About four of us, including myself, deviated from the group to avoid drinking some more. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a decent place to eat except for the one were the rest of the group was eating at. So we conceded and joined the main group for lunch. In a feeble attempt to avoid the consumption of more alcohol, I ordered the restaurant’s いちごミルク(Strawberry Milk). And it worked! Not only that, my co-worker, who I call 幼なじみ (osananajimi or childhood friend), also ordered one too along with me. The drink was very cute looking in presentation and even had strawberry flavored ice! The womyn in our group all wanted to try some of my drink and my co-worker who doesn’t drink also ordered one moments later.
After lunch, we did a little bit of shopping and I bought myself a pretty cool looking beanie. After that, the group split into two (I believe); first-timers in函館, myself included, and the others who’ve been here before. So, as for our group, we visited a couple of places. But before that, we had to walk uphill on a street. It’s one of those normal hill streets, however, with the snow, cold, and ice combined, it felt more like a treacherous path where one wrong move can lead you sliding down the hill. So, very slowly and very carefully we reached our next tourist spots which were Christian churches. Japanese people are not very familiar with the Catholic religion and its customs, but do know of the religion and respect its beliefs regardless. As said by a 6th grade teacher and the Junior High School Principal, the Japanese accept all gods and God. They also seem to find this way of thinking a bit funny themselves.
After the brief visits to the churches, we visited the Old British Consulate of Hakodate. It is now a museum of the city’s history of the British’s visit to the city. After trying as much as I can to understand what was in the museum since I haven’t the slightest clue on how to read most of the Kanji, our group had some tea in the café within the consulate.
As we left the consulate, I was a bit uncomfortable outside going down some stairs without handrails. I’m telling you all, I have a sense for these things. And so, I slipped and took a pretty hard spill. I don’t like stairs very much. I’m always hesitant on stairs now after the many bad incidents I’ve had. But it’s good to know that my spidey-senses are still working at a good level, just not good enough for me to actually react and avoid the danger. =/
So as many of my co-workers helped me up and freaked out, hoping that I wasn’t seriously hurt anywhere, we continued on our way to another museum that had history of Northern Japan’s native people, the Ainu.
After the visit to the Ainu museum, we met up with the rest of the group at 函館山 (Hakodate-san or Mt. Hakodate). We boarded one of those large cab lifts that carry about 100 people and scales up the mountain to a little area where you can witness the famous 百万ドラーの景色 (Hyakuman Doraa no Keshiki or “Million Dollar View”).
I’ll let the picture speak for itself
We then headed back down the mountain to go eat dinner and, lo and behold, consume more alcohol. The dinner was very nice actually. A lot of crab, soup, sashimi, beer, and sake. Not much to talk about hear besides the usual event of my co-workers getting their fill on beer and alcohol.
After the lavish dinner, we visited a famous area in Hakodate where there were a bunch of tiny restaurants and bars that only fit as little as six customers to as much as ten. To keep things short, we all ate and drank again. And not only were we bar-hopping, but we were also “food”-hopping too. First, two of my office mates and I had some normal bar food and sake at a restaurant across the street from this area. Next, we met up with the rest of the crew at this one BBQ place where I was served a bunch of finger foods and whale. Yes, I said whale. Apparently, I ate whale. So I guess the saying, “I’m so hungry that I can eat a whale,” really holds true. It didn’t taste that great, nor did it taste that bad. I was neutral on it. So after the whale eating incident, I had Hakodate’s famous しょうラメン (Shou RAMEN Salt Ramen).
After all the gluttony, the group (or better put, what’s left of the group) decided to call it a night and sleep in.
I forgot to mention that our hotel rooms were double occupancy, yet each of us had our own room. I’m not trying to confuse you or anything, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
After about maybe four to five hours of sleep, we all woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. Just normal breakfast food, or what’s normal in Japan (some regular breakfast food and Japanese breakfast foods which include miso soup, rice, and fish).
After finishing up breakfast, we returned to the train station where we all bought souvenirs and gifts for some of our other fellow co-workers. In the process of waiting for our train to arrive, we all had more rounds of beer and sake. Lalalala….(You can tell I’m getting tired writing about this now and I’m sure if you’re reading this that you’re getting tired too since you already know what’s most likely going to happen next at EVERY stop our group takes.)
