Hakodate winter trip Part 5: Hot-Tubbing Monkeys at Tropical Botanical Garden and Trappistine Convent

[Introduction]

I traveled to Hakodate, which is in the north of Japan, and is the largest city in southern Hokkaido, for three days and two nights. Overall I was satisfied with the trip, because I was able to take photos of winter Hakodate in both sunny and snowy conditions. In this article, I will write about hot-tubbing monkeys at Tropical Botanical Garden and Trappistine Convent as part of Day 2.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Hakodate Morning Market and Bay Area
* Day 1: Motomachi
* Day 1: Motomachi and Bay Area (Evening and Night View)
* Day 2: Old Fort Goryokaku
* Day 2: Tropical Botanical Garden and Trappistine Convent [This article]
* Day 2: Bay Area (Night View with Snow)
* Day 3: Kitajima Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru
* Day 3: Hachiman-Zaka Slope and Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse (Evening View)

[Travel Date]
2017.01.28-30

[Main Part]

After I left Old Fort Goryokaku, which I wrote at the previous article, I will have a lunch.

Yakitori-Bento at Hasegawa Store

I visited Hasegawa Store (Goryokaku brunch).

Hasegawa Stores are convenience stores found only in Hakodate. Each has a kitchen which freshly cooks various bento boxes and delicatessen.

The most popular, the Yakitori-Bento is rice topped with skewed and grilled pieces of bite-sized pork.

Once visitors order Yakitori-Bento, they are able to see how it is cooked.

Here isYakitori-Bento!

Menus and order sheets are written in English as well as Japanese for foreign tourists. So if you are interested in Yakitori-Bento, you can try it.

Yukura Shrine

After lunch, I took a tram and moved to “Yunokawa”, the last stop. Then, I visited Yukura Shrine.

Yukura Shrine was built in around 1453 and is said to be the birthplace of Yunokawa hot spring.

Main building.

Yutaka-inari Shrine.

Pictorial offering.

Paper fortune.

Totrii-gate.

Hot-tubbing monkeys at Tropical Botanical Garden

Then, I walked for about 15 minutes and reached Tropical Botanical Garden.

The main attraction of the garden is playground equipment for Japanese monkeys (monkey mountain). They enter the hot spring in the garden during winter.

Let’s go to the monkey mountain.

There are about 90 monkeys in the garden.

They are so cute 🙂

I found some monkeys are willing to enter the hot spring while others are not.

In addition, there are several groups among them.

Sometimes, disputes occur for feeding.

Overall, however, I found they live their life peacefully.

Shall we bathe?

Trappistine Convent

After I left Tropical Botanical Garden, I visited Trappistine Convent.

Trappistine Convent is a convent built by eight French nuns in 1898.

Visitors are not allowed to enter the convent, but front yard, resource center and shop are open to the public.

I saw lots of foreign visitors.

The Blessed Virgin Mary.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about hot-tubbing monkeys at Tropical Botanical Garden and Trappistine Convent as part of Day 2.。

Speaking of hot-tubbing monkeys, “Jigokudani Yaen-Koen”, Nagano prefecture, is the most famous and I’m interested in it. However, I recommend Tropical Botanical Garden as well 🙂

In the next article, I will write about night view in Bay area with snow, which I expected to see in Hakodate.

[Map]

[Related Link]
Hakodate Official Travel Guide
Yukura Shrine