On the second day that I was in Hokkaido we started the day before dawn. We drove from the ferry in Tomakomai to the city of Otaru. It was too early to go to a restaurant for breakfast, so we stopped at a 7-11.
Convenience stores are very respectable here. It's not the highest quality food, but you can get a warm rice ball, a hot bun, fruit, etc. Compared to convenience stores in the US, I think the stores here have less bagged snack food and fewer varieties of soda, in exchange for a wider selection of everything else.
The next place we went was to a park. At this time the sun was above the horizon but still hidden by clouds. There were a number of boats here. While I was looking at the sunrise people were slowly arriving and getting on the boats. It must not have been very long before they left the port. There were also some fishermen by the water.
Otaru has a famous canal that we went to see. After that we went to a restaurant that was lit by many kerosene lanterns.
We went to a tower with a view of the city. Below there is a video of the pedestrian traffic at one of the intersections.
There was a temple on the top of a hill overlooking the city. While me and one friend were up here, it was very quiet, but occasionally we would hear a soft drum from inside the temple.
Lastly, we stopped and had lunch. We picked out the food we would have from a large tank. Otaru is known for its seafood and I think that this is deserved. It was very good. The plate on the left had an uncooked sea urchin, but I don't remember the name of the one on the right.
