Day 3 - Otaru and ?

Day 3 - Otaru and ? #Japan2019

Guess I'm waking up at 4:30 AM, not sure why but I woke up and trying to sleep another 30mins is tough. Brief thoughts, those earplugs are very powerful and even let me sleep on my side. I might even go give them 5 stars.

The pillow was surprisingly ok in limited positions.

Oh, also, woke up at like 12 because they had blasted the heat to insane levels, that was not so fun, otherwise things were mostly fine.

Ok time to get out of my capsule and get ready.

This time I'll try bringing a mostly empty backpack as yesterday I felt I didn't have much leeway for buying knickknacks that didn't fit in my pocket and carrying random bags sugs, we'll see how it plays out

Today is convenience store breakfast which for those of you that don't know is very different than in NA, convenience before food here is 🔥🔥

Tried astrophotography and it's neat given how dark it is but too much light pollution

Breakfast!

On the train now

I messed up, forgot to sit in the north facing side of the train to see the ocean...

Ok, at Otaru

An army...

That car just knocked over the small pillar lmao, there's so much space too, driver for out and stood it back up for want it's worth

I feel like nothing opens until 9 so I gotta kill 2 hours

Walking around

Making my way to the top of Temiya Park, this is one way to warm up

There's a shrine at the top

I like this picture

I gotta say I question this road

Random small shrine

More residential leading to an onsen (closed for 20 more mins) though I probably wouldn't go anyway since I don't know want to waste daylight

Heading back to center

Walking along the canal now

Canal is pretty

Hey it me

Glass stuff is famous here

Cute street, Sakaimichi

I'd anyone needs expensive glass cups I'll surely break on the way home, let me know, every store seems to sell them here

I mean there's some gorgeous pieces for sure

Coffee hall, pretty

I got their milk tea and Hokkaido milk ice cream float as a snack

I love milk flavored ice cream..why is it so hard to find

Let's museum

Cute room

These people look like sailor moon villains or something

Is this one their lackey

Why is every human thing in this museum creepy

Wait these are cool

Neat too

Yeah, ok.

Some more neat pieces from the Lucio Bubacco special exhibit

Wait, they're playing Christmas songs radio here, there's no escape

Hm...

At a music box store

None of the songs jumped out at me or I probably would have gotten one

Sample song

I love this piece... But carrying it would be impossible and it's like $600 US

Walking around before food, really enjoy these hilly streetscapes

I see

Made it to suitengu shrine

Some views from up here

Sometimes I want to take a picture of like a random house but there's someone next to it and I feel too awkward to

I was actually talking about this house but the person next to it walked away so I got a chance to, though it's happenrd for other things before

Train tracks are cool

Walking on the hunt for food

Ohh neat food alley

Jk Mondays suck

When you REALLY want uni

Sankaku market, gonna wait here for kaisendon (sea food and rice, specifically probably the uni/crab/row/maaaybe tuna)

Waiting here, almost my turn, there were a few other places here that serve the same thing but only this one had a wait and I'm a lemming

A local Otaru beer and prepared squid before the feast arrives

Sea food bowl with roe, crab and uni, side of maguro sashimi 🤤🤤🤤

God that was so good, the crab was probably the best I've had for this kind of dish, the uni was also top tier, the roe was good but I just wish I'd gotten more of the other two or just more crab tbh

Some pics from the market before I left

Sorry for stealth glass making vid, Mr glass blower

The morning's snowman army has new recruits

Waiting to get on bus 9 to Tenguyama for a mountain view point and probably will chill there until sunset and night time

The ropeway is under maintenance though, hmm, that might be rough

Oh I read it's like a 30 min walk up, that's not too bad

In retrospect I should have left my backpack in a locker at the train station before getting on this bus, oops

Alright time to climb

I need to have some words with with the asshole who called this a leisurely 30min climb, this is...

The more I think about it, the more scared I am for the way down

Finally done with altitude climb, that was a workout damn

They made it sound so easy

Hold up there's a road...

Views from up here

There's a random Chinese family that I can't imagine walked up here cause one of them is young, how did they get up here...

I guess they walked too lmao

I feel like I'm committed at this point to wait for the night view

I'm probably going to wait until they leave too, too scared to go down by myself...

Starting to get dark

Wait are they leaving..

Which way are they going this is a different path??

The answer is yes. It's safer and uses road I saw.

It does take like 3 times as long.

We living

Yep

Is this civilization🦋

What I'm wondering is where the couple that was with these two girls from around Shanghai that don't speak English too well and arrived yesterday (as I have learned during this journey) is. The couple fucked off like 5mins early and nowhere to be seen and didn't wait?? Baffling

OMG a car, we are saved, he's giving us a ride bless up

We just passed the couple lol

This guy is my hero

He stopped at his house and told us to wait, but he came out and now we on the way again

Almost back at the JR Station

Waiting on the train now, that guy was a hero, went so out of his way.

So let's backtrack, the original hiking trail was this one, but it was way too dangerous to go down because of snow and mud making it slippery enough already going up and that was when there was light to see stuff

Then this was the walk back we planned, granted it took me 30 to do the first one and it has been 1h10 when he picked us up so maybe the snow on the road delayed more than it predicted, we were like 25 mins from the bus station at the time he found us

Also, these two girls just got on the train too, payback for being ditched? I don't understand their relationship but I'm baffled by a group going up together just splitting up randomly when descending a mountain with no light

Anywho I'm a bit disappointed the viewing station was closed and that I didn't get proper night time pictures but as annoying as that was the experience was unique which is what trips are for, I'll get night time pics elsewhere

I'm so drained, gonna probably launder everything today and chill I think, a hot shower sounds god-tier right now

On my way to the promised Land of showers

That was a good shower, laundry is almost done then I dry it, then I decide if I have energy to do things, meanwhile I have to figure out what to do tomorrow since I'm checking out

I think the play should be to travel at night to maximize day time hours but I'm not sure where to day trip from here if I want to do that, the other option is a partial trip early and finish the trip to Hakodate later, anywho research time

I still have no idea where to go tomorrow or what to do...

Ok, still don't know exactly what I'm doing but I'm sleeping in Hakodate tomorrow

I think I'll do a relaxed day with some missed Sapporo things and finish up in Hakodate