Japan Guide
Hokkaidō
Hakodate
If you travel to Hokkaidō by train, the first major city you'll come to after emerging from the Seikan Tunnel is the attractive port of HAKODATE, 260km southwest of Sapporo. Along with Shimoda on the Izu Hantō, this was one of the first ports to open to foreign traders following the Japan– US amity treaty of 1854. Over the next few years, ten countries including Britain, Russia and the USA established consulates in Hakodate, with both foreigners and rich Japanese building fancy wooden homes and elaborate churches on the steep hillsides. Many of these late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings have been preserved, particularly in the Motomachi area, which is Hakodate's highlight.
The city has plenty of other compelling attractions. Be sure to check out the lively fish and fresh produce market Asa-ichi; the outstanding exhibition on Ainu culture at the Hakodate City Museum of Northern Peoples; and the night view from the top of Hakodate-yama. In addition, the Ōnuma Quasi National Park, a beautiful lakeland and mountain area with good hiking trails, is an easy day-trip.
In 1868, the last of the Tokugawa shogun's forces was defeated in a siege of Hakodate's Goryōkaku fort, a victory celebrated each year in mid-May with a period costume parade through the town. A much larger parade is held during the Hakodate Port Festival, from August 1 to 5, when 20,000 people in cotton kimono and straw hats perform the "squid dance", an entertaining jig where hands are flapped and clapped in time to rhythmic drumming.
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