Boarded the train, and before the train even started moving, had more rounds of beer and sake and our lunch was also handed out to us. During the whole chaotic process, I somehow lost my train tickets. Sigh, still very embarrassed about that. Luckily, the train we were on had many delays due to heavy snow (don’t forget about all the snow that I’ve been experiencing) and many people, including our group, missed the train that we were supposed to transfer on. Lucky for me because everyone’s ticket is practically useless, so I was able to get a free pass and not pay for the whole train trip twice. So we had to wait an additional hour for the next train to arrive in which we all drank cold sake in about -10 degree Centigrade weather (about 14 degrees Fahrenheit). I couldn’t run away from this one. I had nowhere to go, and tried to yell for help while hiding behind our secretary who was on the phone talking to her husband. And so, as we boarded the packed train, many of us had to stand in the compartments. The trains that we were riding were the bullet trains in which everyone is supposed to have a seat, but due to the delays, the train was packed full of people who missed the previous transfer train. My co-workers were already gone and decided that it was a good a place as any to take a nap (on the floor in a fully packed train).
I was told to use this picture as a means to blackmail them one day. Haha, good times.
We arrived back at Sendai and boarded our bus that took us back to our little town of 西川. After about two more hours of drinking and a stop off in between where we ate a quick dinner and stocked up on more strawberry milks. =p
Peace , <3 , & =)
Note: Next time I’ll keep a running diary with times because you won’t believe what my co-workers did at certain times of the day.
So on Friday the 8th of January, the 西川町 (Nishikawa Town) Board of Education set out on its trip to函館. I got on the bus from my work at 6:30 p.m. and left on a 2 hour bus ride to the train station in 仙台 (Sendai). Right upon sitting down in my seat on the bus, I noticed about more than half my co-workers’ faces were already red from drinking alcohol (beer, wine, sake). Right when I sat down, I was already being yelled at to hurry and start drinking. So, opened up a can of Asahi Super Dry beer and chugged away. I sat there thinking to myself that this was going to be a long trip before we end up at 函館.
Our first stop was at a convenient store where we picked up a few snacks and foods, stocked up on some liquids, and picked up the last of my co-workers, the one who can actually speak English pretty well. At this time, I believe my co-workers are already drunk out of their minds, let alone that it was only 7:30 p.m. in the evening.
In an attempt to get them to stop pestering me about not drinking, I take up drinking a very cute and quite tasty drink of いちごミルク(Strawberry Milk). So, everyone had their laughs since it is considered such a “girly” drink. But, at least it stopped them from having me drink more beer/sake/wine.
So after about 2 hours of drinking on the bus, we reached Sendai where we all had a really nice dinner and more drinks. The boss at the B.O.E. branch office sat next to me and halfway through dinner, he lied down and fell asleep. He actually doesn’t drink, but he sleeps like crazy everywhere. So at this second instance of eating and drinking, my co-workers are getting drunk out of their minds now to the point where I needed to help a couple of them to just walk to the train station which was only about 3 blocks away.
Upon reaching the platform where our train was going to be located, everyone was on their cell phone since they couldn’t find the designated cab area of where we were supposed to board the train. I found it quite easily actually and it was my thinking that they were all just two drunk to figure it out. And so, when they finally believed me that I knew where it was, the coordinator of the trip yelled my name and hugged me. In my previous entry, he’s the dude with his glass raised next to me in the last picture. My other co-worker was already knocked out and sitting sleeping. So what did we do? We took funny pictures with him of course.
We’re pretending that he’s Buddha. The guy to the left is the one who doesn’t drink but is constantly sleeping. He’s a weird but interesting fellow.
So as we waited about 30 minutes until our train arrived, my fellow co-workers found it a good a time as any to start drinking sake. Everyone was poured a cup of sake and drank until the train arrived. As for myself, I headed upstairs to the convenient mart so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. =P
So the train finally came and we got into our compartments. The compartments were 2 beds stacked on top of each other on each side making a total of four beds. It was my first time on an overnight train since the train ride lasted about 7 hours. I wasn’t really sleepy so I headed out to the lounge area where a bunch of people were eating, drinking, and conversing with each other. I was followed by about 10 of my co-workers where they found a nifty little area with a table and started another drinking session. At this time, it was about 11:30 p.m. and we had to be awake and out at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. So counting this drinking session, this is the 4th time in a span of 5 hours. Realistically, my co-workers haven’t actually stopped drinking since my time on the bus. So after having some short chit chat with the foreigners, I went back and hung out with my crew since they were way more interesting and entertaining. I think I went to bed at around 2:00 a.m., but that’s just a rough estimate.
