While I don’t mind some snow or cold, warm days are the best for enjoying historic cities with lots of walking and outdoor sights. Considering how hot and humid it was already getting in subtropical Kyushu, early summer was the perfect time to head north and enjoy Hakodate’s more tempered warmth to start our summer right and to see why Hakodate is Japan’s most attractive city.
Motoi Zaka “Government Slope”
Motomachi & Suehiro-cho
Hakodate has an international yet nostalgic atmosphere and for that reason it doesn’t really feel Japanese. It was the sacrificial lamb thrown to the foreigners after Japan’s opening in 1854, which resulted in a town heavily influenced by the influx of foreign goods, ideas and architecture creating an international city with a unique character that has been preserved over the following century and half.
Upon arrival the first thing to strike me was how wide the streets were. Tree-lined boulevards with green park areas around the roads make for a gloriously inefficient use of space and a more relaxed, less confined cityscape complimented by an over-all lower profile with less sky scrapers and more ‘short’ decorative buildings left over from the late 19th and early 20th century around.
Suehiro-cho and Motomachi, the former government and foreign district, have the city’s highest concentration of turn-of-the-century architecture. Motomachi specifically, with its hilly terrain comes across as San Francisco in miniature. Besides the official structures built in styles from Europe and America, Hakodate has a unique style, the semi or imitation Western home. These take the basic Victorian clapboard-style house and give it distinctly Japanese features like a machiya storefront with sliding doors and lattice-work and sometimes a traditional tower-like kura storehouse would be attached. Each house is different and usually a pretty pastel color so rows of them are quite eye-catching.
This old Hakodate begins just south of Hakodate Station in Suehiro-cho and as we walked to Motomachi I realized that though I had a list of places to see the city itself was a sight to enjoy.
Hakodate’s last Switching Tower (1936)
Our first stop in Motomachi was the old British Consulate just across the street from the statue of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, the first American who became “big in Japan.” The consulate was built in 1913 and is split between a tea house and museum which shares the stories of British consuls and their relationships with Hakodate, as well as explores Hakodate’s history as an international port in an easy to follow narrative.
British Consulate
Just up the hill from it are the former government house, now Motomachi Tourism Center, and the Public Hall. Sadly the latter is being renovated and hidden under scaffolding and tarp. The tourism center reminded me of an old American courthouse with its tall columned entrance.
Motomachi Tourism Center
Going further up the hills we visited two of the churches, the Hakodate Russian Orthodox Church and Motomachi Catholic Church. Both are traditionally built but while I’ve been to many Catholic churches this was my first Russian Orthodox, complete with miniature turnip tops. Its tall yet really small, a condensed version of a church with barely more than a modestly-sized chapel on the inside but one that’s packed with golden church artistry and Cyrillic writing as you would expect in Eastern Europe.
Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
After seeing the churches we stopped at a nearby ice cream shop for the squid ink ice cream. Squid is a local delicacy and the ink, when mixed with Hokkaido milk is kind of like a dark chocolate but without the cocoa. This is still at the head of the slopes, and looking back down toward the bay from up near the churches and government buildings are great places for photos. Time it right and you can get a passing trolley in mix to make it look more like San Francisco.
There are museums all throughout the preserved districts with a very diverse array of focuses from local heroes and history to literature. Just following the tram line on the main road you’ll come across a few without trying. I can recommend three from our visit.
The first is the Hakodate Folk Museum, the former Kanemori Mise. It was built of fireproof brick in 1897 and is the epitome of the late 1800s well-appointed shop selling both imported and domestic goods. The museum itself is something of a treasure house for the shop’s founder, Watanabe Kamushiro. He made his fortune in Hakodate then traveled the world, bringing back that which amused him like an actual musical chair. (It plays music when you sit on it) This combined with the furniture and items from its heyday showcase a little bit of life for a merchant of the time.
Canemori Mise
The Hakodate Museum of Northern Peoples is a former bank that’s now a repository of Ainu culture to teach visitors about these native peoples of Hokkaido. This is done with a collection of artifacts, mostly personal items like clothing and tools. Given how little known they are known by foreigners its worth taking the time to come here. It’s not a deep dive but a good start for understanding some of the basics of how they traditionally lived.
