Thursday, May 9, 2024

D1 Flight & Arrival in Hokkaido - Hakodate 函館 & Goryokaku Tower

9~21May2024 13D13N Hokkaido adventure
 
Thank you Lynn for providing her plan with many places of interest in Hokkaido, making it easy to route this whole trip together.

Here's our travel route, covering the SouthWest & central part of Hokkaido

Also, thank you Sam again, we were able to reach the airport (T2) on time for
our flight on 8 May 2024 night.

"Wonderfall" at departure hall




Dined here but the food was not so fantastic.

Short visit to the sunflower garden.
Although it was dark, managed to use night mode for this photo.

The enchanting forest also in T2 transit area.





The mascots came out to play







Fresh & excited faces, boarded and ready for flight.

Flying off on time @1015 pm

The snack bag provided by ANA is good!!


Breakfast sets that were being served








Arrived at Haneda International T2,
which was very lucky as we need not make any transfer between terminals.
We were due to board our domestic flight for Hakodate at T2 Domestic.

It took quite a while to clear the customs, and finally we are out.

First thing we did was drop off our luggage at the Connections counter, for our domestic flight.

We had time to shop around as we had a almost 3-hr transit.


The expiry was too short for the Tokyo Bananas, so we can't buy it.

Noi bought those for me before - the yummy warabi mochi!!

So we bought some to try

The shops were not all open so early in the morning, but we managed to find this cafe.




😋😋

We also had time to go to the train station at Basement to top up our IC cards.

As we still had time, we took a nap while waiting

The boarding time for domestic flight was like 30 mins before flight.
When it was time, we had to take a bus to get to the plane.






Flying off at 945 am, on time!

The flight will take about 1 hr 15 mins








Arrived quite on time at 1105 am JPT

Our adventure beginning from Hakodate, 函館!!



Taking the Airport shuttle to Hakodate center.
After confirming with the driver that IC card cannot be used, we prepared cash to pay when alighting.
The fee is 500 yen/pax

We were lucky we were able to get on the bus, as the driver does not allow people to board when it's full.

We waited for a while on the shuttle, and it left on time at 1135 am.


We see the beautiful Pacific ocean as the bus drove past.




Arrived at Hakodate JR station in about 20 mins.

The first thing we did was to validate our Hokkaido JR pass for 10-days
As we had time, we also managed to reserve all the necessary trains for our travel.
The lady behind the JR ticket counter was very kind to help us reserve instead of asking us to go to the Midori counter (which closes during lunch time).


Our hotel was just beside the JR station, 4 mins walk.



Dropping off our luggage first.



First stop was our lunch venue.
As you may know, Hokkaido is famous for ramen. There are 3 types to try, shio, shoyu & miso.
In Hakodate, we must try shio ramen, 塩ラーメン.

Hakodate Noodles Enjin 炎陣, just 2 mins walk from JR Inn


Most of the ramen restaurants in Japan requires us to buy meal tickets from a vending machine








This is Shio ramen. As it is salted, it looks quite plain.
However, it tastes quite good and not too oily, so it doesn't feel queasy after eating. 😋

Back to the JR center to the bus terminal next.





A park was spotted in front of the bus terminal, full of colourful tulips and pansies.
We had time to look around while waiting for the 2 pm bus.






















Rokkatei Isabidori 六花亭 漁火通店
There are many Rokkatei around Hokkaido, however, this branch in Hakodate stands out because it is located by the seaside.



Souvenirs are being sold at level 1







The cafe is on the 2nd level, and we were going to have tea break.














It was cold and windy while waiting for the bus back to the JR station.




Changed bus 33 at the terminal



Our next stop - Goryokaku Tower 五稜郭タワー




We can view a star-shaped fort in Goryokaku Park,
so we were gonna go up to the observatory to take a look.
If we arrived a week earlier, we could have seen the whole park of pink sakuras.



























Cute fluffy soft toy of the shima enaga (long-tailed tit), a fluffy white bird native in Hokkaido






We saw this stretch of pink trees while at the observatory and headed to it. 💗


These are Kwanzan Cherry, which bloom 2 weeks after their single-bloom cousins, Yoshino Cherry.









Surprised to see wisterias still in bloom


Taking the tram back to hotel










Checked into our hotel before going for dinner.

This is one of the most value for money hotel, clean and nice.
Although the rooms are not so large, it was enough for us to place our luggage.
The plus point is it's location, which is located just beside the train station.
The hotel also has a unique service, which allows us to select from a range of soft to hard pillows.
The pillows do run out very fast, so be sure to grab as soon as we see the pillows on the shelves.









Dinner place in Daimon Yokocho 大門横丁, 炭山肉男 Tanzan Nikuo izakaya.



We gave SK a belated birthday treat



Yum 😋


Yaezakura




We had an early night as we did not sleep well during the flight the night before.
We also skipped visiting the onsen in this hotel, since we will have many chances to go.
Jaa..Oyasuminasai😴

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