Rainy Evening At The Bay Area

The weather report that morning, on Japanese TV, said: Rain at 6pm in Hakodate. We duly took note of that and stuffed our umbrellas into our bags before we left the hotel room for our train to the hot springs spa.

Up till now I am still wondering about how to find the right platform / the right train to board at the station. Yes, there were a few English signs, but I didn't take a close look at them. Perhaps there were time tables or directions as well, but I didn't take a closer look at those either. Catching the train was easy - board it well before the published time of departure, and we were safe.

Anyway, that evening, we had time once again to spend in the Bay Area, and while wandering up and down deciding on a good sashimi place to sit down for dinner, the skies started to look ominous. Oooh, remembering the weather report that morning, we dug out our umbrellas. It hadn't rained at all that day, but, the time was now close to 6 pm, and it looked like it was about to rain. Yup! As if right on schedule, it started to drizzle at six sharp!

Ooooh, I was extremely, extremely impressed. How did they do it? The whole country really did seem to run like clockwork. Exactly on time, even the rain! Hmm, if they can do it, why can't we?

In the Bay Area that evening, we explored some of the warehouses again, looking for sashimi. Actually, I had been rather disappointed with the Bay Area for one reason - the shops started to close at 6pm. By 6.30 pm, most of the shops were shut. By seven, all of them were shut tight! The restaurants and eateries, of course, remained opened, and tourists and locals alike continued their feasting until perhaps about nine or ten at night.

We found our sashimi, in this restaurant by the sea. Yes, it was raining quite heavily by that time and getting cold, and we were glad to get indoors, and settle down, and order dinner. Wet umbrellas had to go on the floor, or remain outside in the umbrella stand. Do not drip drip drip your dirty wet umbrellas all over the place.

I had never taken kindly to sashimi before back at home. They all look and smell um... fishy. Some are more fishy than others, except that you do not know until you put one in your mouth and start chewing. Anyway, this time in Hakodate, I had a big bowl of the raw stuff and poked at the gooey uni (sea urchin) cautiously. Yucks, am I supposed to eat this? What does it taste like?

Well, sashimi in the real Japan... ahem, in the real Hokkaido, tastes just fine... melt in the mouth, super-fresh goodness! And the funny-looking uni tastes just like... nothing funny. As the rain pattered to a drizzle outside the windows, we enjoyed our dinner to the fullest, was a few thousand yen poorer at the end of it, but it was worth while!

A wonderful evening spent in the Bay Area, despite the drizzle. We needed our umbrellas to get back to our hotel that evening, and we walked, as usual. Feet were a bit cold but it wasn't too bad. The rain apparently continued through the night.