Hokkaido Enjoyment includes food, walking around and traveling the countryside by car. You should be aware that in 5 years, as I was told, many of the local trains will be discontinued. This means car and bus will be the new major modes of rural transport. But the rental car companies seem to have things prepared in English pretty well so renting a car is pretty easy. My experience renting a car in Japan is very consistent. The rental companies are pretty honest and so are not trying to make extra money by charging for things that aren’t your fault. However, taking photos of the car before driving it as well as the gauge cluster showing milage and gas amount is still advisable.
Korean food (Japanese style) is very popular and becoming more and more Korean style while even Korean food in Korea is changing style. This is Korean noodles with Kimchi and grilled, marbled beef.This was actually in Kashiwa, near tokyo, at the White Gyoza restaurant. This order of Yaki Gyoza was very tasty and the meal including Kimchi was only US$6.
While the Shinkansen (fast trains) go under the channel to Hokkaido now there is still the ferry system which is cheaper. This one goes from Hakodate to Aomori. This ferry was US$26.Many Restaurants have a photo of this salmon sashimi with salmon roe on rice in the tourists areas. Many rural trains are called *One Man* which means there is one person engineering the train and no second person to issue tickets. So the silver and blue machine is to pay for tickets which the engineer manages at each stop. The fare is displayed above on the screen and calculated by distnce.I stayed at this small fishing town, Toyo-Ura, which I don’t recommend unless you have a car. There is only one resort here and in my estimation overpriced. Everywhere you see the floats for fishing nets. This drinkery has very good quality food and I highly recommend it. However, a reservation would be a good idea since it is pretty popular.
I never buy hotel breakfasts separately or pay extra for them since I only want a cup of coffee and something small to prepare the stomach for a late lunch, my only real meal of the day. Here I am at Dunkin’ Donuts. While I am “dunking” the rest of Japan knows nothing of this great American tradition.Proof I was in Otaru, a must visit city with many local craft shops especially glassware.Kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant but the only thing on the conveyor belt was advertising for specific items. You order as you do in a regular (modernized) sushi restaurant, from an iPad.This is the only UNI (sea urchin) specialty shop I can recall.
