Hakodate 2.0

During my stay in Setana and after coming back from Sapporo I traveled again to Hakodate to visit some new places which I couldn’t see in my first time there and re-visit some places I really like. This time my stay in this city was from April 4th to April 8th.

Hakodate is a place that I really love, mostly because of the landscape and now that the weather is getting better taking a walk in nearby places is very nice and relaxing!

I had to visit Mount Hakodate for  a second time, in this video I recorded the first time I was there this winter, now days almost all snow is gone and in some areas of the trail I could run :) One could spend hours and hours with the beautiful scenery from this excellent place!!! 

 

Other place we visited this time (Sabina, Mami, Shogo and Me) was the star shaped park named Goryoukaku, sadly I couldn’t  see the famous cherry blossoms in this park, but it’s a very nice place and it has an old government building replica (the original was destroyed by a fire), this place’s architecture is awesome, I want my house with this architectural style! :) Here some photos from the park and the building… In the last picture I’m blinding the monument’s face with one purpose: they say that if you touch this guy’s face you will become more clever! :O !!!

 

 

After the star-shaped park we visited what it used to be a Christian monastery , a very interesting and rare place in Japan. Now days the area is just a small tourist town. On the way to the monastery we had green tea ice cream and everybody was very happy…

This time we could also visit a very nice guy who’s main dedication is carpentry. Here we all built a type of wooden box which I gave as a present for my host family in Setana. We had a great afternoon talking with this gentleman… Here some pictures from his workshop…

Finally some photos and a video from my favorite place in Hakodate… The vibe from this place is great!! :D

Ah! And something curious… Hardcore gamers will recognize this sign’s similarity with a particular game… I didn’t knew that portals really exist!!! :O !!!

In the next posts I will tell you about my last days in Setana, my first and present days in Tokyo, my journey to Kyoto and my travel to Korea which is in planning stage…

Live life to the fullest!!! :D

See ya!!! :D

A little trip to Sapporo…

You possibly know Sapporo because of its beer and/or because some matches of the soccer world cup Korea-Japan 2002 took place here, also Sapporo has been host to  some winter Olympics and it has one of the best snow festivals of this world…

As I was relatively close to this city (like 3 hours by bus) I felt I had to seize the day and travel there. So I planned the trip with Sabina-San and Deguchi-San and from march 27 to 30th we decided to stay in Sapporo. Here we met Koyuki-san and the travel company was complete…

After staying 1 month in Setana I have to admit that I missed the city and the arrival to Sapporo was very nice, the life style here is not as fast as in Tokyo and you don’t see as much people but still this is a mega city (is the 5th most important of Japan).

  

The 4 day trip went off very fast but I visited very nice places and I also bought some things needed for the cold Hokkaido winter… I have to thank so much to Deguchi-San because we could stay at her family’s house and, as every Japanese I’ve met until now, they where very very kind people :) Here some photos with Deguchi’s Parents, Deguchi herself and Sabina (from Switzerland)…

In Sapporo we visited a zoo, Hokkaido Jingu (a very famous temple), Sapporo Factory Shopping Center (where they used to make the famous beer), a restaurant where I ate the most delicious ramen until now (and where a drunk guy made a portrait of me…) and some sightseeing with my friends… Some pictures…

  

 

 

Here’s also an improvised video (as all of them) with a view of the plaza in front of the main train station…

The 4 days went off very quickly and at the end we took the bus and I returned to Setana. Here’s a picture I took the afternoon on my way back and another sunset in a different Japanese city…

Now I’m in Hakodate again taking a small 1 week vacation and on April 8th I’ll return to Setana for 5 more days… This excellent and very important period of my life in Setana is coming to an end and then I’ll return to Tokyo from where I will be reporting the situation… Finally a picture with the best ramen I’ve had in my life until now…

Wherever you are… Be happy!! :)