No smoking, no perfume, no curry

I set off early today towards Hakodate, my second and last stay in Hokkaido. Since there is no Shinkansen train (yet) between Sapporo and Hakodate it would be a 4 hour long trainride on a Rapid Express train. I therefore planned a short stop in Onumakoen, a quasi national park, to stretch my legs and get some R&R. I can't tell you much about the trainride since i was asleep for almost all of it but i woke up just in time for the station. A short walk took me to the entrance of the park wich had 2 different tracks. One of about 15 minutes and one that would take roughly one hour. I passed al the Chinese tourists taking pictures of themselves with selfie sticks and went on to do the short route first. The weather was really sunny, especially for Hokkaido standards this time of year and so the walk was short but very pleasing. So i decided to do the longer route as well. Despite the heaps of tourists, the track was very quiet and relaxing and offered some nice viewings of the two lakes of onuma, it's islands and the mountainous backdrop. I sat down on a bench and took the time to enjoy it all. Halfway through there were two girls struggling to take a picture of themselves on a bridge so i offered to take the picture for them. I guess i must be a really good photographer since they kept saying "sugoi!" which means something in the lines of "awesome". After finishing my walk i took a short nap in the grassfield near the entrance of the park and after that headed back to the station. The train was a whopping 15 minutes late but i guess nobody really cared because the sun was shining and some people just started taking pictures of the squirrels in the trees. As i arrived in Hakodate it was of to Goryukako park, a city park with loads of colorfol trees and restored buildings from when the park was still in function as a fortress to protect Hakodate from invaders.
It was getting late in the afternoon so i walked to the Aozora Inn, where i would spend the next two nights of my stay. The Innkeeper, a lovely old lady who only spoke Japanese, showed me all about the Inn and my room. The fact that I almost don't speak any Japanese did not stop her from talking and we somehow managed to figure it all out together. The one thing she did know how to say in English was "No smoking, no perfume, no curry". I guessed she just doesn't like strong smells. :-) I took a short nap and a short stroll around the area but there was not much todo so i just went back to my room and watched some baseball before i finally fell asleep.Read more