Sightseeing in Hakodate

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Trip to Hakodate
Having known that it would take over three hours by train between Sapporo and Hakodate, we had planned taking the 7:00 train for 23 May. We had a little snack with coffee at the hotel and took a couple of packets of bread and rice balls for us to eat on the way to Hakodate. The express train, Super Hokuto was running past the Uchiura Bay and Onuma Koen National Park, and brought us to the destination at 10:11.

My parents had decided to join the bus tour departing from Hakodate station. We planned doing sightseeing independently using the tram and on foot. We bought one day tram passes at the tourist information centre and took the tram near the station.

Goryokaku Koen
We firstly headed for Goryokaku Koen. In contrast to the bright sunny day at Lake Toya previous day, it was rather cloudy and cold in Hakodate on 23 May. We walked briskly to keep ourselves warm. I remembered viewing cherry blossoms flowering at Goryokaku Koen on the website earlier in may. Alas, all of the 1,500 someiyoshino blossoms had gone! There were a couple of bright pink almond cherry blossoms, known as yamazakuram standing out amount the bare trees. Azaleas had just started opening.

Goryokaku Koen was the place where the final battle, known as Hakodate war, was held between 1868 and 1869. Previously, the Magistrate's office was constructed after opening the port in Hakodate at the late period. We saw the former Magistrate Office, which had been restored in the centre of the park, and is due to be open in July 2010.

We walked on the footpath, which was paralleled with the star shaped fort. There were lines of tall pine trees on the edge of the park, and we felt they were acting as a windbreak for cherry blossoms which were grown on the Inner Moat. We walked to Goryokaku Tower. We strolled through the souvenir shop selling a wide variety of local specialities, e.g. dried squid sticks, sweet corn, potato, and pumpkin flakes, sweets, T-shirts, and postcards of new and old days of Hakodate, to name just a few. People were selling local food and kept offering the samples. We bought a pack of the sweetcorn frakes.

Hakodate Ramen
There were several ramen shops around Goryokaku Koen. We entered one of the Chinese style ramen shops near the tram station. We had different flavoured noodles, and both of them had a lot of vegetables, and bites of crab, squid, shrimps, and octopus, etc, and I believe they were cooked in an authentic Hakodate style. The warm soup heated us up as well.

Observatory, Hakodateyama
Next, we took the tram for Jujigai, and walked on the Nambuzaka, which is one of the slopes in Hakodate, towards the cable car station. The receptionist told me that the observatory was covered with thick clouds and we wouldn't been able to see anything from the observatory. Nevertheless, we decided to get in the cable car. We certainly enjoyed the views of harbour and vegetation slope of the Hakodateyama mountain, which possesses an abundance of wildlife whilst riding in the cable car.

Thick clouds appeared when the cable car approached the summit. Sadly, the observatory was covered with dense fog and it made it almost impossible for us to see anything from the windows!

We strolled through the gift shop and went out to the balcony. The visibility was pretty poor. We were just able to see few details of the buildings at the foot of the mountain, a couple of ships moving on the sea, and the harbour through dense clouds. It was a cloudy day and all the clouds gathered around the summit of Hakodateyama, the highest mountain in Hakodate, on 23 May 2010. We took a couple of photos from the balcony.

Motomachi
Afterwards, we got on the cable car to go down to Motomachi. After getting off the cable car, we headed westwards and walked past Hakodate Episcopal Church, Russian Orthodox Church, and Roman Catholic Church. A lot of tourists were rambling with the tour guides in Motomachi. I got a piece of information from them and translated it for Mark, e.g. Daisanzaka, which is lined with churches, its beautiful slope was selected as one of Japan's Hundred Most Famous Roads, and maples decorate it in the autumn. As well as these churches, there were a lot of foreign style houses and picturesque cobbled streets in Motomachi.

The Old Public Hall of Hakodate
Following the cobbled street, we reached Motomamachi Park and found the Old Public Hall of Hakodate on the left hand. We bought a combined tickets for us to visit three museums we had planned, i.e. The Old Public Hall of Hakodate, The Old British Consulate, and The Museum of the Northern Peoples in the afternoon.

We were asked to take off shoes and wear slippers at the entrance. There were a series of monochrome photographs of old days of Hokadate, portraits of architects and wealthy businessmen who were involved in designing and building the magnificent Western manor house, and articles about the terrible marine accident of Toyamaru which happened in the 1950s.

We followed the route, and looked at the toilets, bathroom, reception rooms and guest rooms which Meiji, Taisho, and Showa Emperors used at the beginning of the 20th century. The wooden chamber pots and bathtubs were old-fashioned but they looked new and tidy, as they were used by the very important people in the past.