Hakodate Museum of Northern Peoples (former Bank of Japan)
Finally we saw the Sakamoto Ryoma Museum. Sakamoto is one of the patriots whose vision led to the creation of modern Japan. Not being able to read Japanese the text on Ryoma’s life was lost on me, but besides its Ryoma focus, this museum should be known for its collection of about two dozen blades. They don’t have the swords of famous samurai, but they do have other centuries old swords by the same swordsmiths including a Muramasa, the blades which are said to have thirsted for Tokugawa blood.
Ryoma Statue (no photos allowed in the museum)
Akarenga (Kanemori Warehouses)
For food and drink we were drawn again and again to Suehiro-cho’s akarenga or red brick warehouses which have been converted into a tourism and shopping area. It features two beer halls that produce their own craft beers which for the flavor are competitive with their American counterparts. The food wasn’t bad either; Hokkaido’s cuisine is different than the rest of Japans as they grow common American Midwestern crops like potatoes and corn and raise cattle for beef and dairy. So the food was a hybrid of Japanese and American ingredients and cooking that went down well with the beer.
The cafes are also plentiful and tend to play up their old fashioned setting. We had afternoon tea just around the corner from the akarenga at the elegant yet affordable Kyuchaya Tei, an early 20th century teahouse with antique accoutrements and décor. The tea and sweets was good, but eating it off fine porcelain while sitting on antique couches made it feel proper.
Trams & Haikara-go
While walking is pleasant, trams are quicker and it’s a must to ride one of the vintage mid-century street cars at least once. Though, there is one special street car to look out for, Haikara-go.
“Haikara” is an old Japanese term (literally “high collar”) for something modern and fashionable and what is more modern and fashionable than a fire engine red trolley? Haikara-go was built in 1910 and has served Hakodate since 1918. It runs on holidays and weekends, is just a regular tram so requires no extra fare, and as a bonus historic facts play on the intercom (in Japanese) as you ride through town. If stick around until the end of the line, like I did at Hakodate Dock-Mae, the attendant will happily take your picture with Haikara-go and a commemorative sign.
Mt. Hakodate Night View
To wrap up a day out, we ended with the best night view of Hakodate, and as of 2018, the best night view in Japan. From atop Mt. Hakodate we watched the sun go down and the city illuminate light by light. To do this you can fight the crowd on the upper deck outside, or sit beside the windows in the warm café just below it. Sure you don’t have to deal with wind, tripods and throngs of tourists but you get the exact same view and can order refills on your apple wine.
Even within Suehiro-cho and Motomachi these are just the highlights of what we saw and what the area has to offer; we came across so many museums and monuments it would be a chore to list them all. (Also, Japan’s first and oldest concrete electrical post. It’s a marked site in Hakodate. This amuses me.) There’s a lot more outside of the area to see and on our trip I also hunted down places associated with one of Hakodate’s most famous figures, Hijikata Toshizo. (Which are featured in our second Hakodate article here.)
Japan’s first concrete electric pole (1923)
We stayed near Hakodate Station and found most sites were well within walking distance and the constant trams were another easy and cheap option to use if we bought all day passes. To get to Mt. Hakodate we took a sightseeing bus from the Hakodate Station bus terminal.
Despite visiting over a weekend in late May we also found the town practically deserted so we didn’t fight crowds or wait in line anywhere except for the top of Mt. Hakodate. Combine all that, the sites, food and drink with the perfect weather Hakodate may possibly be Japan’s best summertime travel destination.
ADDRESSES
Old British Consulate
33-11 Motomachi, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0054
Hakodate Russian Orthodox Church
3-13 Motomachi, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0054
Akarenga (Kanemori Warehouse)
13-9 Suehirochō, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0053
Kyuchaya Tei
14-28 Suehirochō, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0053
https://kyuchayatei.hakodate.jp/
Hakodate Folk Museum (Kanemori Mise)
19-15 Suehirochō, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0053
https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2015121000073/
Goryokaku
44 Goryokakucho, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0001
http://www.goryokaku-tower.co.jp/en/
Hakodate Official Travel Site
https://www.hakodate.travel/en/