Jump Ahead:
Day 1 | Arrival, Daimon Yokocho
Day 2 | Morning Market, Red Brick Warehouses, 1st Concrete Electricity Pole, Museum of Northern Peoples, Motomachi, Mt. Hakodate, Daimon Yokocho
Final Day 3 | Fort Goryokaku and Observatory, Departure
I was always (and still am) curious to explore more sides of Hokkaido other than just Sapporo and Hakodate was one of those cities I was more interested in, especially for its seafood. This was just a short, 3-day weekend trip but what made this extra special was that Marie and I were joining my Parents as part of their much longer self-guided tour of Northern Japan. We stayed just for the weekend and then my Parents continued on with their tour after we departed.
Day 1
We decided to fly into Hakodate Airport rather than catch the much slower (relatively) Shinkansen from Tokyo. We also wanted to match my Parents flights since they had booked separate from us much earlier. Domestic flights in Japan are usually pretty easy and can often be cheaper and faster than the Shinkansen… I’m beginning to prefer them over longer Shinkansen trips (just depends on the destination). Our flight left Haneda at 1245 and landed in Hakodate around 1405 so it was really just a quick shot there with barely enough time even for drink service.
I believe the restaurant/izakaya we ended up picking just translates into “Club House” but I’ll try to pin it on a map below:
After the surprisingly great dinner we just headed back to the hotel to unpack a little and rest a bit… since we were compressing this trip into just 2 days we had planned on doing a lot more the next day.
Day 2
The second day was really our only full day in the city. We started out at the Morning Market right next to the hotel and then made our way on foot to the Red Brick Warehouses. Near the Red Brick Warehouses there was also an amusing little tourist attraction? The very first concrete electricity pole in Japan haha. We continued to the Museum of Northern Peoples on our way up the hill to Motomachi and Mt. Hakodate. Finally, we headed back to Daimon Yokocho for dinner again but this time changing it up with a different restaurant.
My Dad had mentioned this one attraction that he came across in his research and sure enough it showed up on Google maps too haha… near the warehouses you can find Japan’s very first concrete electrical pole! Just for kicks we walked about a block just to see it
After the big lunch, we followed the waterfront a little further towards Motomachi Park. We ran into this little memorial for the old Higashihama Pier, supposedly the very first port of entry into Hokkaido after the Meiji restoration began:
Trying something different, we were curious enough to take a slight detour to this Museum of the Northern Peoples:
After taking some time up at the observation deck, we went back in the building where they have a pretty large gift shop. Mostly your typical observation tower souvenirs and Hokkaido themed snacks. It was pretty crowded so we didn’t shop long although I remember buying some butter flavored taffy (sounded good at the time). After riding the ropeway back down the mountain, we walked over to the nearest street car stop (Jujigai Station) to head back to our hotel area.
Sooo… a pretty long day with a good amount of walking… I feel like we got to see most of what the city has to offer or at least all the highlights, plus the weather was perfect. There’s really not much else to do around town at night so we called it a day pretty early again and started packing for our check-out the next morning.
Final Day 3
This was our final day in Hakodate and our flight back to Haneda wasn’t until 1935 so we still had time to go to Fort Goryokaku.
Alas, it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport. My Parents were staying another night before continuing on with the rest of their trip through the Tohoku region so we had to say goodbye outside the hotel… my Dad even gave a very Japanese farewell and everything lol
Overall, a very nice weekend trip getting to share new experiences in Japan with my Parents and Marie. It’s always a bonus when my parents can visit me in Japan. I think the city had a much smaller feeling to it than I previously expected but that gave us just about the right amount of time there to leave feeling fully satisfied. Anyway, another great trip in the books!