Hokkaido, here we come! Part 4: Hakodate

After spending a couple days in Sapporo, we took a long train ride down to the southern tip of Hokkaido and spent the remainder of our Hokkaido trip in Hakodate. This was another small town that we enjoyed exploring!

Traveling to Hakodate

To get to Hakodate from Sapporo, we could either fly or take a train. We decided to take a train ride so that we could experience the landscape of Hokkaido. It was also a lot easier to get to JR Sapporo Station and catch a train than to get a bus ride back to New Chitose Airport and fly to Hakodate Airport.

Booking our train tickets

To book our train tickets to Hakodate, I reserved them through the JR East website by purchasing single tickets between JR Sapporo Station and JR Hakodate Station. Each ticket was 9,440 yen which was about $61 USD at the time. One thing I did notice is that the JR East website only accepts Mastercards.

The booking process was very easy, all we had to do was choose our stations, pick the time that we wanted to depart and choose our seats. I received an email confirmation with a QR code to pick up the actual tickets at the station.

JR Sapporo Station

Since I already booked my tickets and only needed to pick up two tickets, I thought that the process was going to be pretty quick. We arrived at JR Sapporo Station an hour before our train departure thinking that was enough time to pick up our tickets and grab some food. Little did I know that it was going to be SO crowded there.

There were so many tourists in line at the JR East Service Center to pick up or purchase JR passes and/or reserve seats using their JR pass. This process takes quite a while since people are generally trying to book multiple train rides and there’s a lot of confirmations back and forth.

Waiting in line just to get our tickets ended up taking me almost the whole hour and we ended up getting to our platform right as the train arrived 😰. So stressful!

I would definitely recommend arriving well before your departure time for any train that you take if you need to pick up tickets or exchange vouchers or anything. You never know how busy different kiosks or areas can get, so you just want to be prepared and not miss your train. Unfortunately, if you miss your train, you can’t just hop on the next one - you need to repurchase a ticket.

I believe there are actually JR ticket kiosks around the JR stations near the turnstiles, but at the time I wasn’t aware or couldn’t find them, which is why I ended up at the service center. Next time, I’m definitely going to prioritize looking for a JR ticket kiosk (which is what the QR code is for).

Train ride to Hakodate

The train ride from Sapporo to Hakodate took about four hours in total. It was a pretty mellow train ride, this wasn’t a Shinkansen or anything, but it was pretty comfortable. We got to see so much of the country and the land. It was really beautiful to see all the snowy landscapes!

Unfortunately since we ran out of time waiting for our tickets at the JR East service center, we didn’t have time to grab food for breakfast, so we had to subsist on the little bits of snacks that we had in our bags for the train ride. If there was anything I wish we did differently here, it would be not splitting up at Sapporo Station so that one of us could grab food for the ride.

Our hotel: La’gent Hakodate

When we arrived in Hakodate, I was so pleasantly surprised at how close our hotel was to the station. It was literally right outside of the station, so we didn’t have to walk far at all with our bags to check in and drop them off.

Hako Viva

Our hotel was also connected to this shopping and food area called Hako Viva. This was actually really cool because we could grab food, visit shops, or hit up a convenience store all without actually going outside (which was really nice because it was freezing out).

Our Room

Our room for the night was pretty spacious! We had two twin beds and a pretty large open area with a small table. We also had a mini refrigerator and a small coffee and tea corner.

The restroom was also well kept which I appreciated!

Onsen

This hotel actually also has an onsen in the building. While I didn’t use it since I’m not super familiar with onsen etiquette I did take a peek at the area and saw that they give out free popsicles that you can take after taking a bath!

I grabbed a muscat popsicle for the road and it was such a nice little treat!

Transportation around Hakodate

Questionable bus stops

I would say that transportation options around Hakodate are…lacking.

I definitely didn’t do a ton of research before visiting, so maybe I should have known better, but Google Maps doesn’t cut it here for public transportation.

After we checked in to our hotel, we wanted to check out a conveyor belt sushi place called Kantaro Sushi. As with everywhere else we visited during our trip, we used Google Maps to get a bus route to our destination that looked easy enough to follow. However, when we got to the bus stop, we simply couldn’t find it. We walked around the surrounding area looking for a bus stop station or a sign post or anything and couldn’t find a thing. We also didn’t see any buses or cars drive by the area for at least 20 minutes. It wasn’t until we saw other likely tourists walk up to the same area looking just as confused that we figured a bus was not likely to come and decided that we would just keep walking along the supposed bus route until we hopefully saw the bus or ran into the next stop.

We ended up walking the entire way to the sushi restaurant which took about 30 minutes from when we decided to leave the first bus stop. A 30-minute walk isn’t too bad, but it was freezing cold and super windy, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable walk.

