Mt Hakodate

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The highlight of Hakodate was going up the mountain at night to look at the lights. (We had arrived at night and were leaving the next morning so it was limited as to what to do!) Hakodate is beautiful because it is a peninsula and you can see around the bay on both sides from the mountain.

It was a Saturday night and it was packed. Thousands of people were there. Buses and buses loads. We were umming and arring about getting on a packed bus to get down or wait 30 minutes til the next. When we did squeeze on we met up with Sohyon again! We knew she might be around but had not made a plan to meet up.

This was Sohyon's 2nd last day in Japan and she was wanting to see as much as she could. We went on a tour of Hakadate's historic churches which were lit up as part of a tourism night event. It started raining so what could we do - we had coffee.

Laurie: My impression is that Hakodate missed the era of knocking everything down and have now realised there is great tourist potential in prettying up old buildings, especially old wharf sheds, like the Rocks in Sydney. Hakadate is a big port, trading with many different nations. Tourism info here is in English, Russian and Chinese as well as Japanese. As well as buses, Hakadate has kept its tram system and the JR train comes right into the middle of town. (Note to NSW Government who sold key Newcastle train corridor! and won't upgrade track to Byron even though this was a well used line!)

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Photos

Sohyon
Our night tour leader in Hakadate

Night view of Hakadate
- the third best night view in Japan (according to ??)