It was actually hot in the compartment, and since I had a hard time sleeping, I woke up at around 4:30 p.m. Got my stuff together, put on a bunch of layers of clothing, and waited until the train stopped. We got of the train and arrived at函館 around 6:30 p.m. We waited at the train station for about an hour until our cabs arrived to drop our stuff off at the hotel. Looking around the area, there was a lot less snow than in my town. However, it was much colder and the ground was really slippery. The average temperature was about 10 degrees to give you an idea about how cold it was.
So, for breakfast, we went to the nearest restaurant strip that also had a small fish market. And, as 函館 is known for, there was a place where you can buy live crabs. There are two types, the smaller fatter type crabs and the huge legged crabs that put the Alaskan king crabs on Deadliest Catch to shame. Not only that, but the small crabs cost as little as $30 and go as much as $60 while the huge ones can go higher than $100.
And they taste absolutely delicious too.
The place where we ate breakfast was pretty expensive. Many of the meals averaged about $15 and they weren’t typical breakfast food. They were mostly bowls of rice topped with an assortment of seafood like crab meat, squid, いくら (salmon eggs), and うに (uni a.k.a. sea urchin). It was about 7:30 a.m. at this time and the most shocking thing happened next as we ate our breakfast. Most of the guys from our group ordered beer as drinks. Yeah, they ordered BEER from breakfast. I mean think about it, “Beer. The breakfast of champions.” I was more shocked at the fact they were all drinking beer for breakfast let alone having been drunk 5 hours earlier for drinking about 8 hours straight the previous day. That is why I will keep a running diary with times on our next trip.
So after breakfast and drinking (note: I didn’t drink beer for breakfast. I draw the line at breakfast and that line is solid and clear.), we hopped on the street car (you know, those trains in the middle of the streets with the lines running above them) and headed to the local おんせん (onsen) for a bath.
After having the feeling of being boiled alive in the おんせん, the whole crew relaxed in the lounge before we headed out to our next destination. Before we left, everyone had a couple more rounds of beer and sake. Actually, it was quite refreshing having a little to drink after a very nice bath. It would of probably felt even better if it wasn’t already the 6th time the whole gang has been drinking in a span of 15 hours. And finally, we all went on our way to do some sightseeing.
For the first real tourist spot, we visited 五稜郭タワー (Goryokaku Tower).
In the tower, there’s a 360 degree view floor where you can see much of 函館. Even more famous is its view of the五稜郭(Goryokaku) area.
And so we went into the 五稜郭 area and walked around for a bit while taking pictures and looking at the area itself. I believe I saw a beware of bears sign in the area. @_@
The next area we went to was the famous fish market with fresh seafood that was practically caught minutes earlier. There were some pretty good deals and there were also seafood items that were well worth over a hundred dollars; the カニ (crabs) for example.
After looking at all the seafood, we all started to get hungry and decided to go and have lunch at the Waterfront of 函館. About four of us, including myself, deviated from the group to avoid drinking some more. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a decent place to eat except for the one were the rest of the group was eating at. So we conceded and joined the main group for lunch. In a feeble attempt to avoid the consumption of more alcohol, I ordered the restaurant’s いちごミルク(Strawberry Milk). And it worked! Not only that, my co-worker, who I call 幼なじみ (osananajimi or childhood friend), also ordered one too along with me. The drink was very cute looking in presentation and even had strawberry flavored ice! The womyn in our group all wanted to try some of my drink and my co-worker who doesn’t drink also ordered one moments later.
After lunch, we did a little bit of shopping and I bought myself a pretty cool looking beanie. After that, the group split into two (I believe); first-timers in函館, myself included, and the others who’ve been here before. So, as for our group, we visited a couple of places. But before that, we had to walk uphill on a street. It’s one of those normal hill streets, however, with the snow, cold, and ice combined, it felt more like a treacherous path where one wrong move can lead you sliding down the hill. So, very slowly and very carefully we reached our next tourist spots which were Christian churches. Japanese people are not very familiar with the Catholic religion and its customs, but do know of the religion and respect its beliefs regardless. As said by a 6th grade teacher and the Junior High School Principal, the Japanese accept all gods and God. They also seem to find this way of thinking a bit funny themselves.
