From Sendai, we went further on the Tohoku Shinkansen ("northeastern shinkansen") to Hakodate, our entry port on the northern island of Hokkaido. The most interesting part of this trip is the passage through the Seikan Tunnel which joins Hokkaido with Honshu under the Tsugaru Strait, and only opened in 2016 after being first surveyed in 1946. Prior to that, Hokkaido was only accessible by sea or air. What a difference that must make! The 54km tunnel is the world's longest with a 23km undersea segment, although the English Channel tunnel has a longer undersea segment. It's deep - 100m below the seabed, and 250m below sea level. The whole sector is dual gauge, able to take wider gauge shinkansens as well as "regular" trains, and our shinkansen slowed to regular speed for this part of the trip.
Snowy forecourt at Hakodate Station.
We saw that Hakodate was a popular city for tourists, with lots of attractions. One reason for its popularity will be that the bullet train does terminate here, and travellers to Sapporo, facing a long journey before and after this terminus, stay here for a break. Hakodate is at the end of a peninsula, a dead end so to speak, so the shinkansen terminal is well out of town at Hokuto, about half an hour away on a (very crowded) local train.
Hakodate (pop ~300,000) is the third city of Hokkaido, and was founded in 1454 on the site of an Ainu fishing village. It was taken over by a shogunate in 1779, and by 1860 the town was one of five in Japan to be opened to foreign ships, trade and settlement. The "Great Hakodate Fire" of 1934 did the city no good, and neither did US bombing in 1945.
Hakodate is another "road slops" town, one that doesn't seem to cope well with lots of snow. A surprise, since we are in Hokkaido, and this must be a way of life here. There's no apparent attempt to clear the roads, that's OK, traffic negotiates the dry snow quite well, but clearing footpaths is left up to whoever owns the adjacent house or business, and they seem to be unwilling to attack tens of centimeters of snow turning to ice as people walk on it. There are some really slippery places in this town. Steps, curbs, and the foothills of Motomachi are especially treacherous.
They don't keep the pedestrian walkways very clear in Hakodate.
Puzzle: how many bicycles?
Hakodate's main tourist attraction is 334m high Mount Hakodate which looms over the city and forms a large knob at the end of the peninsula. Every visitor goes to the top of this mountain on a "ropeway" (we'd call it a cable car) from the foothills suburb of Motomachi for a spectacular view of what can be seen to be a quite expansive city. The cable car (as other attractions) makes announcements in Chinese and Korean as well as Japanese and English, which is a recognition of who the visitors are coming to this part of the world. We went up in marginal weather, but it enabled us to enjoy the vista in a very pretty light, and we enjoyed afternoon tea in the restaurant there.
Cable car (ropeway) near the top of Mount Hakodate.
The view lets you see quite clearly how Hakodate centres on a broad spit which joins the mountain to the rest of Hakodate. To the left a port faces north-west into a large and protected Hakodate Bay where we could see ferry traffic and a lot of merchant activity. To the right (maybe a km or two away), the coast faces south-east to the Pacific Ocean.
Snowy Hakodate from the mountain, our hotel, La Vista, is centre left, and the ocean on the right.
An unwelcoming Pacific Ocean beach behing the Botanic Garden.
Motomachi itself is quite interesting, a suburb of steep streets at the base of the mountain. We traversed these on foot, a difficult proposition given the snow and ice everywhere. We found the roads were generally a safer proposition than the uncleared footpaths. In these foothills, there is the clearest evidence of early European influence with a number of Christian churches which date back to the late middle 1800's when the city became one of first in Japan to welcome foreigners.
Roman Catholic church on the slippery slopes of Motomachi.
Orthodox Church, yet another sign of European influence in Hakodate.
The foothills flatten out to an old port warehouse district which have been pleasantly restored to become the usual souvenir shops and cafes enclave. In this area, we found the quietest Starbucks Cafe we've seen (and met some Aussies there, from Gundagai NSW), and took a meal at a large but cosy beer barn. Our hotel, the La Vista is in this district, and indeed it is built within the facade of one of the old warehouses.
Squid fishing boats, we think, moored at the harbour.
When the bell sounds it's vodka o'clock.
Mulled wine and chips with choppies at the Hakodate Beer Garden.
Retail therapy is raging inside the shops of the Red Brick Warehouses,
Colorful store was decorated with ancient music boxes and street organs.
