Photo: stu_spivack / CC BY-SACheese omelet cakes that dissolve on contact — Hakodate’s proudest confection, boxed for travel. The squid-ink caramels beside them are the dare gift.
Snaffle's cheese omelette, a soufflé-textured cake, was created in Hakodate in 2001 and became the city's standard gift. The squid-shaped sweets beside it are older and sillier, and both exist because Japanese travel etiquette expects you to come home with something from the place itself.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare on a 6-hour call.
The same place is a different day in March and in November. This is the Hakodate year, in order.
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.
Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
2h for bothA local chain’s pork-skewer bento with a cult following — order at the counter, eat on the harbor wall.
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2h 30m for bothUni, ikura and crab over rice at 7 a.m., a hundred meters of squid tanks from the Wakamatsu berth (from Minatocho, ride the shuttle first).
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2h 30m for both1880s bonded warehouses turned shops and beer hall, strung along the harbor between berth and Motomachi.
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