Hakodate – Door to Hokkaido

So after our scrumptious crab meal in Sapporo we hopped onto the train to Hakodate.

What’s so special about Hakodate, why visit?  It was the first post opened up to the foreign powers after Perry’s black ships arrived.  It also used to be the biggest city in Hokkaido, before a fire leveled it.   Oh, and the other reason we were there is because our trip guide/dictator had decided that we must most absolutely view this manifold treasure of Hokkaido (sorry, just watched the Best Exotic Merrygold Hotel and its rubbing off on me).

There were interesting methods of transport.

And interesting manhole covers.

But there was no time to tarry as we had a date with a view.

And I do literally mean that.

We took a cable car to the top a nearby hill to enjoy this.

And stuck around for the beautiful sunset.

And as the sunset, we saw what everyone else had been waiting for.

Ok.  I lie.  This is not what people came to see.  Although I do think that my photo is good enough to feature in somewhere like the Tate Modern.  The blurb for this photo would read something like “the emulsion of light symbolizes how humanity spears open the dark skies in its pursuit of shadow” or something like that.

And for those of you looking for a serious picture.  This is what we actually saw.

After looking at the view for a while, I got hungry.  Then again, most things make me hungry.  So we descended the hill (by cable car thank you very much.  No more walking  in the dark for the moment) and found a nice looking izakaya.

First off, a healthy salad so that we can pretend that we are eating our five a day.

Then moving onto real food.  Butter fried scallops.  Mhmmm.  I think I need to explain something at this point.  Hokkaido has some of the freshest seafood in the world, as well as mutant crabs (see next post) which means I was busy stuffing my face as usual.  No quiet eating this time.

Followed up by grilled salmon, just lightly seared on both sides and still moist in the middle.

And sashimi scallop and prawns.  So fresh that they taste oh so sweet and slide down your throat.

And this is whale bacon.  It is from mink whale (which is not endangered) but I didn’t really like it.  It had a rubbery taste.

This is seafood pasta.  Crab, fish roe and sea urchin all mixed into fresh pasta. I think the Italians should pick up some lessons from this.

And some carbs.  Potato croquette.

And to finish, some more scallops.

Score for dinner 8/10.  Simple but delicious!