About Japan from... manhole covers, Hakodate squid

As I previously wrote, the artistic Japanese manhole covers may be a source of interesting information while you're traveling through the country. If you stumble over an intriguing manhole cover, ask yourself what it represents, they may be presenting some worthwhile local attractions...

The three cute squids (ika in Japanese) pictured on this manhole cover in Hakodate are indicating the dishes for which the city is well known, the fresh squid menus, varying from simple raw squid sashimi to ika somen, a type of raw squid cut into fine strips, called like this because it resembles the somen type noodles.