Hakodate 函館

Hakodate Travel Guide

Hakodate is the third largest city in Hokkaido, and is located on the southern tip of Hokkaido, just across the Tsugaru Strait from the main Japanese island of Honshu. Hakodate City sits just behind Mt. Hakodate, which occupies the eastern tip of Hakodate Bay.

Hakodate Attractions

Hakodate is designed for tourism, and a day is not nearly long enough to experience all that even the city center has to offer. Strolling the streets - much wider than those in more densely populated areas of Japan - lends a feeling of ease.

It would take an effort not to run across one of the sightseeing spots that pepper the streets such as temples both modest and grand, museums as small as that chronicling Hakodate's famous sons such as merchant Takadaya Kahei (1769-1827) or enka singer Saburō Kitajima (b.1936) or large enough to introduce the cultures of the world's Northern Peoples, curiosities like Japan's oldest concrete utility pole (near the brick warehouses), Japan's first ever reinforced concrete temple: the Funami Branch of Higashi-Honganji (1904), and statues of historic figures like Commodore Matthew Perry who opened Hakodate in 1854 as the first port in Japan for trade with the West - in "Perry Plaza" adjacent to Motomachi Park. 

Many of these locations are housed in old western-style buildings, constructed around that time, when foreigners took up residence and did business in the city.

Several architecturally noteworthy churches from foreign denominations can be found in the downtown Motomachi area; the grandest, and most well known is the Russian Orthodox Church which was established in 1859 to accompany Hakodate's Russian Consulate.

A Roman Catholic and an Anglican church are in the same area. The Old British Consulate looked after British affairs from 1859 until 1934 and now has a small museum, an English-style tea room and a gift shop. For those interested in the early history of Hakodate as a treaty port, the Foreigner's Cemetery has the graves of British, Russian and French ex-pats who died in Hakodate.

With an upbeat atmosphere, the old brick warehouses area of town has something for just about everyone. The buildings there date back to Hakodate's time as a center of foreign trade. From the outside they are clearly - well - old, brick warehouses.

Inside they glow, they sparkle, and they dazzle with up-to-date emporia ranging from a music box "museum" to a teddy bear shop, jewelry stores to eccentric souvenir shops. There are eateries from a variety of cultures and this is a reliable place to sample some of Hokkaido's signature cuisine such as soup curry and the limited brew Sapporo beers available only within the prefecture. The warehouses, of course, face the sea, and provide boarding points for bay cruises. There is even a wedding chapel, should that be on your itinerary.

Outside Hakodate Downtown Area

Outside the downtown area, there are more attractions. Our Lady of the Angels Abbey is a Trappist monastery in the northeast. It can be reached by car or bus. Access is limited; you may only enter the forecourt, the chapel and the souvenir shop. The latter offers Trappist butter, jam, and butter cookies at the lowest prices on the archipelago.

To the north, Goryokaku, a pentagonal walled, western-style fort, is accessible by bus or streetcar. (There is no parking.) The Goryokaku was built between 1857 and 1864 by the Tokugawa Shogunate, and served briefly as the region's governmental, diplomatic, and defensive center.

The beginning of the restoration of Japan to imperial governance was marked by the final battle between Tokugawa-loyal and Meiji forces at this site in 1869. The restored fortress is now a park filled with cherry trees. At its entrance a 107 meter viewing tower houses historical exhibits, a small cafe, and a gift shop. The tower provides panoramic views of the city, watched over by its eponymous mountain from the south.

Sunset occasions the other most famed experience of the city. Travel to the peak of Mount Hakodate via hiking trails, car, or ropeway and you will find an observatory. From the roof, Tsugaru Strait and Hakodate Bay seems to be an hourglass filled with twinkling lights.

You can also take in the view from the second floor restaurant accompanied by a Japanese or Western-style dinner. If visibility is poor, don't despair. The gift shop is filled with trinkets splashed with the night view and there is 5.1 channel surround theater with a program of views and history of Hakodate.

Further afield is the Onuma Quasi National Park with its beautiful lakes for canoeing, fishing and hiking.

Getting around Hakodate

There are two tram lines in Hakodate with a combined length of 10.9 km: tram #2 goes from Yunokawa to Yachigashira while tram #5 goes from Yunokawa to Hakodate Dock. Both trams go via Matsukazecho, Hakodate-Ekimae and Jujigai.

A one day pass for the trams is 600 yen, or 1000 yen for buses and trams. A 2-day pass for buses and trams costs 1700 yen. Hakodate's buses and trams take the Ikasu Card (イカすカード).

Hakodate Festivals

Hakodate's big two festivals are the Hakodate Goryokaku Matsuri held on the third weekend in May with costumed participants celebrating the final battle of the Boshin War in 1868 and the Hakodate Minato Matsuri in early August with happi-clad revelers enacting a wave-like squid dance through the city streets.

Hakodate Access - Getting To Hakodate

By Train

Hakodate is easily reached from Sapporo, 260km to the north west. There are roughly hourly Hokuto and Super Hokuto trains from Sapporo Station to Hakodate Station, taking 3 hours and 20 minutes. Trains to the ferry port of Tomakomai for ferries to Nagoya and Sendai take 3 hours.

There are trains to Aomori, Morioka and on to Tokyo through the Seikan Tunnel.

The Hokkaido Shinkansen from Shin-Aomori Station runs to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto. From Shin-Aomori Station the Tohoku Shinkansen connects to Tokyo. Total journey take from Tokyo Station to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto is 4 hours, 2 minutes. From Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Hakodate Station is about 20 minutes on the Hakodate Liner or Super Hokoto Limited Express.

There was also a night train, the Hokutosei service which used to run from Sapporo to Tokyo's Ueno Station via Hakodate. This was discontinued in 2015. A hostel using carriages of the original train opened in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 2016. 

There are trains from Hakodate to Onuma-koen Station (40 minutes) to visit Onuma Quasi National Park.

If you are traveling from Hakodate to Asahikawa, change in Sapporo.

By Bus 

There are regular highway buses from Hakodate to Sapporo (Journey time around 5 and a half hours) operated by Donan Bus Hokkaido Chuo Bus and Hokkaido Kotsu. There is one over night bus on the route. Buses to Esashi take about 2 hours, 15 minutes.

The overnight bus from Sapporo Bus Terminal leaves at 11.35 pm calling at Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, Nanaecho-narukawa, Kikyo, Showa 4-chome, Goryokaku, Hakodate Ferry Terminal, Hakodate Bus Terminal (5.15 am), Yumoto Takubokutei and Yunokawa Onsen (5.32 am the next day).