The Bar and a Ball (by G)

I got into Hakodate in the mid-afternoon and took a walk across the peninsula to check things out. One thing was clear - seafood is high on the menu here. Just about every restaurant in the fish market area sells seafood. Knowing I would likely be eating a lot of seafood over the next couple of days I decided to try for something a bit different.

 

Other than a KFC, the only other place within easy walking distance was a tiny place in a small complex of tiny places that served oden. Oden, to the best of my knowledge, is a bunch of tasties in dashi broth. I've seen at the counter in convenience stores but have never tried it.

 

At the appropriate dinner hour I went back to the oden place to find it was packed out - so I went a couple of restaurants down to have a beer or two before trying again.

 

That was the plan - I failed in the execution. I discovered the bar had an international beer menu and decided to try and drink all the beers I hadn't tried before. I was more successful in my new plan (you may notice Bintang in the photo below - I've had that before, it was the beer I ordered before embarking on the new plan).

 

After a while a local business man came in with his wife. He was very nice - the Executive Director of a building company who is building the second tower in Hakodate (his grandfather had worked on the first one 50 years ago). Despite being a pack a day smoker he and his wife had completed a half marathon earlier in the day. He asked me how old I was and told me, 'Start running now'. I promised I would, and made a vague plan to come back in 2015 when there is a special marathon to mark the arrival of the Shinkansen line in Hakodate.

 

Those are the kind of commitments you make after you have drunk a bunch of beers, then someone buys you a whiskey, then you buy them one to be polite, then some random turns up and then someone decides to buy another round...

 

In short, the only thing I ate this night was a meatball in sauce that came complimentary with my first drink - I recall it being very good, though I can't quite remember the flavour or what kind of meat it was.