Hakodate Yama!

Gah, I've been pretty bad about blogging lately... I beg off on account of the weekend trip and piles of homework rivaling the height of Mt. Hakodate.

Speaking of which, I finally made it up to the top of aforementioned mountain last Wednesday. I'd been planning on going up earlier, but (predicted) rain/fog had kept me away. (A side note--Japanese weather forecasts, at least in Hakodate, are surprisingly terrible: raining cloud icons on the morning weather report herald gorgeous days and zero percent chance of rain = shower on the walk to school... fortunately by then I was already distrustful enough to have left my umbrella in my bag, and as a result my okaasan and I did not get soaked on our morning walk to the train station.)

Mt. Hakodate is a small mountain (300 meters) near the edge of town. It offers a nice day hike, which the local grandmas seem to take quite often, and a beautiful view of the surrounding area (when the summit is not shrouded in layers of fog which make it look vaguely mysterious). Helen, Jamar and I hiked up after class, stopping along the way to take pictures of the view and puzzle over the kanji inscriptions on the little buddha statues that dot the path on the way up.

pretty!

Jamar, windblown survivor of attack by insane raven near the top of the mountain.

(Seriously, the crows here are enormous and fearless.)

Hakodate, doesn't seem so small when stretched out below you...

At the top we took a bajillion pictures and wandered around the gift shop at the summit. There's also a restaurant with glass walls so you can enjoy the view while you eat, though it seemed lost on the only people there, two businessmen in some sort of serious discussion who were completely ignoring the fact that they were seated next to a stunning view on a perfect day.

some Engrish from the gift shop

Instead of hiking back down, we opted for the cable car... rather exhilerating to descend over the treetops. The cables look quite thin and there are no supports midway, but I'm trusting in the excellence of Japanese engineering here.

cable car

At the base of the mountain we strolled through a nearby park with a fountain commemorating Hakodate's status as the second Japanese city with public waterworks... apparently a big deal because of previous cholera epidemics in the area.

fountain with poetic inscription which Helen couldn't quite explain in English

After that we hit the local gelato shop for some hard-earned tiramisu ice cream at Saltima Bocca, where I earned an eyebrow raise from the cashier by paying for an ice cream cone with a 10,000 yen bill since I was out of change. (That's like 100 dollars, but it's the only denomination that comes out of the ATM at the local Seven-Eleven.)

I'm hoping to go up Mount Hakodate again sometime soon, hopefully after dark since the night view from the summit is supposedly amazing. In the meantime though, it's back to the homework I've been avoiding.