After the brief visits to the churches, we visited the Old British Consulate of Hakodate. It is now a museum of the city’s history of the British’s visit to the city. After trying as much as I can to understand what was in the museum since I haven’t the slightest clue on how to read most of the Kanji, our group had some tea in the café within the consulate.
As we left the consulate, I was a bit uncomfortable outside going down some stairs without handrails. I’m telling you all, I have a sense for these things. And so, I slipped and took a pretty hard spill. I don’t like stairs very much. I’m always hesitant on stairs now after the many bad incidents I’ve had. But it’s good to know that my spidey-senses are still working at a good level, just not good enough for me to actually react and avoid the danger. =/
So as many of my co-workers helped me up and freaked out, hoping that I wasn’t seriously hurt anywhere, we continued on our way to another museum that had history of Northern Japan’s native people, the Ainu.
After the visit to the Ainu museum, we met up with the rest of the group at 函館山 (Hakodate-san or Mt. Hakodate). We boarded one of those large cab lifts that carry about 100 people and scales up the mountain to a little area where you can witness the famous 百万ドラーの景色 (Hyakuman Doraa no Keshiki or “Million Dollar View”).
I’ll let the picture speak for itself
We then headed back down the mountain to go eat dinner and, lo and behold, consume more alcohol. The dinner was very nice actually. A lot of crab, soup, sashimi, beer, and sake. Not much to talk about hear besides the usual event of my co-workers getting their fill on beer and alcohol.
After the lavish dinner, we visited a famous area in Hakodate where there were a bunch of tiny restaurants and bars that only fit as little as six customers to as much as ten. To keep things short, we all ate and drank again. And not only were we bar-hopping, but we were also “food”-hopping too. First, two of my office mates and I had some normal bar food and sake at a restaurant across the street from this area. Next, we met up with the rest of the crew at this one BBQ place where I was served a bunch of finger foods and whale. Yes, I said whale. Apparently, I ate whale. So I guess the saying, “I’m so hungry that I can eat a whale,” really holds true. It didn’t taste that great, nor did it taste that bad. I was neutral on it. So after the whale eating incident, I had Hakodate’s famous しょうラメン (Shou RAMEN Salt Ramen).
After all the gluttony, the group (or better put, what’s left of the group) decided to call it a night and sleep in.
I forgot to mention that our hotel rooms were double occupancy, yet each of us had our own room. I’m not trying to confuse you or anything, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
After about maybe four to five hours of sleep, we all woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. Just normal breakfast food, or what’s normal in Japan (some regular breakfast food and Japanese breakfast foods which include miso soup, rice, and fish).
After finishing up breakfast, we returned to the train station where we all bought souvenirs and gifts for some of our other fellow co-workers. In the process of waiting for our train to arrive, we all had more rounds of beer and sake. Lalalala….(You can tell I’m getting tired writing about this now and I’m sure if you’re reading this that you’re getting tired too since you already know what’s most likely going to happen next at EVERY stop our group takes.)
Boarded the train, and before the train even started moving, had more rounds of beer and sake and our lunch was also handed out to us. During the whole chaotic process, I somehow lost my train tickets. Sigh, still very embarrassed about that. Luckily, the train we were on had many delays due to heavy snow (don’t forget about all the snow that I’ve been experiencing) and many people, including our group, missed the train that we were supposed to transfer on. Lucky for me because everyone’s ticket is practically useless, so I was able to get a free pass and not pay for the whole train trip twice. So we had to wait an additional hour for the next train to arrive in which we all drank cold sake in about -10 degree Centigrade weather (about 14 degrees Fahrenheit). I couldn’t run away from this one. I had nowhere to go, and tried to yell for help while hiding behind our secretary who was on the phone talking to her husband. And so, as we boarded the packed train, many of us had to stand in the compartments. The trains that we were riding were the bullet trains in which everyone is supposed to have a seat, but due to the delays, the train was packed full of people who missed the previous transfer train. My co-workers were already gone and decided that it was a good a place as any to take a nap (on the floor in a fully packed train).
I was told to use this picture as a means to blackmail them one day. Haha, good times.
We arrived back at Sendai and boarded our bus that took us back to our little town of 西川. After about two more hours of drinking and a stop off in between where we ate a quick dinner and stocked up on more strawberry milks. =p
Peace , <3 , & =)