He served Toyotomi Hideyoshi who finally united Japan, and even took part in the ill-fated Korean invasions. After Hideyoshi’s death, he supported Tokugawa Ieyasu. A wise choice since it was Ieyasu who emerged victorious out of the Battle of Sekigahara. Still, neither Hideyoshi nor Ieyasu ever trusted Masamune completely. Masamune was a powerful daimyo and as such a potential rival who also had contacts with foreign missionaries.

Zuihoden is the place where he, his son and grandson are buried and it’s one of the stops on the Sendai Loople bus. The mausoleum was constructed in the architectural style of Monoyama and is an impressive sight. It burned down during the war however and what you can see today is a reconstruction from 1979 and 2001.
Fortunately, their skeletons and burial accessories were recovered. The accessories and a documentary are shown in the Zuihoden Museum.

Despite not being in the mountains, Zuihoden has a serene and detached feel to it. It is surrounded by Japanese cedars.

Note: The Date Masamune statue at the top of this blog post is near the Sendai City Museum, another stop on the Loople.

Fortunately, train connections are already advanced enough to offer express trains. So I took the Super Hakucho from Hakodate to Shin-Aomori and changed there to the Tohoku Shinkansen for Sendai. The green hakucho train almost looks as if it has a mouth, doesn’t it?

Hokkaido and the main island of Japan, Honshu, are connected by a 54 km long tunnel which is 240 meter deep at its deepest point. JR Hokkaido seemed to have the train fan in mind, when they made the info graphic. When riding the train, it just feels like a long tunnel, nothing special at all.
One neat thing on the Super Hakucho is the ticket holder. You will always know where you pick the ticket and if you fall asleep, they can still check the ticket. However, sometimes they want to see the JR Rail Pass too if the pass has been used to reserve the ticket.

The scenery outside was beautiful. But I hoped that I wouldn’t see snow in Sendai.

Back to the diagram for the Seikan Tunnel, there is a station marked on the graphic, the Tappi Undersea Station. This is one of two emergency station in case of an accident. The Seikan is the longest undersea tunnel in the world and was completed in 1988.

Tappi-Kaitei Station can still be visited and has a museum detailing the history of the tunnel. While the underground station on the Hokkaido side (Yoshioka-Kaitei) still provides access in case of an emergency, the museum there has been closed. The same will happen to the one at Tappi-Kaitei once the Shinkansen connection between Hakodate and Aomori will be completed. The station is 140 meter below sea level, an underground cable car connects Tappi-Keitei to the surface. And I thought the tunnels of London’s Tube or Tokyo’s Oedo Line (48 meter) were already deep!

So train fans should visit the tunnel museum before it’s too late.

Otaru has a population over 130000 but I guess many commute to Sapporo for work. I got off at Minami Otaru Station which is a good start for a roundtrip. The immediate area around the station was quite sleepy, but my first destination, Marchen Square, was just a short walk away.

On the way to the square I passed “Kinderlieb”, a hands-on toy store with a German name. “Märchen” is German for fairy tale. On the square (which is more like an intersection) there is a steam clock in front of the music box museum. The clock is activated every full hour:

Otaru has a well-preserved historic street and may also be called the Venice of Hokkaido.Not because of the number of bridges, but because of the canal decorated with oil lamps and Otaru’s glass industry tradition. Even today there are more than ten glass studios in the city. Major glass manufacturer Kitaichi owns a couple of shops and restaurants and the Museo dell’arte Veneziana (Venezian Art Museum). You can dress up in a Venetian dress or carnival costume in the museum.

Otaru has designated scenic areas of historical and cultural importance for preservation. One of these areas is the Sakaimachi Street. The buildings are used today as gift shops, restaurants and glass factories. Also, there is this character shop which seemed out-of-place:

Otaru gets many tourists from Russia which is why all historical sights are explained in Russian in addition to English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

In the evening all stores are closed obviously which was to be expected. Around the canal, I saw more tourists. Otaru Canal is Otaru’s most visited tourist destination and was completed in 1923. The city was one of Japan’s most important ports until the mid-20th century. The historic buildings were all built during Otaru’s trade dominance. There were plans to fill the canal to create a road, but those plans were revised after protests. I guess nowadays no one can imagine that they were actually planning to remove one of the landmarks of Otaru, but in the 50′s and 60′s there were many examples where the old was removed to make space for the new. In this case, they found a compromise: Half of the canal was used to build a road, the other half was left.

With changes in international trade and the loss of its previous importance, Otaru repurposed the warehouses lining the canal. The houses are now used by restaurant and various shops, the side facing the canal remained unchanged.

Obviously, I could only visit a part of what Otaru has to offer. I’d love to visit the music box museum and make my own music box! If you visit Sapporo for the snow festival in February, you should make a short trip to Otaru to see the Otaru Snow Light Path (小樽雪あかりの路), when the city and especially the canal area is decorated with snow candles. This year’s festival is held from February 3 to 12, 5 to 9pm.

