I woke up intermittently pretty much all night as different intensities of rain and wind came down on our tent. We stayed in the tent a little longer than usual, waiting for the wind and rain to die down. Eventually, believing the coast was clear, we emerged from our dry cocoon to brave the gray weather and gnats (which, due to the wind coming from the lake, had stopped us from using one of the tents two doors for fear of letting in swarms of gnats being blown uncontrollably toward us). We packed up house and chatted a bit with the two other cycle tourists that had camped near us the previous day. One, a younger guy, had been cycling for 9 months. He had started in Chiba (which is down near Tokyo), and was making his way up toward Wakkanai; the northern most tip of Japan. The other was a much older man who had been touring for around three months and had started in Kyoto. Being original from Asahikawa (a city in the middle of Hokkaido), he was almost home but taking his time.

We packed up in the wind, finished out chat, and headed out toward Hakodate. The day, which started out gray, rainy and windy, quickly turned to a light breeze with wonderful sunshine almost as soon as we left the lake area. (It should be noted that Lake Onuma, and it’s smaller lake brother, are a wonderful little tourist spot with lots of little restaurants, boats to rent and some nice free camp sites. Well worth a stop if you are near the area.) The ride from Onuma to Hakodate, however, is mostly unremarkable. Since Hakodate is on the opposite coast, this part of the trip was mostly rolling hills and fields. As you get closer to Hakodate, naturally, the city grows and you eventually find yourself in the middle of chaotic six-way intersections (one of which is a train line).

Note: Meghan has just told me that the Octopus Shop wasn’t actually on the leg from Onuma to Hakodate but actually on the Yakumo to Onuma leg. Woops! Anyway, it’s still on Route 5 I believe – unless it’s called 37 up there.

The two most notable stops on the way from Onuma to Hakodate were the Octopus Shop and the Konbu-kan. The first we almost didn’t even stop at. I was rolling at a brisk pace when I looked up and noticed a very “wild west” looking wooden building wearing a large white and red sign that read “Octopus Shop”. I was mildly intrigued but not overly excited – until I saw the rows of drying tentacles that hung in the entry way to the store. Having long been a fan of takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings) and “Day of the Tentacle”, I simply had to stop. My was it worth it. The store had tons of samples, loads of crazy dried octopuseses and half the staff was incredibly  friendly. I highly recommend it if you find yourself on Route 5 from Nanae/Lake Onuma to Hakodate.

Our second stop is quite well known is about 15km outside of Hakodate. The Konbu-kan (konbu being a kind of seaweed and kan being a store/building/establishment/market) is a market that is devoted entirely to foods and treats made from this kind of sea weed. Although that may sound pretty non-delicious to the unsuspecting western palette, one quickly finds that konbu and its many offspring are quite delicious (and sometimes not so). We picked up a couple bags of barbecued konbu with sesame seeds – a wonderful beer time snack.

After the Konbu-kan, we hightailed it to Hakodate; stopping only once for some tasty soba in a more residential area of Hakodate. At about 3pm we rolled into the neighborhood that seemed to have a couple hostels and other accommodations. I should note that Golden Week is a terribly congested time of year for Japan as people take this time to travel around and (in Hokkaido, at least) see the cherry blossoms. For this, they usually head to Hakodate. We were rolling into Hakodate, during Golden Week, with no hotel reservations of any kind and camp sites, as with most cities, are nowhere to be found. We stopped at the first hostel on my map (Hakodate YGH). I headed into the entry way of the hostel and in my most polite Japanese started, “I know it’s terribly late to be asking this and we don’t have a reservation, but, I was curious if you had any rooms available…” and she started laugh. Ha. Shoulda known. I asked if any other hotels or hostels in the area might have space and she laughed again saying she didn’t really know but that she really, really doubted it. I left, relayed the news to Meghan and we pedalled off mildly worried.

Our next attempt was a rider house. I’ve mentioned this before but rider houses are accomodations that are aimed primarily at short stay motorcycle tourists. This was all I knew of rider houses as we headed to our first one to see if they had any room.

Lime Light Rider House, several blocks from Hakodate station, is a very unsuspecting little establishment with only a crudely painted sign hanging outside and rows of motorcycles on the sidewalk to let you know you’re in the right place. I very skeptically entered what I can only guess was the front door. The entry way had no desk or anything of the kind – just a pile of shoes, the potent smell of gasoline and stale cigarette smoke, and a whiteboard sign stating, “Welcome! We are upstairs. Come on up!” I did just that. Upstairs, there was a corridor of closed doors where I could hear kids laughing and general chatter. I started politely with me, “Excuse me”s and “Anybody here?”s. No answer. Eventually, I knocked on the door to find a bunch of people sitting in a living room, watching tv, chatting and reading. “Is this the reception?” I asked. A portly, middle aged woman answered that it was, in fact, the reception. I asked about space available and she said the last two spaces were still free for tonight. Relief! I ran down to tell Meghan and we started to move our panniers inside. We sat in the living room with the rest of the guests, made idle chatter, haggled the price down to 2oooen a nights since we would only be using one bed (was going to be 1500en each) and we’re given a boat load of information and a wonderful little map by the mama-san of the establishment.

Then she showed us to our “room”. We walked around a bit as she explained where the facilities were and about free coffee and toast in the morning. We finally entered a garage full of motorcycles, old bicycles, helmets and bags. She pointed to top bed of a group of four bunks and said, “There you go! The doors are never locked so feel free to come back whenever! Let me know if you want to stay another night!” and she was off. Meghan and I stood for a moment motionless. No lockers? I hope this is a trustoworthy bunch. It turned out to be very safe and friendly and, as I later found out, there was always someone on guard – not that any criminal in there right mind would try to rob a garage full of bikers. Still, Lime Light and rider houses in general are something that I don’t think I would trust in the states – or anywhere outside of Japan for that matter.

After dropping of our bags, we went to Hakodate Onsen Hotel for a quick bath and then headed to the famout Goryokaku Park to meet up with some friends. One of the best parts of that first day in Hakodate, for me, was the joy of not having all the weight of the panniers and zipping through traffic on our way to the park. While loaded panniers aren’t horribly weighty, you get quite a spring in your pedals when you first find yourself without all that added weight.

On our way to the park we grabbed some yakitori (meat on a stick – pork or chicken depending on where you are from) from the famous Hakodate Hasegawa Store convenience stores. They are convenience stores like any other but they make fresh yakitori in-shop. Quite nice indeed. We met up with friends, enjoyed the night time flowers and returned to our rider house for some much needed rest that was only occasionally interrupted by overhead lights flicking on and off, returning bikers or rustling plastic bags.