Hakodate 函館

amandagoss
Jul 8, 2016
3 min read

So today we had to catch six trains to travel from Narita to Hakodate. The journeys were one to two hours in length and this meant we had plenty of time to relax and catch up on some sleep. Today was also Brianna’s birthday. Making sure it was celebrated I bought Brianna a chocolate cake from the convenience store which we ate last night. After finally reaching our hotel the Toyoko Inn, we went up on the ropeway. This ropeway goes up to the top of Mt. Hakodate (函館山). This mountain sits on the southern end of the peninsula. The view was spectacular going up in the ropeway. Todd, Angie and myself had managed to be in the front of the car looking down over the city as we ascended. And before the clouds I managed to get picture perfect photos. Unfortunately once we reached the top the clouds had engulfed us and the view wasn’t as pleasant. So we decide to go to the gift shop. Here I bought a t-shirt which had Hakodate’s mascot but also my favourite animal on it…….SQUID! Because we had spent so much time shopping by the time we left the clouds had lifted and the street lights had all turned on. I could now see why the consider this to be one of the top three night views in all of Japan. We then headed to the Hakodate Beer Brewery for dinner. It had a mix of Japanese and European food to choose from. I went with garlic bread and Japanese spiced arancini balls. At this point I was exhausted and glad it was time to go to sleep.

On our second day in Hakodate everybody had the option to either sleep in or go to the fish markets. I chose to go to the fish market and was really glad I did. There were live crab, squid, octopus, prawns and the freshest scallops I had ever seen. One shop keeper even insisted I take photos wearing a crab hat! I must say that I looked ridiculous in the photo. The city is well known for it’s seafood. You could really tell how much of an influence it has on the economy at the markets. There were many stalls and just as many tourists ready to spend their money. After the markets those of us that had decided to go met back up with the rest of the group to do some sightseeing. We started by exploring Goryokaku (五稜郭) fort and tower. Fort Goryokaku was built in thee last years of the Edo period to protect Hakodate against the threat of westerners. However today it is a public park. The tower overlooking it stands at 107metres and from it we saw picturesque views of the city. We then headed to a part of the city which contained many European buildings. One notable stop was the Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward. This bright blue building sat upon one off the many hills overlooking the harbour. After the original town hall burnt down in 1907, donations from the public were collected and a new hall was built in 1909. The building itself has a colonial feel to it, however I did notice some Japanese patterns in some of the decorations.

Later that afternoon we headed to an onsen (温泉). An onsen is a term used by Japanese people which literally means hot springs. To me it felt like a big bath house. One thing to mention is you are not allowed to wear clothing in the onsen. Don’t worry though it is separated by gender. To me it was a daunting experience, however once I was actually in the water I became very relaxed. As many in the group had never been to an onsen before it was something we could all face together. After the onsen we went to Wara Wara for dinner and karaoke. It was great to have some fun over a couple of drinks, before we went back to the hotel to get some sleep, as the following day we had another long travel day to get to Noboribetsu Onsen (登別温泉).