Day 3 was dedicated to sightseeing around Hakodate!

Hakodate was the first Japanese port to open to foreigners so that explains the various western influences and architecture in town. And because it's a port town so of course fresh seafood is aplenty!

Started with a short walk to the station to get a day pass for travels, but Tourist Information Centre hasnt open yet, so off we go to Hakodate Morning Market which is a 2 minute walk from the station. Rather than one single building we realised that its more like a cluster of markets so we duly went into each one of them. Partly coz we didnt want to be outdoors much also hahah.









Went back to the station and got our tickets! It is actually a booklet of coupons worth 16 points, and each attraction is worth a certain number of points. Day pass on trams is 1 point, I think entrance to Goryokaku Tower and Mt Hakodate Ropeway is 7 points each. That leaves us with one point each which we combined to redeem a box of Snaffles later on. But I digress.


Close to noon by the time we made our way to Goryokaku Tower. The tram stop is some distance away from the park/tower itself, so have to brave the snow and slippery pavements again (seriously, our biggest achievement this trip is not slipping and falling, except on ski slopes).








Decided to pop by Goryokaku Park, coz snow seem to have subsided a bit. What do we know. Within 5 minutes it picked up again but aiya whatever la.



Bit of rush to our next stop coz we wanted to be up at Mt Hakodate to catch sunset. Or rather to catch both day and night views, coz sun is non-existent because of all the snow. So it's a 10+ stops ride to Jiujigai stop again.


Walking upslope is already tiring on normal days, not to mention walking on thick snow and cautiously avoiding slippery paths (ok shall quit complaining about snow).

Weather was pretty hopeless at this point to the extent that the ticket staff asked us if we really wanted to go up (their screens indicate views of Hakodate at the peak as "invisible" at this point =.=). Daijobuuu we are already here.




Not much to do up on the peak other than a bit of souvenir shopping so we decided to camp at the restaurant while waiting for sunset. Got a pretty good seat coz not many people around..yet.





With objective achieved, we decided to leave. Turns out going downhill is not any easier than uphill. Oh well. Caught a tram back to Hakodate Ekimae for dinner at the station, because we wanted ramen and one of the shops that frequently came up is this place called Ajisai, specializing in shio ramen. Apparently there are six families of ramen broth and Hokkaido itself owns three of them, Hakodate Shio ramen being one of them.




Verdict - so so. Like, using salt to flavour broth doesnt seem particularly special? Loved the gyoza though.

Still getting used to the fact that sun sets early so keep having this urge to go back after dinner. Plus there isnt much to do at night anyway, and I think I still have some lost sleep to catch up on. The sister was suggesting to go to the docks but honestly other than sea breeze (not appealing) there isnt much to see, so after getting Snaffles and popping by Family Mart we called it a day.

A bit of a surprise to see a bag outside our room though, turns out because we put a do not disturb door tag (because I was hanging laundry in the room the night before and didnt want them to see), housekeepers left a bag of fresh amenities outside our room. Something which we later see at other hotels too. Good hospitality!

Labels: holidays, japan, travel