1 Otaru http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/otaru/ Thu, 09 Oct 2014 20:40:16 +0000 Jayne http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/?p=193 Thursday 2/10/14 Today we arrived at the “Little City of the Hills”. Its history is as a fishing port but it is popular now as a place to ski in winter.
We started our day with a trip to ‘The Herring Mansion ‘ which was built in 1897. It was the mansion of a fishing magnate – who made the family fortune trading red herring. The fortune was made and lost in 3 generations when numbers of red herring in the area suddenly plummeted in the 1950’s. This was different to othe buildings we’ve seen as the purpose of the mansion was to be a luxury home for a wealthy family so displays of wealth were everywhere. Unfortunately we were only allowed to photograph in one room so I don’t have many pics to post, but it really was impressive!
The dining/ banquet hall seated over 300 guests and had the handpainted ceiling we’ve seen elsewhere and the walls were decorated with large paintings.
The mansion contained several bathrooms. Each on had porcelain slippers, decorated in blue and white, where you placed your feet when you used the toilet The washbasin/ vanity areas were made of marble. There was a toilet designed for the lady of the house to use when wearing her kimono, it had the porcelain slippers and a raised porcelain toilet so she could lift her kimono and use it standing up. There was also an internal ‘laundry’ area which was uncommon. The various bedrooms and offices were beautifully decorated with paintings and furniture made of carved timber with mother of pearl inlaid. There was one ‘western’ room that contained chairs and lovely sideboard as well as many traditional Japanese rooms. It’s a shame we couldn’t get pictures as it really was amazing. After this we took a Gondola ride up Mt Tengu. The view from the top was incredible, you could see right across the city.
We went for a bit of a walk around the mountain top area which was filled with trees changing colours. There was a small Shinto shrine at the top in a lovely wooded area. It was nice to spend some time just walking around here enjoying the views.
Then we drove in to town to visit the Otaro canal area. And then we had a hour or so to just wander around and visit the shops. It was a great shopping area- as usual there was food every second step. This shop was intriguing – it a model of the back half of a cow sticking out of the front of the shop.
We found a wonderful Samuri shop and also the Hello Kitty shop. It was a lovely afternoon just wandering around town. 193 2014-10-09 20:40:16 2014-10-09 20:40:16 open open otaru publish 0 0 post 0 Cruising Diamond Princess
Hakodate http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/hakodate/ Thu, 09 Oct 2014 21:05:28 +0000 Jayne http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/?p=217 Friday 3/10/14 We decided to explore Hakodate on our own today so; armed with maps and timetables we set off just after 8am in a taxi and headed out to the Goryokaku – the star shaped fort. Our strategy was to get there early and beat the tourist buses so we had more time to look around and less people around. We spent about a bit over an hour walking around before the tourist buses started to arrive.
The layout of the fort is in the shape of a pentagon, based on similar styled forts in Europe. It was built in 1857 – 1864 by the Edo Shogunate after the Japan US trade agreement was signed and trade opened up with the west. The location was chosen with ease of defence in mind as the original site had been too close to the port to defend in case of attack by sea. This is a model of the original fort and four more sets of walls were added later ( like the one triangle on the right) to reinforce the outer walls.
The original buildings were destroyed but they have built a partial replica of the magistrates’ office using traditional Japanese building techniques and we did a tour of that.. The magistrates’ office was located inside the fort and it was the centre for the shogunate governments’ administration of the Edo region and the diplomatic outpost. It consisted of various offices were business was conducted. The room used depending on what rank or how important the visitors were. In the centre of the building was a five story drum tower so that the drummers could be heard all over the fort site which was about 3 hectares. We were given headphones and listened to a talk as we walked around following a map of the building. There were also other buildings originally inside the fort such as jails, stables, storage etc.
The fort area is now a huge public park and we spent some time walking around up on top of the walls . Again it’s hard to do justice to just how big and impressive it is with photos. A moat surrounds the fort and huge high stone walls that have paths on top and room for horses, canons and troops.
From the top of the walls we could see the whole city, right out to the ocean / port area. The forts and castles we’ve seen all are designed to funnel intruders into areas where they can be attacked from above if they make it past the moats and outer walls and you can easily see how they would have moved men, horses, supplies about up on the walls in battle. The fort was the site of the last battle of the civil war in Japan – The Battle of Hakodate. The fort held off the Imperial Army for seven months before being defeated. This battle marked the end of the feudal period in Japan. After the fort we decided to walk into town so we could just look around the streets. We followed the tram lines and ended up walking for over 2 hours. Tony stopped in at an phone store to try and buy a prepaid SIM card. The shop assistant used and ipad with google translate to talk to him, they also have a phone translator service available in many shops in Japan. The end result was that you can’t buy pre- paid SIMs here; you can only get a contract so we left and continued our walk. It was nice just walking around the streets of Japan away from the tourist spots.
Back in town we headed for the morning fish markets where there is just more seafood, alive, dead, fresh and frozen than you can imagine. Japan would be a seafood lover’s delight – unfortunately I don’t like it, but it was great to visit the markets. You can catch your own squid and then have it cooked for you.
The other thing that was everywhere was rockmelons. They were $6 each or $2.50 a slice. These people were sitting a little table on the road eating them, nearby on the street was a tank of squid and guy filleting fresh fish.
Then we walked down to the old red brick warehouses near the wharves which have been turned into shops for bit of sightseeing.
Then it was back to the ship on the shuttle bus at about 3pm. It was good day. The fort was fantastic and it was great to just walk around on our own and see outside the tourist areas. 217 2014-10-09 21:05:28 2014-10-09 21:05:28 open open hakodate publish 0 0 post 0 Cruising Diamond Princess Japan _edit_last 1