Hokkaido!

21/5/14

We decided on the spur of the moment last night to catch the next ferry across to Hokkaido. 

This was a vehicle ferry leaving Aomori at 8.30 pm and arriving Hakodate about midnight. There were no passengers other than drivers of trucks and a few cars. It cost ~$400 one way! (Our vehicle is 6.5m long).

After boarding we went upstairs, had a cup of tea, and then realised that none of truck drivers were to be seen. They were obviously staying in their trucks. 

The ferry provided vinyl mattresses and a floor to put them on, and vending machines for refreshment. 

So we headed down to the vehicle, popped the top, and slept comfortably until we arrived! 

Of course after we disembarked we headed straight for the green bits on the map and went back to bed. 

So we are in Hokkaido! It could be a different country! Today is bleak and windy, and we are travelling around the southern coast-line. 

The boats are all pulled up well above the water. Why? I don't know.

These are squid boats -see the row of light bulbs strung between the masts.

This old lady is bent over from spinal fractures from osteoporosis. She uses a pram as a walker, and in this case is carrying a bundle of sticks. There are many such bent old people in Japan. -is it lack of calcium in the diet or lack of Vit D because of the lack of sunlight exposure? -my guess is the latter. They all use prams -we haven't seen a single "walker" as we know them in Japan -even in the cities. 

The south west coast seems ideal for wind generators, which are quite common here. This is a windy coastline, at least today. 

This is a crazy thing! It is a walkway to a tunnel through the large rock on the left, to a swimming enclosure. Just for fun I'd say! 

 And here you can see what they've done to get the road through- first they dug through the hillside, then a tunnel. 

 A different style of wave mitigation.....

And finally - our camping site for tonight, (and we have an onsen only 100m away!). We are keeping in mind that this area has the greatest concentration of brown bears on Hokkaido! So no wilderness camping until we get our bearings (pun intended).