Hakodate and Tohoku: Day 3

Today was a little less rushed--not quite so many things to squeeze in--so it's a shorter post tonight.

     
It was a fairly gloomy day in Hakodate.  I decided to start things off with a trip to the local Trappist convent but I had a 30 minute wait for my bus, so I browsed through a souvenir shop before heading over to the terminal.

What type of meat would you like in your canned curry?
There's ezoshika (a type of deer from Hokkaido), sea lion, or bear...

          
The bus ride to the outskirts of the city took 45 minutes.

       
I shouldn't have been surprised by how little there was to see at the convent. The nuns are famous for their "Trappist" cookies, which are available by the truckload in the gift shop, but naturally, nuns are not the type to draw a lot of attention to themselves.

      
Ten minutes of walking around the grounds and you've pretty much seen everything, but this far away from the city center the buses run only once an hour, so I dawdled. Bought myself a new bookmark in the gift shop, spent a little time at the visitors' center outside the convent, and took a stroll through a very cold, very empty park on my way back to the bus stop.

Time for lunch! Today I went to Hakodate's local fast food chain "Lucky Pierrot", a hamburger shop known for gaudy decorations and a different theme at each location. In continuation of my religious-themed tour, I suppose, I went to the angel-themed shop.

      
I highly recommend the french fries, but am less enthusiastic about the burgers themselves...

By the time lunch was over, the grey day was getting even greyer, so I knew the remaining daylight was limited.  I decided to head toward the Motomachi district, where many of the old Western-style buildings are.

First, the Former British Consulate. I was a disappointed with how little was on display inside the rooms, but since I was the only person walking through the house I had some fun in the last room:

What facial expression is supposed to go with that body language? Also, the man to the right looks
like a 19th-century cross between Waldo (of "Where's Waldo?") and Ned Flanders...

             
After the Consulate, I walked the slope a couple of blocks to the Hakodate City Museum of Northern Peoples. One of the things I wish I had done sooner was learn more about the Ainu people (the indigenous people of the island of Hokkaido).  On my trip to Sapporo last year I hadn't been able to get to the Ainu museum, so I made a point to put this one on my list.

Neither the building or the collection is very big, but this museum does a great job and I am so appreciative of the amount of English-language materials available: at the ticket counter they handed me a pamphlet, an exhibition guide, and a 36-page booklet on the history, language, religion, and daily life of the Ainu--all in English, and all included in the JPY300 ($3) admission price!

They also allowed non-flash photography inside all the rooms:

The textiles were my favorite part; these are 19th-century Ainu coats and shoes.

     
After leaving the museum, I headed back to my hotel for a break. Tuesday through Thursday my hotel offers dinner included in the price of your stay, so I took advantage of that before going out for an evening walk by the waterfront and a "nightcap".

My nightcap was made of ice cream. :)

      
On the way back to my hotel, I stopped at a shop that I'd been eyeing for the past two days. Nothing like a little chocolate fondant and apple pie to finish off the night. The picture does it no justice- that was the richest chocolate I've ever had.

And tomorrow...back on the ferry!