The next morning, we hit up the Morning Market near Hakodate Station. This is basically a seafood market that lies directly south of the Hakodate Station. During most of the day, this market is quiet. However, in the morning, the stalls are open for business for you to try out the freshest in seafood that Hakodate has to offer.
The freshest seafood also comes at a bit of price. The fresh cuttlefish that you can fish out on your own can cost about ¥1300 depending on what the market price is that day. It’s not the cheapest, but I guess it’s a fun experience. However, it is a fun experience we ended up passing on.
We found ourselves a little restaurant looking directly at the train station at the edge of the market. We wanted some morning seafood rice bowls. So that’s what we got. We weren’t looking for huge amounts of fish eggs or sea urchin on top. We just needed a smattering. A lot of the seafood rice bowls go for about ¥3,000 easily. We found ours for about ¥1,500, if I remember correctly. It was good deal. It may not have been the freshest in the market, but it was still pretty good. More importantly, it hit the spot.
After our seafood breakfast, we hopped back onto Hakodate’s classic streetcars and headed back to the Hakodate Mountain area. At the foot of the mountain is an area of town known as Motomachi (元町) that was settled by many foreign powers. So many of the buildings in the area are built in different Western styles. One can also find a variety of different churches in the area. Once the clock struck the top of the hour, the churches in the area would all be ringing their bells.
After walking around for a couple of hours and checking out the camera collection in the Old Public Hall, we decided to hop back onto the streetcar and spend our last hour in Hakodate at the Yunokawa Hot Springs area. When the streetcar arrived, it was one of the new streetcars. It was totally sleek compared to the classic streetcars that typically ply the rails in Hakodate.
We took it all the way to the end of the line at the Yunokawa Hot Springs (湯の川). We weren’t really planning to go into any hot springs since we didn’t have much time. However, there was a free foot bath in the Hot Springs area. The foot bath was just steps away from the streetcar stop. We walked over and kicked off our shoes and bathed our feet in the soothing hot water. It was very comfortable to soak one’s feet after a few hours of walking. Many planes would roar overhead as they passed by on their way to landing at the nearby Hakodate Airport. The airport must have been really close by because I could see the bellies of the planes very clearly as they landed.
After bathing our feet for a while, we walked the neighbourhood. We were hoping to find some shops to peruse, but maybe we walked in the wrong direction. All we found were large gated onsen buildings surrounded by the odd house here and there. Maybe we just walked in the wrong direction.
Afterwards, we hopped back onto another streetcar to head back to Hakodate Station. Our bus would be heading back to Sapporo in a couple of hours. However, before leaving, we had to partake in another Hakodate food specialty. Pastry Snaffles is a Hakodate dessert and pastry shop. Pastry Snaffles also has locations outside of Hakodate, but Hakodate is its birthplace. Near the station, we found a Pastry Snaffles and had our sundae dessert meal. Yum.
And off we went back onto the bus for another long ride back on the bus. Hakodate was high on my list to visit, but we were thinking of skipping over it because the transportation costs were high. The highway coach was a long ride, but it was half the price. Going to the penshon to stay was also great and economical. With cheaper transport and accommodation, we were able to enjoy Hakodate on a reasonable weekend trip budget.
metro babel 