I walked to Minami Otaru Station to take the train back to Sapporo. Usually it would make more sense to start there and then walk to Otaru Station from the canal. However, I had to record the Steam Clock on video. The christmas tree at the station somehow reminded me of that old Charlie Brown Christmas movie:

When entering the tram, there is a small machine which prints out little sheets of paper with a number on it. This is important when you leave the tram, as the fare will depend on the distance travelled. If you want to buy a day pass (600 Yen) however, you just need to tell the driver that you want to buy a one day pass. Next time just show this pass to the driver.

The day pass is interesting, as it also has a foldable map inside. There was not much incentive to use it however. Maybe next time, when I have more time to get lost.Different trains are used on the tram lines, with some seemingly historic, while others look more modern. There is supposed to be one tram car which was introduced in 1910 but still running.

Press the button if you want the tram to stop at the next station:

It’s a good thing that trams arrive every ten minutes (after 7pm), as the stations are hardly protected against snow and chilly winds.

A (former) foreigner’s district is not the only thing that Hakodate and Yokohama have in common. Both Japanese cities also have red brick warehouses which are used for various shops nowadays. There are restaurants, cafes, clothing and gift stores and – in Hakodate at least – a super market. The space around and between the warehouses is used for special events such as the Hakodate Christmas Fantasy.

Hakodate Christmas Fantasy is an annual event and each day they light a big christmas tree. I rushed to make it in time from the Goryokoku Fort to Hakodate’s bay area. Turned out I didn’t have to rush at all because there was a lengthy christmas story about a woman from Hakodate and her husband from Halifax, Canada. Halifax and Hakodate are sister towns since 1982.

The lighting of the tree was accompanied with some fireworks. December is not the time for firework festivals here in Japan, unless you go to an amusement park.The warehouses were decorated as well and outside they had tiny houses. Most people didn’t bother to look inside them, but there was actually a different christmas decoration in each of them:

Of course, Hello Kitty is never far away, even if she puts on a clever disguise and hides in a christmas tree.

The Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse is not the cheapest place to shop, but among the nicest in Hakodate. Souvenirs like Hakodate chocolate don’t have to be bought there, as there are souvenir shops at the train station too.

How to get there: Take a tram from Hakodate Station to Jujigai Station and walk.

Of course, the Tokyo one caters to the local taste. Therefore you will find two curry plates on the menu in addition to a hamburger, vegan hot dog, cheese tart, ice cream and a spicy noodle soup. The main dishes are offered as a set with soup and dessert. Take out is an option for any dish (not including the soup).

This is really more of a “take out” place, the chairs they have in the restaurant are uncomfortable to sit on even though I’m slim. The dish I ordered was the Zen Plate for 1000 Yen with teriyaki vegan meat made from soy bean and lotus root.Like the healthy restaurant I visited in Sapporo, this dish consisted of various small dishes. Very yummy and not expensive (for Tokyo). Interestingly, I got a number after my order, although I was their only costumer!

One thing I didn’t like was the TV running in the background. While this is common for most if not all Loving Huts, usually they will mute it. Not so in Tokyo.

Loving Hut is near Tokyo Metro Yotsuya-sanchome on the Marunouchi Line. Get out at exit 4 and then turn left at the first small side street. Walk down about twenty meters. Loving Hut is on the second floor of a small building. Lunch time is from 11:30AM to 3PM, dinner from 5PM to 9PM (last order 8:30PM). On Sunday, the restaurant is open from 12 to 7PM. They are closed on Saturdays and national holidays. The restaurant also takes part in various festivals (not just the Tokyo Vegefood Festa) around Tokyo so you may spot their yellow catering service car there.

Their website, although mostly Japanese, contains descriptions of all dishes in English language. Supposedly, the owners speak English as well.

This city is amazingly convenient for travellers, because of the close proximity of Motomachi district, Mount Hakodate and the Red Brick Warehouses. Originally I wanted to go to Mount Hakodate, however with heavy snow fall sight wasn’t good enough. Even at Motomachi I had to wait for the short periods when there was a bit less snow.

Interestingly, there are a various places of worship almost next to each other such as the Higashi Honganji Temple and the Russian Orthodox Church. All buildings were closed however and few people were outside at that time (8pm). I guess most who were outside were at the Red Brick Warehouses.

The building above is the Hokkaido Prefectural Government’s Old Branch Office. It was first built in 1909 and then renovated in 1982, when the park around it was also constructed. Today, the first floor serves as the Motomachi Tourist Information while the second floor is a museum about Hakodate City.

Parts of this park were nicely illuminated.

While a simple illumination with blue and white LEDs on trees and bushes, it looked pretty together with the snow. All bushes were covered in snow with the light shining through the snow.

There was a walking map where all illumination spots were marked but they also counted the illumination of the buildings.

Leaving Motomachi Park, I walked down the Motoi-zaka Slope. I passed the Old British Consulate of Hakodate which is now used as a souvenir shop and tea house (Victorian Rose).

