Hokkaido Bound

We made a trip to Hokkaido in order to attend the open house for the new LDS temple in Sapporo. We decided to make a week of it and spend time traveling around Hokkaido.

We took a 4 hour long ferry ride from Aomori City to the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido.

 Boarding the ferry boat

On the deck. It was loud. After boarding in the cargo area, we climbed some narrow stairs up to this deck. But this wasn't open to passengers during the trip.

 They did have a viewing deck for passengers. It was nice to break up the long ride by periodically walking outside. The kids enjoyed it and we even spotted lots of jellyfish.

 The only food option was a vending machine with cup o noodles. Our kids are getting better at using chopsticks. 

He's not sleeping, he's just strange. 

Our first glimpse of Hokkaido.

It's possible to take your own car on the ferry, but we found it was cheaper to rent a car. We didn't end up spending any time in Hakodate other than picking up our car and some groceries. We drove on ahead to our first hotel at Lake Toya.

Our hotel was a little room with a loft. The kids loved sleeping in the loft. Seth and I were less excited about that fact that we all had to sleep on futons on the floor. 

Day one down. Next up, our day exploring around Lake Toya.