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We had a nice visit to the North island. They are famous for their potatoes, so I enjoyed them for all three meals today! Delicious! I also enjoyed their sweet cream ice cream! Akihiro enjoyed the sushi, but thankfully, not for all three meals! I do have to agree that the tuna sushi I had was quite good--perhaps the best I've had!

We looked at the medical facility which is a huge complex with nursing home, assisted living, and hospital. It had gone bankrupt, so is being sold very cheaply. We'll see what Akihiro's dad can "cook up". He may be able to make it work by selling each one individually. We also took a look at the cruiser boat he would like to buy for fishing in Hakodate. He's crazy about fishing--in fact lots of his office space there is used storing fishing gear! Akihiro is already dreaming of a summer trip here--catch fish and eat! For me it is catch, COOK, and then eat, but I guess we can work it out! The ocean is beautiful with snow covered mountains around the bay. It was especially enjoyable as I sat in the 11th floor rooftop onsen and tried to talk Japanese to Akihiro's mom! We got a good look at the mountains and a military structure shaped like a star from a high tower. The military structure was the last of the samurai installments in Japan and was where the samurais surrendered to the emperor's government (if I understood Akihiro's explanation correctly!).

We also visited a fish market--very interesting to see all the sea animals that can be eaten--sea anemonies (I think that's what those spiky black things are!), crab, squid, oysters, mussels, octopus, all shapes and colors of fish eggs, etc. We got to taste many samples as we roamed the market. We didn't do the highly popular catch your own squid and kill him and eat him, though! We also got to see some boats with glass like things that are used to catch squid. I guess the squid are attracted to the light at night. Once you have a squid, you have bait for a big tuna--or you can just eat the squid yourself! You can see the glass things hanging from the ship in rows.

fish eggs, salmon, etc.

squid!

octopus!

Another note on getting gas...gasoline, that is... When the service men see you coming they wave wildly to direct you into your spot, "All right, all right, all right........OK des!" they say. Then they take your card and sprint to their payment station--in fact, everywhere they go, they sprint! So eager they are to serve us! All the available servicemen stand at attention and then bow low as we exit the gas station. It's quite an experience if I remember pumping my own gas in the States and dealing with some grumpy service station cashier!

I had a request for statistics on our blog, so I will give a summary--about 30 people check the blog every day and someone checks it every hour--either there are some night owls or it is Japanese or Hungary people! 75% of the viewers are located in the U.S., but the othr 25% are outside the U.S.