Tanuki Travel: Hakodate trip overview

Tanuki Family visited Hakodate in March 2015 when our older daughter just turned 2yr-old for nearly full 3 days.
We didn't rent a car and just used local trams and buses while we were in the city.
But, we finished visiting famous locations in first 2 full days.
So, if you're staying in Hakodate for more than 2 full days, we recommend you to rent a car to visit different locations other than city central.

We could see the snowy mountains from the airplane in March.

It took about 1.5 hours from Tokyo by airplane.

Sightseeing Locations

The city central has a good shopping and sightseeing location with red brick buildings called KANEMORI RED BRICK WAREHOUSE that used to be warehouses.

We visited Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward.There was a Haikara Costume Gallery. Haikara means high sophisticated people around 1900s.You can rent Western style costumes around 1900s and dress like people in Meiji or Taisho periods in Japan. They even had small girls dresses.

We have also enjoyed an English style afternoon tea nearby this location. Exact location is Former British Consulate of Hakodate.

Hakodate Bugyo-Sho (Hakodate Magistrate's Office) This old building existed only for 4 years and there are not much documents related to this building left. Thus, it is about one-third of the original size of the building; however, it is quite interesting to look inside.

Hakodate Ropeway Hakodate is famous for night view. You can see the heart in Japanese characters in the night view and there is a story that couples who could find the word "heart" they will be in love forever.

Food Recommendations

We have visited two beer restaurants.

Hakodate Beer Hall (No English site available. This place had a good ambiance, but, the food menu or beers were not too impressive.)
HAKODATE BEER This location is better than the above. This is a local brewery and served good food menu. So, we visited this place twice while we were there.

squid fry with squid dipping sauce called "shiokara"

BBQ style ram calld "Jingisukan" and this is quite famous in Hokkaido

squid croquette

If you cut the croquette in half, you can see lots of squids

"ikameshi" squid filled with sticky rice

Hakodate Asaichi　We also visited morning fish market twice.You can eat fresh squids out of the squid pools in the market. So, cut squids are not white, but transparent.