Hokkaidō

We got up early, got ready and went down to have breakfast. Breakfast the next morning was basic but adequate. We walked to the Hakodate Morning Market which was only a couple of minutes away. The market area spanned a few city blocks and was open from early morning till about noon. There was a lot of local Hakodate produce on display, vegetables and fruits. But the main attraction was the large variety of fresh and preserved seafood, including crabs and salmon roe. A few stores had freshly-caught squids swimming in tanks, you could fish them and then have the chef prepare it for you to eat. There were many restaurants in the market area that offered Seafood Rice Bowl. Having eaten (a more western) breakfast of eggs, toast and coffee already we were not sure if we would fancy seafood so early in the morning we decide to give it a miss. Overall it was a nice experience to walk around. ...

We got up early and got ready. We checked-out of the Pearl Hotel Yaesu and walked to Tokyo Station. Our journey today would take us from Tokyo in Honshū to Hakodate in Hokkaidō. We used our Japan Rail Pass 🔗 and had made seat reservations on Hayabusa 1 service from Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto and after that we would take the Hakodate Liner to Hakodate. We were looking forward to our first journey on the Shinkansen. When we reached Tokyo Station we saw lines drawn on the platforms for First and Second Class passengers to organize the boarding process. The passengers in the Second Class line would wait till all passengers in the First Class line had boarded. While we waited for our train, we saw the E7/W7 Series with E2 Series Shinkansen trainsets. ...