Hakodate was our last port in Japan and we had occasional snow flakes for much of the day so I was bundled up in my Antarctic outfit sans the Russian Hat. Wasn’t quite cold enough for that so I wore my stocking hat instead.

Hakodate is a drabber city than most of our ports and it is the first time in all of my cruise I gave a poor to the tour. Tokyo’s tour was not so poor as it just couldn’t cover what I wanted it to cover. I talked to Ellen later and she agreed with me the tour left something to be desired. Part of it was that the weather obscured our view from Mt. Hakodate as you can see by the blurry photo. I even went up in a cable car and those of you who know I don’t like heights this is a feat for me. We also went to this tower that was less than spectacular. Maybe I have become too jaded since our cruise is almost over and I have seem so many spectacular sights. The bus didn’t even pass by the places of worship which I would have enjoyed because within a short distance there were an Eastern Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic Church, and several other buildings with architectural significance which apparently should have been visited.

The city is known for their fish market but mainly their squid catches and you can see by this manhole cover that the squid is revered. They even have a squid festival every year with a parade. The highlight of this visit was the performance back on the ship where a group of 5 and 6 year olds danced and pranced. One of their numbers was an ode to the squid. There was one little fellow right up front who was a leader and was he into his performance. Another kid with a future on stage.

This post completes my tour of Japan and all in all a great country. I have tried to be objective and point out some of the good with the not so good. Note I didn’t say bad because no experience is bad.

This photo of the table is at the Japanese Dinner at the Pinnacle and I was seated with Mike and Diane, Adam and his father, Tony. We had a great dinner but after all the Japanese food it played havoc with my digestive system and put me a little off for several days. That is one of the reasons I have been a little slow in posting. I am now on the road to recovery.