I told my sister I think I’m eating my weight in mayonnaise. Most of the things I get at the combini seems to have mayo in it. I hid inside today until it was time to leave because it’s supposed to be 90°F today and the humidity is on top of that. Holy cow. Anyway, I got breakfast at the combini and took it onto the shinkansen. Just wandering around in the morning looking for a combini made me sweat quite a bit.

I guess Ichinoseki is similar to the shinkansen stop near my grandmother’s because there was no one getting on the train. And the green car was mostly empty. (There was one lady hiding in there.)

I switched Shinkansen trains at Morioka and the next train was much more full. Everyone was headed to Hokkaido. I didn’t take any pictures of the ride or of the trains. Lots of people were taking pictures of the Hokkaido trains and the signs that said, “Welcome to Hokkaido.” I even slept through the announcements about passing through the $7B Seikan Tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait.

I got to Hakodate and realized I’d booked a stay at a Sheraton. I think I figured I needed a break after all the random hotels beforehand. Well, the random hotels weren’t so bad.

I’m wasn’t that impressed by Hakodate. There’s really not all that much here. There’s the history of foreigners initially coming here, but it’s like going to Kobe but removing three-quarters of the stuff. I mean, here’s a bunch of people standing at the top of a hill taking pictures down hill of almost nothing.

I went to the red brick buildings, and as the tourist information person said, that was like Yokohama but MUCH SMALLER.

I tried to go to the Lucky Pierrot (suggested by a co-worker) at the red brick buildings but it was packed. Funny thing is, two blocks away I found another Lucky Pierrot and there was no one in line. I was completely underwhelmed by the chicken sandwich which was my co-worker’s favorite.

And underwhelmed by the hamburger. I also miscalculated and they were huge; I didn’t finish them.

You know who else didn’t finish his sandwich? This Filipino kid who got the Surprise sandwich.

I went exploring the Motomachi area and it was also underwhelming and I finally made it to the ropeway to the top of Mt. Hakodate. I had to ask: can you walk up instead? They told me it would take an hour and it did not.

It was hot, the trail got small at times, and it was quite a ways up. 1096ft to the top, and I started at sea level.

I even took a bad selfie looking directly into the sun.

I didn’t feel like walking back down so I took the ropeway.

After my hike up the hill I felt better about everything and I still had to see the “oldest concrete telephone pole in Japan.” That really tells you how much nothing there is here when they advertise stuff like that on every tourist map in town.

Hakodate beer was on the way back, but I was thwarted for a little bit.

The brewery is inside the restaurant and the bar faces the tanks.

The beer was unremarkable.

I decided just to go to the bar and have an Onuma beer for dinner, but the bar is only open Thu-Sat and it’s Tuesday. So off to the combini again. The onigiri are Sea Chicken and Mayo (my favorite) and Bacon and Egg. I can’t even remember what I thought of the Bacon and Egg now. I also got the Seven-Eleven karaage chicken to compare with the Lawson fiasco and it was much better. Probably more than I needed. Oh, and since Onuma beer is being advertised everywhere and is also in the Seven-Eleven, I got an IPA. It’s not that great.

Honestly, I think I’d rather be in Ichinoseki, but the weird thing is, it’s not as humid here. In fact, Wikipedia makes mention of the high humidity in the areas I was just in. Ah well, I’m just being picky. I’m having fun and I don’t need to rate the cities I’m in.