Windy Hakodate

 Our final port stop of Hakodate is the southernmost city on the north island of Hokkaido, and from what we understood from our guide, it is perennially windy here. Not just windy, but cool or cold windy, as the prevailing winds are coming straight from Siberia (north-west) in winter and the north Pacific (south-east) in summer.

Most of the tours here began with a visit to Asaichi, the Morning Market, a sprawling combination of open air and enclosed buildings very close to the port. Most of the open air and a good portion of the two large buildings is devoted to fish and seafood stalls as Hakodate, like most port cities, has a huge fishing industry and many individual fishermen using the market to sell their catch.

Like Shimonoseki, where fugu fish was the specialty, here in Hakodate sea urchin and squid are some of the catches they are known for. Again, the city is proud of its Number 1 status, and even have squid on the manhole covers in the market area in 2 versions:

The market was extremely interesting, and would make any seafood lover hungry, even an hour after a good breakfast, as we knew we would be walking for a good portion of the tour. The outside stalls sold every kind of seafood imaginable, as well as dried bonito flakes, which are used in most Japanese soup broths, and dried or salted mackerel. Sometimes the fresh fish display packages had a paper covering over the fish to protect it; it was hard to tell if you were looking at the paper or the real thing. 

Fresh crab and a number of varieties of oysters. especially the local Shiriuchi, seem to be everywhere.

Not only do they have tanks of live squid, but both indoors and outdoors some stalls allow you to fish for your lunch. You pay a bit extra for the chance to fish, with a rod, a squid out of the tank and it will be cooked for you. One large tank inside had a very long line of people waiting their turn.

King crab and snow crab are two of the major varieties fished here, and many of the individual stalls were offering legs and whole crabs for sale. Not cheap! The large packages averaged 14,800 Yen which converted to about $110 when we were there.

There was always a huge selection of dried fish available, too.

More small crabs. Almost everyone selling fresh seafood would cook it immediately for you, either to take home or to enjoy right away.

Inside the buildings there were lots of fruit and vegetable sellers. The produce looked amazing, but was also quite expensive. These strawberry packs cost about $13.50 - that's around $1.60 per berry!! You'd be making one special dessert with those.

There was always something interesting to see - I guess
this is the easy way to keep track of your 3 dogs while
you shop!

Someone was buying this live King Crab. We all stood around and of course took photos while he put it on the scale. The crab weighed a whopping 7 kilos! I didn't look at the price to calculate the total cost.

After leaving the market, we went back to the port building and boarded buses for the drive into the city to the Hakodate Ropeway. Mount Hakodate sits at the ocean end of a peninsula and there is an amazing view of the city from the summit. It is apparently quite spectacular at night. 

Here's a little video from the ride up:

And some photos from the top:

Yes, they're everywhere!!

You can see why fishing is such a big industry here
with all the shoreline on both sides.

After our visit to Mount Hakodate, and return trip on the Ropeway, we walked over to the church and temple area. You can see it from the photo above - the pale green church roof and tower among the trees was one of the sites.

Japan was finally opened to international trade very late in the Tokugawa Shogunate's reign, in 1859, but although they recognized that Japan needed to deal with outsiders, there were restrictions on the amount of contact they could have with the local citizens, just like at Dejima in Nagasaki. This is the Motomachi District, where our walking tour took us next.

There is an immense Buddhist Temple here, along with a Roman Catholic Church, Episcopal Church and a Russian Orthodox Church.

The Roman Catholic Church, the Motomachi Catholic Church, was one of the first established by foreign 'settlers' in 1859. Its current altar was gifted more recently by Pope Benedict XV. We were allowed to visit inside but not to take photos.

Not very far away was the other Catholic Church established in 1859, the Motomachi Russian Orthodox Church, dedicated to St. Nicholas. The bright colour of the roof really makes it stand out.

A monument to the first pastor.

We continued our walk along the main street of the Motomachi area where most of the houses were built in the western style 

We couldn't resist the photo of this ice cream shop - the
sign says it is the 'second most delicious' ice cream melon
bread in the world!

One of the traditional Japanese houses on
the street.

Another interesting area, another manhole 
cover design!

A photo of the ship with some of the
last cherry blossoms.

The largest building in Motomachi is the Old Public Hall.
It is a museum and event venue now.

In Motomachi Park, a monument to the men
who helped shape the city's growth in the Meiji
period when Japan was fully opened to international trade.

Even at the end of the season, the cherry blossoms here were still quite lovely and a few trees were in full bloom.

Admiral Matthew Perry, the first to come to
Japan to demand that the country be opened to trade.

After our walking tour we headed back to the ship. As we left in the evening I took this photo of our last sailout, with Mount Hakodate just coming up to the right.

The food and other on board experiences post is coming up next.