The mansion was initially built in 1910, and all of the furniture and decorations have been restored to its former glory. In parallel with the western style facade, the reception and guest rooms were embellished with floral wall paintings, lace curtains, and furnished with oak and mahogany furniture and chairs sown with luxurious purple silks and marble fireplace. The concert hall was immaculately cleaned and polished and we could see the ornamental chandeliers reflected on the shiny floor. We learnt that the concert hall has been the heart of the Old Public Hall and it has been used for the venues of concerts and performances.

We stood at the balcony and overlooked the Motomachi Park, Motoizaka slope, and Hakodate harbour. We were impressed with the decorative columns and fringes as we could see the mansions in the European countries. There were a couple of young people wearing colourful Victorian dresses which would match the atmosphere of the Western mansion. We were encouraged to take the memory photo with the upper class furniture and background.

The Old British Consulate
We walked through the Motomachi Park and found the Old British Consulate on Motoizaka. The building was mixed with features of Japanese and English architecture, i.e. slate covered roof and sash windows. The building was used as the British Consulate of Hakodate between 1859 and 1934. We confirmed this when we saw the Royal coat of arms displayed on the glass case, with the information that it was attached on the main gate in the past

We looked round the restored Consul Room and living room where Consul Richard Eusden would have worked and lived with the family. Mr & Mrs Eusden were very fond of Hakodate. They offered a generous amount of donations to help to build up the school for the poor children, introduced the Western style laundry and planted lilac and English walnut trees in Hakodate Park.

Next, we looked round the exhibition rooms related to the story of Hakodate harbour opening as an international port. The series of picture and information on the panels included the episodes when the foreign ships approached Japan, where it had closed the trade with the Western countries for a long time, how the Japanese behaved and dealt with the black ships, what General Perry saw in Hakodate and how he thought about Japanese people etc. I tried to sit on the wobbling rocking chair, which seamen used to sit on to observe Japanese ports from the ship in the 19th century.

We popped in the gift shop. There was a wide variety of pure "English" items, e.g. English teas, teddy bears, double Decker toys, William Morris patterned tablecloths, and accessories with Union Jack flags, etc. We walked round the English garden where roses would be blooming over the summer.

Afterwards, we walked down on the Motoizaka, which was once called "Bureaucrat slope" and it has been used for film and commercial scenes.

Museum of Northern Peoples
After descending the Motoizaka, we reached Suehiro-cho tram station. We reached the final destination, i.e. The Museum of Northern Peoples. The museum possessed a wide variety of Ainu and indigenous people's artefacts, costumes, materials, hunting equipment, music instruments, and pottery, which they were used at everyday life and for ceremonial purposes. The Ainu, Uilta, and other indigenous people had lived in the northern territory of Japan including Sakhalin Peninsula which was called Ezo until the mid 19th century. They had made clothes, hunting equipment, agricultural tools, and constructed houses with natural materials, which had been adapted to the cold climate. Unfortunately, Japanese political leaders despised them and their culture, and much of their habitats was destroyed and even eliminated during the pioneering projects and post war development. Including the Museum of the Northern Peoples, there are several properties where visitors can see authentic Ainu houses made of plants and woods, artefacts, and Ainu People demonstrate their activities and festivals. It seems that their traditions has been appreciated and it has allowed them to demonstrate their activities to the wider public in Japan.

After looking round the Museum of Northern Peoples, we had another 45 minutes before meeting up with my parents, and we decided to go to the harbour.

Hakodate harbour
We got off Jujigai and went to the harbour. We rambled through the shopping district in the Red Brick Warehouses by the harbour and looked at Hakodate Meijikan, which used be the post office, and has been converted to the shopping centre.

Mashumaru
Afterwards, we got on the tram back to the JR station. It was 17:10 when we arrived. We decided to walk to Mashumaru on the back of the Car Park. Mashumaru carried passengers between Aomori, north of Honshu Island and Hakodate until the Seikan Tunnel was opened in 1988. The liner possesses 80 years of voyage history and displays the captains' diary, compass, metres, and uniforms which the Captains and mariners used to use and wear. I told Mark: the terrible marine accident of Toyamaru in the 1950s made the Japanese government agree to build the Seikan Tunnel, and it took 40 years to for the tunnel to be built under the sea. It has made it easier for Japanese to travel to Hokkaido by limited express trains from Japan's major cities. The railway engineers have been building up the lines for Shinkansen, bullet train, and the Hokkaido Shinkansen will be opening in less than 10 years.

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Comments

[ulrike richter]

Hakodate
Dear author of the Hakodate article, I read it with great interest because of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Eusden are mentioned therein. Why did you tell about them? Do you know anything more about them? Are you in any relation to family Eusden or Reynolds? Please be so kind and give me a hint. I am a relative in the 5th generation from the Eusdens. Thank you! Kind regards Ulrike Richter