May 12, Saturday: Matsumae & Esashi bus tour

May 12, Saturday

Matsumae & Esashi Bus Tour

Trappist Monastery 

Too tired to listen to the bus guide talk in Japanese.

View from the bus window  -Japan Sea-

                                              　　　 Matsumae Clan Village

Lunch

Beautiful Shoreline

Festival float

Esashi Oiwake folk song 

Kaiyo maru

Kaiyō Maru (開陽丸) was one of Japan's first modern warships, a frigate powered by both sails and steam. She was built in the Netherlands, and served in the Boshin War as part of the navy of the Tokugawa shogunate, and later as part of the navy of the Republic of Ezo. She was wrecked on 15 November 1868, off Esashi, Hokkaido, Japan.
Kaiyō Maru was ordered in 1863, and built by Cornelis Gips and Sons, in Dordrecht, Netherlands, for a sum of 831,200 guilders.^[1] Her construction was overseen by a Japanese military mission under Uchida Masao and Akamatsu Noriyoshi.^[2] She was launched in October 1866,^[3] and arrived in Japan in November of the same year.^[4] She was the largest wooden warship ever built by a Dutch shipyard at the time.^[5] She was 240 feet (73 m) long.^[1]

                                                            Ramen completed our fun trip!