1 / 7Kanemori Red Brick WarehousesPhoto: 掬茶 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 7 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Bonded warehouses rebuilt in brick in 1909 after the great fire, now shops and a beer hall, strung along the harbor between berth and Motomachi. The canal-side photo works in any weather.
- Our number 3 for Hakodate, out of ten. It is the first thing we would spend the hours on.
- Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr 30 min door to door, so even a tender day works.
- Reachable on foot from the berth, so no timetable can strand you.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "Perfect" — combine with the morning market on the way and motomachi on the way back.
- Gift shops 9:30–19:00; Beer Hall 11:30–21:30 weekdays, 11:00–21:30 weekends and holidays — open every day except year-end and new year. the yobutsukan building carries a maintenance notice, dates not stated..
- 1 hr 30 min door to door needs a 3.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Why Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses is famous
Kanemori began as a ship chandler in 1869 and went into warehousing in 1887 to hold cargo from the newly opened port; the great fire of 1907 took those buildings, and the brick bays standing today date from 1909. They are among the oldest surviving commercial warehouses in Hokkaido, and the reuse is unusually light: the bays, the beams and the canal between them are still legible as working structures.
This is the brick-warehouse quarter on Hakodate's Bay Area waterfront, now a complex of four buildings: BAY Hakodate (17 shops and a gallery), Kanemori Yobutsukan, the Hakodate History Plaza (which houses the Beer Hall) and Kanemori Hall. It lies between the ship and the Motomachi slopes, so it is the natural middle stop of a walking day.
What you actually do is browse and eat. BAY Hakodate has a music-box shop, a honey shop, a patisserie and a wine shop; the History Plaza has the Beer Hall, a crepe stand and a chopstick workshop. Yobutsukan holds the post office, ATM, coin lockers and an information desk, which is useful if you need to leave a bag.
It is a shopping quarter, not a museum, and it is busiest when several ships are in. If you want the history of the Meiji port itself, the Old Public Hall and Motomachi churches are the better use of time. Skip it if you are short of time and have not yet had breakfast at the Morning Market.
Things worth knowing
- The Motomachi Bay Area shuttle bus serves the quarter; the adult fare is ¥250 (child ¥130). The tram stop is Jujigai, 5 minutes on foot from the warehouses.
- The official site has a floor directory and bay-area map you can download in English before you land.
- Coin lockers, an ATM and a post office are inside Kanemori Yobutsukan; check that it is open before relying on it, as a maintenance notice is posted.
- The Beer Hall opens at 11:30 on weekdays and 11:00 on weekends and holidays, so it is not a breakfast option.
Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Questions people send us
Is there an entrance fee for Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse?
The official page lists no admission fee. The buildings are shopping and dining space, so you pay for what you buy.
Can I walk there from the cruise terminal?
From Wakamatsu, yes: roughly 20 minutes on foot (300 m to the station plus the complex's own 15-minute figure from JR Hakodate). From Minato-cho you need the ship shuttle or a taxi first.
When does the beer hall open?
11:30 on weekdays and 11:00 on weekends and holidays; it closes at 21:30.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
2 hr 30 min for bothSnaffle's & squid sweets
Cheese omelet cakes that dissolve on contact — Hakodate’s proudest confection, boxed for travel.
See the detail
2 hr 30 min for bothYakitori bento at Hasegawa
A local chain’s pork-skewer bento with a cult following — order at the counter, eat on the harbor wall.
See the detail
3 hr for bothKaisendon at the morning market
Uni, ikura and scallop over rice at 7 a.m., 300 metres (a 3-minute walk) from the Wakamatsu terminal (from Minato-cho, ship shuttle if one runs, or a taxi, about 20 min).
See the detail