I Am A Celebrity!: Cruising in Japan

IF THERE is one stop I would like to revisit, it would be Hakodate. At the same time of year. We were there in the absolute peak of the Cherry Blossom season. Some of what I saw was spectacular. I would like to do it again, and I would plan it completely differently.

INSTEAD WE used the last of our "comped" HAL excursions. The only one available to us was a visit to the Onuma Quasi-National Park. The park, a 30-minute drive from the cruise port, was beautiful, and would be worth the trip in perhaps any other time and circumstance. Coming to Japan as we did in late April, our "intel" told us we were likely too late for most of the bloom in the central part of Japan. The northern part, however, held some promise - and it did not disappoint as far as timing was concerned. We got lucky in Tokyo - as we were told that the bloom was quite unseasonably late this year - and saw some nice blossoms there.

HOWEVER, HAKODATE was (or could have been) amazing! Our excursion did not really take the blossoms into consideration. There were no cherry blossoms in the National Park. We visited the National Park, and then a Sake distillery. This time, at least, we did get the opportunity to see the facility at work. Having seen distilleries and vineyards over the years, I would gladly have traded for the opportunity for a visit to Goryokaku Park! I didn't know this prior to our visit, but Goryokaku is considered the very best place in Japan to see the blossoms. My friend, Frank, was on a tour (of his own arranging, I think) that took him along the outskirts of the park and his iPhone photo was spectacular.

BY THE time we returned to the ship from our tour, there was time, but it was uncomfortably short for me, to have gone to the park. I know I should have. I was nervous about getting there and back in time for the ship's departure. The park is nothing short of amazing. If I ever have the chance to return to Hakodate, blossoms and weather permitting, I would plan to spend the better part of my day (or days) in Goryokaku!

OUR GUIDE, Yoshi, was really good, and our time spent in the national park was really nice. As can be seen from my photographs, the weather and lighting left a bit to be desired. There are numerous walking paths in the park around 2 naturally formed lakes with some striking bridges. We took a boat ride around the main lake, and then walked a short part of the path.

AFTERWARD, WE returned to town, and to a small, sake distillery: Hakodate Wine. There we were given a tour of the facility beginning with the preparation of the rice, to the fermentation process, through to the bottling process. It was very interesting, and the hosts very friendly and welcoming.

OUR BUS driver may have been the real hero of the entire day for me, though. Knowing we were in Hakodate at the absolute peak of the blossoms and knowing we had not had any real opportunity to see them, he made a special trip to one of the more famous roads in the city, lined with cherry trees, and stopped and let us get off the bus to at least take a couple snapshots. By far, my most dramatic images of the famed Japanese, cherry blossoms and oh, to have had some time to spend shooting!

NONETHELESS, WHAT a great opportunity and what a great "catch" by our bus driver! I never got his name but hats off to you!

A GOOD ending to a memorable trip - maybe one of the most memorable of our cruises. We have certainly seen a lot of the world in the past year. We know there is more to come and we look excitedly forward to seeing more - beginning in September-October in Germany, Switzerland and Czechia. It won't be a cruise, though, so you may want to keep an eye out on my other blog: LightCentricPhotography Blog. Lots more cruising stuff to come here in the meantime.

I Am A Celebrity!

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Cruising in Japan - Hakodate

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