Hokkaido Road Trip Pt 1 Tokyo to Hakodate

We have wanted to go to Hokkaido for a while and we finally made it happen with a massive 2 week road trip that was totall amazing. And bonus, because we drove from our house to Hokkaido we saw lots of things in northern Honshu as well. This trip was packed with highlights and fun things, so I am going to break it up a bit so that it's not such a massive post. Our first day we ate breakfast and then headed out. We drove the first 4 hours straight up to Sendai, no stops. It was lovely scenery, and by some miracle we went directly with no stops. Five kids, two adult and we drove blissfully until the last few minutes before our first break when everyone decided they needed to stop. We stopped at Matsushima Umanoshi, which is a narrow penninsula you can walk out on near Matsushima bay. It was very unique and lovely. It did get very narrow at parts, which made Grant a little nervous. And the there was a deep groove in the rocks that we jumped over to get to the end, which made him even more nervous. But we successfully navigated across and back. It was quite the adventure.

Our next stop was Goishi Beach, which was another couple hours up the coast. Along the way we saw many eye opening memorials/ruins from the 2011 Tsunami. It crazy to think about how big and scary the wave was. It devastated huge areas and they made huge sea walls (I wish I had gotten pictures, but they were massive). I did get a picture of a building farther inland with a tsunami line (most of the buildins had them marked).

Goishi Beach was a small, but pretty pebble beach. I was reminded how much I love the sound of waves moving pebbles (it reminded me of a beach on the big island). Jane loved putting the pebbles in her mouth of course. After Goishi beach we stopped at a really cool double sea arch nearby, Anatoshi Iso.

Our first night we stopped at Kamaishi, it was a tiny little town that felt almost deserted. But the whole area was so lovely, it was a great area for a vacation. In the morning we headed to Jodogahama Beach. It was a stunning white pebble beach with crystal clear water that was protected by a huge jagged rock ridge so the water was perfectly still and crystal clear. We took advantage by skipping rocks and it was great fun. Pace was getting reall good and we even skipped some really heavy rocks.

We drove up to Aomori, enjoying beatiful countryside the whole way (not going to lie, I would love to be stationed up there in Misawa (but what is the likelihood of Jake getting stationed at another Air Base in Japan...not high, we're lucky to be in Tokyo). In Aomori we grabbed some lunch and then boarded the ferry. As we were parking the car and heading up the stairs to the passenger rooms we heard the strangest noises and we couldn't place it. Later in the ferry ride we were exploring and found out that the sourse of the mystery noises were cows in a few of the trucks aboard the ferry. We found a place on the stairs where the boys could peek in an see the cows. Kai fell in love and we have been hearing about moo moos ever since. The pasenger rooms in the ferry were just empty carpeted rooms to hang out in, which was fine for our kids to roll around in. We were lucky enough to have a room to ourselves.

That evening we arrived in Hakodate, on Hokkaido. We were hungy, so we looked up a restaurant and decided on soup curry (which is a big thing in Hokkaido). So glad we did, it was AMAZING! We went to Soup Curry Begirama, and it was one of my favorite dinners of the trip. Fresh veggies, warm spicy soup on a rainy evening, perfection. They had fried chicken and fries for kiddos that didn't want curry. And we all drank delicious lassies, which were perfect with the spicy food (we ordered the regular spice and it was pretty spicy).

The next day we got to explore Hakodate. We started it by going to explore the star shaped fort, Goryōkaku. We walked the grounds and gardens and then we went in the nearby tower to see the fort from above.

After we went to check out the red brick warehouses (converted into a souvenir mall area) to shop and grab some lunch. We found The Happy Pierrot, a burger joint which seems to be a big deal. It was super busy, and we saw several other shops farther out in Hakodate. It was a lot of fun for the kids, but I didn't think it was a must eat place. The atmosphere was pretty cool though.

After we drove out to Cape Tachimachi, and checked out the rugged coast.

Then we went to the more western quarter and saw some old Christian churches (some of the oldest in Japan) and toured the old public hall. It was strange to be in an area that had so much western architecture in Japan.

That evening we took PBandJs up the Mt Hakodate gondola to see the night view. It was a pretty unique city view. It got a bit crowded at the main observatory so we headed to a picnic area on the side to enjoy the view without the crowd.

We slept in Hakodate another night and headed on to new adventures...