Photo: 掬茶 / CC BY-SA 4.0Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Hakodate is a compact port town in Hokkaido, filling a narrow isthmus between two bays, and one of the two ports Japan opened to the world in 1854. It is known for the Morning Market's crab, scallop and sea urchin breakfasts, for the night view from Mt Hakodate, and for Goryokaku, a star-shaped fort. On two calls in three your ship docks at Wakamatsu Wharf, three minutes' walk from the market, with the Motomachi slopes and red-brick warehouses beyond.
Japan opened two ports to the world in 1854, and this was one of them — not for trade, but as a filling station for American whalers. Everything the city looks like today follows from that, and from three catastrophic fires.
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In the winter of 1868 a defeated navy sailed north, occupied a European-style fortress, and held what may have been the first election in Japanese history. Then they lost, and with them went the samurai era.
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Hakodate was built over a village called Usukeshi in 1454. Three years later the first great uprising began, over a knife. Everything on this hillside sits on top of a story most visitors are never told.
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Ask why Hokkaido uni tastes better and most guides say "the cold water." That is half an answer. The real one is that sea urchins eat kelp — and Hakodate is the single largest kombu producer in Japan.
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The oldest Western restaurant in town opened in 1879 serving Russian food. A German-speaking butcher from Bohemia was saved by the German navy's appetite. And the best burger in Japan is sold by a chain that exists in exactly one city.
Read the storyCruise seasons run spring to autumn, but the port changes underneath them.
Goryokaku's ~1,500 trees trace the star around late April, with evening illumination.
Beautiful walking weather — but sea fog starts threatening the night view.
Surume-ika returns, and the morning market's best months begin.
The best eating of the year, and the worst odds on the mountain.
Hokkaido summer: gentle by Japanese standards, and the fog eases.
Crisp air, squid still running, night-view odds at their best.
Goryokaku turns; the slopes photograph beautifully in low light.
Scallops improving, crab returning, the air at its most transparent.
Deep snow and the year's best crab — but the Orthodox church closes to visitors.