However! We did get to see more of the town which was nice, and we made a little detour to a beach that we found along the way! It was so cool to see actual snow on a beach for the first time in real life! So that was definitely a fun little side quest!

Hakodate bus terminal

Buses coming and going from the main Hakodate bus terminal did seem reliable. This was how we got to the Hakodate Airport on our way out of the city. There’s a single bus that leaves the Hakodate bus terminal that travels to the Hakodate Airport. The timetable is pretty limited, so I would make sure to check it ahead of time and make sure you pick a time with enough buffer. The bus fare for this ride was 500 yen per person, which wasn’t so bad!

GO taxi app

After our dinner, it was getting late and definitely didn’t want to do that walk again, so we ended up calling a taxi. In Hakodate they use the GO taxi app. It was easy enough to download and set up, and it works similar to other rideshare apps except that the price that you see in the app is an estimate, and your final price is still based on the taxi meter. So you aren’t charged until the ride is complete and the final price is set. In our case, the actual price ended up being lower than the price estimate.

With the GO taxi app, once you get your ride confirmed, you have a confirmation code that you and your driver give to each other to confirm you’re the intended rider. This actually came in handy for us because as we were waiting for our taxi to come in the dark and freezing cold, two random pedestrians came out of nowhere and were near us also looking for a car. When our car was pulling up, they literally ran in front of us and tried to steal our taxi!! But, since it’s already been reserved, I was able to get it back 😂

Streetcar

Hakodate also has streetcars that follow a single route through the town. This is a pretty good and reliable option if you’re traveling to locations along the line.

Overall, I would say the best ways to get around Hakodate would be either by the streetcar or by taxi. The taxi costs weren’t too bad, and the streetcar was convenient enough as long as we weren’t in too much of a rush, since the came around once every 15-20 minutes.

Hakodate Food Spots

Hakodate Morning Market

On our second day in Hakodate, we headed to the Hakodate Morning Market for breakfast. This is very similar to Nijo Market in Sapporo where there are lots of seafood stores alongside a bunch of seafood bowl restaurants.

There were so many restaurants that it was really hard to pick one! A lot of these restaurants have pre-set bowls as displays, but they can also customize or add-on seafood that you want. However, most of the places don’t have English menus, or at least none available outside of the restaurant to look at, so we stuck with a spot that had pre-set options that we already liked so we wouldn’t have too much trouble ordering.

We ended up choosing a spot called Donburi Yokocho because they had a scallop, tuna/salmon, uni, ikura, and crab bowl for 1850 yen. We liked all of the seafood offered and the price felt like a really affordable one.

I will say I think that, for being one of the cheapest seafood bowls that we had on our trip, it was pretty good! The quality of the seafood did feel a little lower compared to some of the other places we tried, but given the price it was still a good breakfast!

The butter scallops that we ordered as a side, though, were really delicious! The scallops were cooked perfectly and the butter sauce was so good with it!

Kantaro Sushi

If you’re looking for a conveyor belt sushi spot in Hakodate that makes great sushi, Kantaro is a really good option!

It’s a pretty large conveyor belt sushi restaurant with tables and bar seats and it has a really nice view overlooking the ocean.

It was really easy to order what we wanted since we could order on tablet, and the tablet had an English option. The sushi tasted so fresh and the seafood was so good!

Price-wise this was probably a considerably pricey conveyor belt sushi place. The quality is pretty high and the price reflects that, so this is definitely more of a fanciful conveyor belt sushi spot.

But it was really delicious, and I was so satisfied after this meal!

Ramen Onjiki

Right next to our hotel was a small ramen shop called Ramen Onjiki. They’re a very no frills quick stop shop. At Ramen Onjiki, orders are made at a vending machine. After getting your tickets, you provide them to the host who gets the order prepped and delivered to your table.

We tried the miso ramen and the Trappist ramen which was like a miso butter ramen with corn. These ramen bowls were pretty massive especially for the price. My miso ramen bowl was about 870 yen, and the Trappist ramen was 1070 yen, so both dishes were under $10 USD!

The ramen bowls themselves were maybe not the best ramen we’ve ever had. While the portions were very generous, the noodles were too salty for me and the textures were on the softer side. It wasn’t my favorite meal, but it was a nice affordable option that was really close to our hotel!

Patisserie Petite Merveille

Inside the Red Brick Warehouse, we came across Patisserie Petite Merveille. Since we hadn’t had our daily dose of soft cream yet, we got some here and enjoyed the view of the snow from inside.

I got a pumpkin and milk soft cream in a cone, and it was yummy! The pumpkin flavor was very light, but still good!

