Recommend January 2012 - (Page 109)

Opposite page: The yearly Snow Festival in Sapporo. Hokkaido is where the Japanese themselves come to seek refuge from their legendary hectic lifestyle full of ultramodern gadgets, where they can relax in the island’s energizing lack of industrial growth, vast rural spreads, inspiring landscapes and a national park larger than California’s Yosemite. This is a photogenic spot that resembles New England in both climate and vistas. Heavily wooded forests cover more than 70 percent of the island and rocky mountains and volcanoes rise in the horizon, while white-water rivers and streams weave their way from snow-covered peaks to the sea. These natural assets have made Hokkaido the clear choice for yearround vacations. Exploring its stunning mountains in the summer is a delight and its winter resorts have made it something of an Aspen in the land of the rising sun. Add to that the peacefulness prevalent in places like the graceful gardens of the Usu Zenjoki Temple south of Sapporo—home of the beer that made Sapporo famous—or the silence that shrouds the lakes within Akan National Park near Kushiro and you have a potent combination to make Hokkaido Japan’s most alluring destination. A journey to Hokkaido naturally begins at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Japan Airlines’ commuters that make the 1-hour run to Sapporo or Hakodate, Hokkaido’s two gateways, several times a day. Sapporo is a clean urban wonder full of parks, large avenues with nightlife and shopping rivaling Tokyo’s and Hakodate, at first sight, looks like a drab industrial port. But looks are deceiving. hakodate This is a colorful town with a hilly layout similar to San Francisco or Genoa in Italy. Because of its proximity to Siberia, it has a profound Russian influence, and some signs at the airport are even in Cyrillic. A walk through its old town feels like you’re wrapped in a mixture of cultures: European, French, Russian and American. They like Americans here. Have done so for a long time. After all, Commodore Matthew Perry stopped in Hakodate after dropping anchor in Yokohama in 1859. One of Perry’s sailors is even buried in the city’s foreign cemetery. He was the first American to die in Asia while on an official government visit. Modern Hakodate has many charms. In the morning from the Hakodate Kokusai Hotel (about $150 for a standard room to $1,200 for suites), a 305-room, 7-story building in the center of town, you can hear ship horns in the port while watching the fog moving slowly over land. There’s a relaxing quality to this town of 224,000 where most residents speak in a dialect that separates them from the rest of Japan, the way language nuances separate Texans from New Englanders. Parts of Hakodate look like a movie set. Others belie its no-nonsense, large port way of life. Its name means “box house” in Japanese because the houses on the hills looked like boxes to early mariners, but there’s nothing boxy about the grand mansions and warehouses that were built by rich Western merchants and today have been converted into artists’ lofts, boutiques, galleries and a series of restaurants that give Osaka—the Japanese city lionized for its food—a run for its money. Today, the city receives more than four million visitors annually, mostly Japanese. Strangely, Hakodate is relatively unknown to foreigners, although it has a long history of receiving them since it became Japan’s first port to open to international trade. Foreign influence is evident in every corner of Motomachi (“Old Town”) and in the area known as the Western Zone. A Russian Orthodox church dating back to the 1800s stands next door to an old French Roman Catholic Church, which in turn faces an Anglican church of the same vintage. Its downtown area is cluttered with streetcars that look like they were dug up from a 1940s time capsule, while a modern tramway climbs to the summit of Mt. Hakodate, offering what some consider the most beautiful seascape in Japan. Hakodate is thoroughly Japanese in many ways (such as habitual courtesy and polite bows from even the most insolent youth), but it often seems like it’s in another country. It can boast without blushing of serving the finest seafood in the country and dinner at Maru Katsu, a delightful restaurant in the Hakodate Bay area, is most memorable. The place is known as a “revolving sushi table” restaurant, with its conveyor belt moving delicious dishes along the edge of a huge counter. Chefs prepare food in the center, describing loudly in guttural Japanese the merits of each dish. Smiling waitresses announce the arrival of new clients to the rest of the diners yelling the merits of what the newcomers are choosing from the conveyor belt. The chef yells in agreement. Diners pick sushi from small saucers of different colors on the belt. After dinner, the saucers are counted to determine the amount of the bill. Maru Katsu would bring fits of ecstasy to sushi lovers anywhere. Blowfish, tuna, squid, octopus and vegetable delights prove that Hakodate gives the fabled Osaka restaurants formidable competition. A dinner of this caliber isn’t complete without stopping at any of the many ice cream stalls in Motomachi for the regional favorite: squid ink ice cream. It’s delicious. The delights of Hakodate make travelers eager to venture into Hokkaido, the marvelous province that prides itself in its reputation as Japan’s frontier. This is where Japanese go to seek refuge from it all in large expanses of countryside and farmland crowned by majestic active volcanoes. One of the delights of Japanese travel is the flawless train service as exemplified by the Hokkaido Railway Company that has services to the interior of the island where one can best experience the great changes in nature made by the four seasons. Summers are mild and flower fields cover the mountains while towns come alive with markets and outdoor festivals. This is also perfect weather to explore the many sites where Ainu culture is kept alive. The Ainu, Hokkaido’s aboriginals, are an ethnic group of possible Mongolian descent with their own language and culture. Shiraoi, two hours by train from Hakodate, has a marvelous lakefront Ainu village maintained as a repository of Ainu traditions. january 2012 109

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend January 2012

Editor's Note
Hotel Desk: Hard Rock Hotels and Resorts
Tour Talk: Lindblad Expeditions
Holland America's Veendam
Delta Air Lines' 2012 Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America Travel Guide
The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes
Las Vegas' 2012 Offerings
Hot European Tours for 2012
Hokkaido, Japan
Egypt's Antiquity Attractions are Eternal

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