Hakodate, Japan

We spent the day in Hakodate, Japan. We are getting into the swing of things and not feeling so overwhelmed with the language issues.
We took a tour to a national park today. The highlight was that it was one of those iconic, perfect early fall days sweetened even more by the horrible rainstorm yesterday. Sun, 70°, and a light breeze complemented our several mile walk on a trail with our guide and a naturalist.
Our Japanese guide had an amazing grasp of the English language, many times experimenting with words like “trendy” or when asking about sunlight through the trees, tried out the word “dappled” and then spelled it. In any case, Japanese is difficult at best and it was interesting to see someone whose native language is Japanese embrace another language with the zest he showed.
Our walks afforded views of an active volcano (there are a lot of those around here) that last erupted 400 years ago 15x more violently than Mount St. Helens. We walked on pathways that wove between lakes and passed tiny islands.
For the first time this trip, we actually may have burned 1 drink’s worth of calories!
We are halfway through our trip, and it seems like this is when the time starts to fly.
By the way, everywhere you go has a Toto toilet.
The one at the park today had more buttons than I had time to read. Besides all the water buttons, the was a heat button and a music button.
See you tomorrow!Read more