I woke up at 5am and headed to the onsen (public hot spring) on my own as Jives slept. I had hoped to have it to myself but three ladies were there. I went outside to the outdoor bath and had that to myself for quite awhile which was so magical. I soaked for about 30 minutes with the snow falling down lightly all around me. The air was so cold, but the water was so warm, so it was perfect. I headed back to the room with a coffee in hand for Jives. 

At 8am we went down for breakfast on the 2nd floor. There was a beautiful view out to the snow covered courtyard (a traditional Japanese style garden). The breakfast was nothing like what I expected, but 100 times better. It was a buffet style breakfast with at least 8 tables of options, all regional Japanese dishes with signs showing where they were from in Japan. We had curry soup with small croutons, pickled plum and seaweed, some miso soup, tuna (raw) salad, squid (great flavour but I still hate the texture), glass noodles,  lots of fish dishes (grilled,boiled etc), crab custards, they also had international things for the boring people ie eggs, hotdogs, fries and soooo many veggies. There was a huge selection of drinks too from vending machines and dispensers. We grabbed a bit of so many international things and sat down to feast. I was not expecting such an incredible breakfast from an included breakfast.

At 9:00am we checked out and headed to the train station (we took the street car) to store our bags for the day. I really loved the streetcar system in Hakodate , it reminded me a lot of Hiroshima’s street car system. After stashing our bags at the train station (for 700 yen or $7) we headed to the narrow streets of the morning market only a few minutes walk away. We wandered around looking at fish, crabs etc and then we bought some fresh scallops to try. The scallops were so smoky and flakey (150 Yen).

We then walked to the old store houses in the waterfront warehouse district, which was only a few minutes walk away from the morning markets. I filmed a video for Jives of him rapping (he makes rap videos as we travel) and in the background a young man was doing belly flops in the snow and laughing like crazy. 

The waterfront was gorgeous and you could see the snow covered mount Hakodate in the distance (near). A narrow bridge brought us over to the marina and the iconic red brick warehouses. We took quite a few photos and video before rushing back to the Eki  (train station) to get the street car back to Yunokawa-Onsen station to go see the snow monkeys.