We also tried a melcheese pudding which came in a cute little jar and had a small packet of caramel to drizzle over it. The pudding had a whipped texture to it and was very smooth and had an almost light cream-cheese like flavor to it. The caramel drizzle was a nice addition to it too. It was a more smokey and less sweet caramel flavor which I really liked!

Cafe Rob

Whenever I go anywhere, I always try to look for any boba shops that are available in the area. I found Cafe Rob which was in the Hakodate area and we decided to check it out.

Cafe Rob is a small but cute little cafe / boba shop. They serve breakfast items like fluffy pancakes, lunch items like sandwiches, and boba drinks.

We tried their sesame cafe latte with boba and the hojicha latte with boba. Both were actually pretty good, which I was honestly a little surprised about! The tapioca balls were on the larger side and had a nice chewy texture. The sesame cafe latte was really good - the sesame flavor came out really strong and you could get a slight hint of coffee as an aftertaste.

The hojicha latte was also good. It has a nice light roasted flavor and was a bit more on the creamy side.

Both drinks were really good and I enjoyed both of them!

Hakodate Sights

Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse

While we were exploring Hakodate, we visited the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse. These previously commercial warehouses have been turned into a large shopping center with lots of different shops and restaurants that visitors can check out. There are three buildings in total that neighbors each other, each with different shops inside them. They actually had a stamp rally going while we were there, which had a bunch of really cute stamps spread out across all three of the warehouses!

Goryokaku Tower & Fort Goryokaku

One of Hakodate’s major tourist attractions is Goryokaku Tower and Fort Goryokaku. Goryokaku is famous for being a star-shaped fort that was used to defend Hakodate from imperialist powers during the Edo period.

Now it’s a park that guests can walk through, and many of the buildings inside the fort are open as museums with paid admission, though all of the outside grounds are free for all guests.

Goryokaku Tower is a 107-meter tower that overlooks Fort Goryokaku. From the top of the tower you can see an aerial view of the fort and the surrounding Hakodate scenery and landscape.

We didn’t go up the tower to see the view, but we did spend a bit of time at the gift shop looking for some more Hakodate/Hokkaido-exclusive souvenirs to bring home!

Hakodate Airport

To head back to Tokyo, we flew out of Hakodate Airport. This airport was pretty calm.

We had time before our flight, so we grabbed one last meal in Hakodate at a seafood bowl place outside of security called Hakoya.

We got a scallop bowl and chutoro bowl and they were both good! These bowls were also pretty affordable and offered quite a lot of fish!

Security was a breeze and while our flight was a bit delayed, we ultimately were able to board with no issues and get back to Tokyo!

Hokkaido Recap

Our trip to Hokkaido was so much fun! I’m really glad we got to visit in the winter and experience the snow! Experiencing both Sapporo and Hakodate was pretty cool since we got to see what it’s like in their more metropolitan town in Sapporo, but we also got to experience what the smaller town feel was like with Hakodate.

A lot of businesses in Hokkaido are primarily cash only, which is a bit of a departure from how Tokyo operates mostly nowadays, so it was really important for us to have cash on hand.

Public transportation is also not as readily available as it is in Tokyo and places often take longer to get to since the intervals at which buses and subways run are typically longer as well. It was still a smooth trip, but these are definitely useful things to keep in mind!

Before arriving, I was expecting that we’d find the greatest, freshest seafood here for a fraction of the cost compared to other areas. However, this didn’t seem to be the case. I felt like for the most part the seafood, while delicious, was just as delicious as seafood spots we could find in Tokyo, and for roughly the same price too. So I would say I was just a tad disappointed by that.

What I hadn’t expected, though, was how much I enjoyed all of the desserts! The Hokkaido milk is really something special and tastes soo good! I loved all the Hokkaido milk desserts that we got to try. I also really love all the corn-flavored snacks and desserts, like the corn monaka that we had on our first night in Sapporo! I liked it so much, I made sure to get it again before we left Hakodate!

It was also cool to discover haskaps, which are a winter berry that I never would have known about had I not visited Hokkaido! They taste a lot like grapes, and after we had a taste of them, we went looking for all the haskap gummies, candies, and flavored waters we could find!

But most of all, I was so tickled by my introduction to shimaenagas! From the first night in Sapporo to every day that we were in Hokkaido I was so excited every time I saw new shimaenaga merchandise or decorations or anything at all! They’re just so cute, and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of them until now! The shimaenaga love doesn’t just exist in Hokkaido though. I actually started seeing a bunch of shimaenaga everything even when we returned to Tokyo - I think I just didn’t notice them until after Hokkaido!

Overall I had so much fun and really enjoyed this little trip that we had to Hokkaido. I’d love to return and visit more of the cities in the area, especially during the springtime to see all the beautiful flowers!