The star shape of the fort allowed more cannons to be placed while reducing the number of blind spots where cannons couldn’t fire. The fort is a public park today and one of Hakodate’s cherry blossom spots. The nearby Goryokaku Tower offers an excellent view over the fort even though the angled windows of the tower make it hard to get a good shot of the entire fort.

Upon buying the ticket for the observatory deck (840 Yen), I was told that there’s going to be a light-up event starting at 5pm. Of course everybody up there waited for this event!At the observatory deck they also had exhibits describing the civil war – both using figures and amusing comic strips.

There’s a “thrill window” as well which offers a look down. However, it was so scratched that it was impossible to make out the ground at all.

At 5pm the windows facing the fort were quickly occupied. The illumination is quite simple however: No fancy color filter, these are plain lights following the shape of the fort. Interestingly, this is one of the few illumination events which look better on photos than in reality!

The festival is called “Hoshi no Yume” (Dream of Stars) and is held from December 1 to February 27/28. Goryokaku Tower and the fort can be reached by Hakodate’s tram. While Hakodate has two tram lines, they follow the same route from Jujigai to Goryokaku Koen Mae, the station where you have to get off to visit the fort and the tower. Both tram lines stop at Hakodate Station.

Chocolate (or cocoa) is produced since thousands of years. It has been used in religious events, as a currency and even a medicine. Early cultures in South America called it the food of god. While considerably shorter, chocolate has a history in Japan too. Ishiya is a Sapporo-based chocolate company famous for Shiroi Koibito (White Lover), a butter cookie with white chocolate in between. The Shiroi Koibito Park is the place where you can learn more about the history of chocolate, make your own cookies and take a look at the Ishiya factory. There’s actually even more to see there.

There’s not much to do during Winter outside (the park). One booth was open and selling drinks. You can take pictures of the seasonal decoration and illumination. Access to the park and the Ishiya shop is free. The actual museum and factory costs 600 Yen and includes a Shiroi Koibito Passport (in Japanese) and one cookie. If you like to save money, eat the cookie in safe distance from the chocolate factory!

The first stop is the Aurora Fountain, built by a British company in 1870. A few exhibits are shown around the fountain, more can be seen in the second part of the factory walk.

This second part shows you cups from the 18th to early 19th century which were used to drink chocolate. Elaborate designs and the famous Meissen porcelain can be seen and show how much richer people appreciated their chocolate. A gallery displays the packaging labels.

Visitors continue to the time tunnel and the chocolate factory.

This is the education part of the tour, explaining the history of chocolate and the manufacturing process. Explanations in English are limited. The factory can be seen from above – and there’s no Willy Wonka, just workers in their uniform. Taking photos is allowed. You can create your own cookies with the original chocolate in the Cookiecraft Studio (1050 Yen for one cookie, 1575 Yen for two cookies).

The Chocolate Lounge is the place for various chocolate drinks, starting from 525 Yen. They also show “sugarcraft” like these:

Not only chocolate

Shiroi Koibito Park is not only about chocolate. I was surprised to see an extensive collection of old record players. Even in the age of phonographs/gramophones and long before the members of Spinal Tap were born, some photographs went to 11 – at least in their speaker designs. Some of those speakers were huge.

Part of the nostalgia collections were old toys and records from the Meiji to Showa era (1868-1989). This is a well-sorted collection and of course included Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Ultraman. In the history part were memorabilia from Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and Elvis Presley.

Let’s walk down:

The last part of the walk is of course the shop and you can easily spend more than 10000 Yen here. Shiroi Koibito is a popular souvenir from Sapporo and only at their factory they sell the cookies in original tins. After eating a piece of chocolate cake at the Tea Time Cafe though, I didn’t feel like spending even more money there.

Children will likely enjoy the chocolate factory more during Spring and Summer, when a train runs through the park. There is an extra fee for the train ride (adults 300 yen, children 200 yen). Near the park, Consadole Sapporo, Hokkaido’s professional soccer team has their training ground. You can cheer for them, just don’t try to feed them chocolate!

How to get there: Shiroi Koibito Park is a short walk from Miyanosawa Station on the Tozai Subway Line.

Hello Kitty’s Kawaii Paradise is located on the first floor (ground floor), the “family floor”. It’s next to a spacious arcade and there is no entrance fee – in fact, this place feels more like a pink-laced extension of the arcade. There are ufo catcher machines with Sanrio characters inside and purikura machines to make tiny decorated photos.
You can have some body paint for 300 yen (ribbon, small) or 500 yen (everything else), get some sweets out of a machine shaped like Hello Kitty or ride on the cat if you are a little girl or boy.

The cafe is small and has Kitty-shaped pancakes. That’s no competition for the Hello Kitty Cafe. I was also surprised that their gift shop wasn’t bigger.

Conclusion: Don’t come to Venus Fort only for Hello Kitty’s Kawaii Paradise, go to the Sanrio theme park instead. Except for the room with the christmas tree and a Greek Hello Kitty, I was unimpressed. The Kawaii Paradise is pink but not kawaii (cute) enough.

How to get there: Get off at Tokyo Teleport station on the Rinkai Line or Aomi Station on the Yurikamome Line.