DAY 2: Tokyo to Hakodate

As I mentioned yesterday, the reason we stayed near Tokyo Central station was so we could easily get to the Japan Rail Office in the morning to exchange our vouchers for rail passes and book seats on our first train.

It seems that the queues of day one were to repeat themselves again today, and when we arrived not long after the JR office opened at 7:30am we joined a queue of about 30 other tourists wanting to also exchange their pass vouchers. It soon became evident that 30 people were going to take a while, when we counted the young man at the “Pass Exchange Booth” taking about 10 minutes to do each exchange. I am already learning that the Japanese undertake things very methodically and carefully, and even if a queue is long, that the answer is to ensure the queue is well organised, not to rush!

If you have read my blog before, you will know that its best not to let me get ‘hangry’, and with the queue moving very slowly I could see Dave getting anxious that I have some breakfast. His suggestion for me to duck away and find something to eat was quickly accepted and I wandered the large station to find something. A ham, cheese, cabbage and mayo wrap was not what I expected to be the first thing I was eating in Japan! None-the-less it hit the spot and by the time I got back to Dave he had inched forward in the queue and my nerves were calmed!

We were originally planning on catching the 9.36am Shinkansen to Hakodate, but by the time we got to the front of the queue it was already close to 9am, so decided to book seats on the 10.42am Hayabusa 19, which left us enough time to get back to the hotel and checkout and for Dave to have a hot chocolate and slice of lemon cake at the small coffee shop under the hotel. I also had a great pot of hot tea!

The 868km train trip to Hakodate (similar distance Sydney to Melbourne) was fabulous. Our seats were very comfortable and spacious, the free Wi-Fi was handy to write the blog, and the snacks I bought at the station (strawberry and cream filled pikelets for Dave, Broccoli and Prawn Sandwich for me), were remarkably good! The bullet train (Shinkansen) travelled at up to 250km/hr, which got us there in just over four hours. Dave mostly read and looked out the window, and I finally started a book I’ve had beside my bed at home for many months!

The further north we got, the more snow there was. To start with it just covered the high peaks in the distance, but as we approached Hakodate, it began to be on the lower nearby hills, then even beside the train tracks. The carriage was toasty warm, but outside it was only a few degrees!

As I mentioned yesterday, Hakodate is on Japans north island, Hokkaido. The railway tunnel under the sea between Honshu and Hokkaido island was finished in 2016. It is nearly 54 km long, with 23km of it sitting 100 metres under the sea bed. I tried not to think about that too much! Hakodate is the ‘end of the line’ currently, but they are planning on extending the high speed rails all the way to Sapporo in the next couple of years.

We changed trains at Shin-Hakodate, just outside of the city, then changed platforms onto a local smaller train for a 20 minute ride into Hakodate town. As we came outside of the station the cold strong wind hit us in the face and we stopped to don our puffer jackets.

The hotel we are staying at in Hakodate is close to the waterfront, so the 10 minute walk there was done rather briskly – the cool wind blowing off the water was bitter and strong! Another queue for check-in and we took the lift to the 9th floor, where our room looked over the town and nearby port. Again pyjamas for us to use were folded and wrapped on our bed, and even though they were khaki, we decided against using them, otherwise I would have taken a picture for all of you to see Dave in Khaki Holiday Sleepwear, rather than his usual Khaki Holiday Uniform 😉

I had booked dinner at the hotel some weeks ago, after reading that it had a highly regarded Teppanyaki restaurant which looked over the bay. I’m not sure how many people do the level of restaurant research that I do, but I wasn’t going to leave it to chance on getting a booking when we arrived. The brochure in the room indicated it was a bit more expensive than I had realised, and I was a little concerned that we might not enjoy it, given we were pretty tired from travelling. As I have mentioned many times, it’s always good to have low expectations… It turned out the night was AMAZING! We had the whole Teppanyaki area to ourselves (and the chef), had a lovely patient waiter who explained everything to us and waiting on us attentively, but not obtrusively, and the food. Oh the food!

I choose a set menu, and Dave chose steak from the a la carte menu. Starting with super-fresh tuna sashimi, then moving on to a range of delicacies all cooked on the teppanyaki grill in front of us. Crisp-skinned fish with steamed clams in butter sauce came next, then vegetables grilled to perfection, and Abalone cooked three ways. I cannot even begin to describe the Abalone… but WOW! A famous variety of rice is grown locally and the garlic fried version which was finished on the grill was exceptionally tasty and the small salad and bowl of Miso soup to finish off the savour elements was equally delicious.

Dave really enjoyed his steak and particularly liked the soy based dipping sauce that came with it. His rice was simply steamed and held together just enough for him to be able to manage to eat it with chopsticks, as you’d expect from short-grained starchy varieties.

Sliced fresh fruits with a scoop of citrussy sharp yogurt sorbet was then served to us both along with a hot cup of ‘Lipton black’ tea. A great way to finish not just a great meal, but a fantastic day! Tomorrow (now today) we will explore Hakodate.