There were puffy clouds in the bright and brisk blue sky here in Hakodate today (a high of 4°C/ 44°F).
I lucked out: the Mount Hakodate Ropeway reopened just today, following its annual autumn maintenance closure of 20 days.
The Mt. Hakodate Ropeway first opened on November 15, 1958.Well hello there. Passing the gondola that is on the way down.The view from the top. Mount Hakodate (函館山, Hakodateyama) is a 334 m (1,096 ft) high, wooded mountain at the southern end of the peninsula on which much of central Hakodate is located. Those are the waters of the Tsugaru Strait between Hokkaido and Honshu. Much further out, where the horizon meets the sky, will be the north Pacific Ocean.Hakodate and Mt Hakodate sits on a peninsula in Tsugaru Strait. So these two bays and bodies of water are both part of the Strait.Antenna towers on top of Mt Hakodate.Back on the ground, and now I am walking along the neighborhood streets of Motomachi to check out some of the churches that I saw from the top of the mountain. A few leaves are still on the trees displaying late, late autumn colors.The Motomachi Catholic Church has a striking red roof.This wayside shrine is called a a kiot (kee-OT, киот) in Russian Orthodox tradition. This one depicts St. Nikolai of Japan and is a devotional marker and not a gravestone. And here is the Hakodate Orthodox Church which was constructed in 1916 in a Russian-Byzantine architecture.Views of the harbor can be seen from the streets on the slopes of Motomachi.This is Motomachi Park. The squid (ika) is heavily embraced as a symbol and mascot of Hakodate, famously represented by Ikaaru-Seijin (the “Squid Alien” or “man from planet squid”), a quirky half-man, half-alien squid mascot.A panoramic view taken from Motomachi Park.An Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus), known in Japan as スズメ (suzume).The Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward sits just above Motomachi Park. This is the renovated building that was originally constructed in 1910.Beautiful trees and fall colors.Taking the Hakodate bus back to the hotel.Another nod to the squid as mascot of Hakodate.Gigantic doors (doesn’t look like they really open or close, though) on the Hakodate Beer hall and restaurant, close to my hotel.