Breakfast at the La Vista is famous and accordingly popular. It makes some concessions to Western tastes, but is basically the biggest Japanese buffet you've ever seen, constantly being refreshed by a team of chefs and attendants. Funnily, there's only chopsticks available, which requires a new approach to eating soft scrambled eggs and spreading jams on toast!
Manicured trees with snow caps add to the beauty of a winter garden.
We've seen and used public bath-houses, (sento), at several hotels on this trip, but the spacious baths at La Vista were the best! On the roof, with multiple baths of different temeperatures, some under cover inside and larger ones exposed to the snow and wind outside. We preferred the latter for an invigorating experience, and a fantsatic view of Mount Hakodate. The baths were popular - it looks like all hotel guests use them at some time. Bath-house culture and etiquette first migrated from India Buddhists to Japan in the Nara period (710–784), and the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) introduced segregated houses to reestablish moral standards. Bath-houses provide an important social element in Japanese life, although their usage is somewhat declined because many private residences have their own bathrooms.
Open air bath-houses on the top floor of the La Vista Hotel, men on the left, ladies on the right.
No photos in a bath-house, but this is a classic print by Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815).
View of Mount Hakodate as seen from warehouse district and La Vista bath-house.
We got around Hakodate on a street-car day ticket. The tram system now has 11km of lines over the flat parts of the city. It started as a horse-drawn system in 1897AD and was electrified in 1913. Like Melbourne, the system operates a variety of cars of varying ages. The system is much the same as buses we have ridden - get on at the middle door, pay the driver when you get off.
Streetcar near Jujigai stop, passing a historical manual track switching station.
Local produce store in Hakodate.
The "red brick warehouses" overlooked by Mount Hakodate.
One stop was to visit the Hakodate Tropical Botanic Garden at Yunokawawhich proved to be a 1km walk from the nearest stop and a navigational feat to find it. We could have avoided that if we had studied the map more carefully. Anyway, we went there to see the macaque monkeys in what we hoped would be a natural environment but, since we're in a big city, we should have known better. Dozens of macaques are held in an ugly concrete enclosure but at least they have a nice warm bath to relax and preen in, and some good toys to play on. It was a pretty sad sight, and we don't know why Lonely Planet gave this place a "star" but panned the much more attractive wilderness location at Jigokudani Yaen-koen near Nakano.
The saddest sight in Hakodate, these macaques in their enclosure.
"Will I ever get out of here", this guy might be thinking.
The monkeys have plenty of equipment to play around on.
The "monkey bath" was part of the Hakodate Tropical Botanic Garden, a large warm and humid glass covered pyramid filled with tropical plants and even a few turtles. This was a pleasant experience, and we're not quite sure how the monkey pen outside fits into the logic of a botanic garden.
Looking less miserable than the monkeys, this turtle basks in the warm environment of the Hakodate Tropical Botanic Garden.
Colorful bougainvillea doing well in the Garden.
Papaya growing in the tropical warmth.
Not very glamorous, but these "hot foot baths" are common around Hakodate.
Another stop was to see the Goryokaku Fort (1855AD), a very non-Japanese fort based on French design with a five-pointed star shape all the better to espy and resist attack, intended to repel a feared Russian invasion. It was the last refuge of the attempts by Japan's northern island to become an independent republic, Ezo in 1869. Imperial forces made short work of this and overwhelmed the fort quickly. Later that year, Hokkaido was given its present name, meaning "northern sea region" and eventually accorded full prefectural status in the country.
3D model of the star-shaped Goryohaku Fort, at its present day visitor entrance (bottom right).
Icy and slippery surfaces greet visitors to Goryohaku Fort.
The Hakodate Magistrate's Office (1862) was the short-lived Ezo republic administrative centre.
Rare blue sky behind the Goryokaku Tower.
Hijikata Toshizoh (1833-1869) was a "masterless swordsman" who protected the shogun, and died fighting for the Ezo republic.
Our arrival at Hakodate Station to depart was during the heaviest blizzard we've ever seen, after about 200-300mm overnight. The shinkansen finishes at Hakodate (until 2030 when it will extend "all the way" to Sapporo), so for our next journey, we caught the Super Hokuto diesel electric (no overhead wires) limited express for what would be our longest individual train sector of this trip (just under 4 hours).
Snowstorm at Hakodate Station as we awaited our train.
Our Super Hokuto to Sapporo had to plough through the snow to get to the platform.
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