There is a very pretty fort at one end of the tramline, it is said to be in a Western style but I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s built in a star shape, like this
This is the view from a large tower they built for the tourists to get a proper view of the star.But I am jumping ahead, I haven’t even mentioned the free breakfast yet.
Just like the excitement I get on entering a hotel room for the first time, the prospect of a free breakfast also fills me with joy. International travel has not hardened my expectations yet, I do not instantly assume a buffet of stodgy bread, little packets of jam, cold coffee, jugs of watered down orange juice and a long queue of sleepy looking people. Nevertheless, that is what it was.
Back to the fort. The walls of the fort lie on a star shaped island surrounded by a star shaped moat. When you arrive at the fort you can either walk around the moat or go over the bridge into the fort itself.
Being someone who likes walking I headed off to the right and started to circumnavigate the fort, though that is probably the wrong word.
Did you know that walking around a star is both tiring and frustrating? If you think about it, where a circle would take you directly around something, a star takes you needlessly up and then down again. Still it was a haven for joggers.
There was a little ship in the moat.
And lots of Lilly pads.
When I finally got around to the bridge again I crossed into the fort itself. It started off nicely.
And then turned into a building site, I had clearly come at the wrong time of the century. Among the old walls of the original fort they were building Hakodate University. I can’t imagine it myself, seems like a strange place to go for lectures, especially if there are tourists staring at you all day.
This is the viewing tower, also built in a star shape.
Aside from the fort there wasn’t much else worth looking at from the tower.
Except this.
I don’t think a big advert for God is going to convert anyone. No one is really going to say, “Gosh look, it’s written on a roof! I’m convinced now.”
There was a window in the floor of the viewing platform with very reinforced glass.
After the fort I caught the tram back to my hotel for my second shower of the day. When I asked for my room key the woman at the counter asked if I still had luggage in my room. I thought that was a strange question. She then handed me a key to a different room and it became clear that she hadn’t understood my Japanese. Still it was exciting to know how easy it would be to get someone else’s room key.
Next up was Hakodate Park, featuring a kid’s fairground. There was also a large fountain that kids were swimming in to cool off.
I walked around the park, up steps and down slopes, under the shade of trees and then back into the blinding sunshine. A hat fell silently off the back of a buggy being pushed by a woman in front of me. I picked it up and yelled, “Excuse me” in Japanese. She turned around but not in the someone-wants-my-attention way, more the what-was-that-strange-noise way. She was grateful though.
There was a pond with its own little island guarded by a dragon.
I left the park and waited for the tram until I decided I needed an ice cream. You hardly ever see people eating ice creams on the street in Japan so I always get a bit nervous doing it. Predictably my shorts soon got covered in ice cream drips and I took to trying to wipe them clean with my saliva – we all do it. However, it only resulted in making me thirsty and did nothing to reduce the stain. What I don’t understand is that biological washing powders are so called because they contain enzymes for digesting food. So why is it that saliva, which contains the same enzymes, is so poor at getting stains out? That’s why I don’t believe the design theory.
On the same street there was a large temple with a nice roof.
And a Russian Orthodox Church.
This road is quite famous in Hakodate because of its uninterrupted view of the sea.
Soon after was Hakodate’s street of aggressive ice cream marketing. Not only were there the ice cream shops with their posters but also people along the street touting for customers. Not only did they manage to tell me in perfect English that they offered the, “best ice cream in Hakodate,” but also that they had a range of discounts. Not only did they tell me this but they did it while I was already eating an ice cream.
This is another Western style building, I forget what it is for, but on the upper floor it had a display about photography in Hakodate.
A copy of the oldest photograph in Japan was on display, it showed a samurai leader and his warriors looking very serious. It was a pretty good photo considering how odd it must have felt for all involved.
There were many photographs from a very famous Japanese photographer, born and bred in Hakodate. He became especially well known after taking pictures of the Great Fire of Hakodate – the town is especially vulnerable to fire.
Just behind this building was the Concert Hall. It was also built in a Western style but its colouring makes it look like a dolls’ house.
A friendly machine sold me my ticket to the Concert Hall, but a friendlier man gave me a leaflet and showed me where to leave my shoes.
The floors were all gleaming wood and the decorations suitably ornate. The building had a really nice atmosphere, very airy and with smiling women walking around in Victorian style dresses for pictures. It was like visiting a stately home but without the stuffy seriousness and sense that you are not actually welcome.
And there were the most impressive spare rooms I have ever seen.
Upstairs was the concert area, also used for important meetings. At that time there was a performance taking place.
I took a short video, you can probably recognise what they were playing.
From that room was the balcony where two of the posing women were posing.
After the Concert Hall I caught the tram to the other end of the tramline to the fort. From here was the Foreigners’ Cemetery. My guidebook mentioned a cliff walk and impressive views. I followed the directions up into a residential street where there was a tiny corner shop. It was the kind of place where nothing has any prices and the shopkeeper greets you in such a friendly manner that you feel like you can’t leave without buying something.
Back out on the street I kept walking towards the cemetery. The road was climbing up a hill and the view of the sea was quite good, but this was no cliff. When I did come to the cemetery there was a very big Japanese cemetery that you could walk through, a closed off Chinese cemetery with massive gates and finally a cemetery for everyone else, blocked by an old gate. There was also a cafe, which I thought was in bad taste.
Why is it that even in death we are divided by rank and nationality?
And sadly there was no one around for my pretending to be a ghost.
Walking back down the hill I was wondering where to go next when I had the ghost experience. The only other white person I saw in Hakodate turned a corner onto the pavement I was walking down right in front of me. We both looked surprised at each other, and then regained composure and walked away without making any kind of communication. He looked like a hardcore tourist; he had a zoom lens that made the camera it was attached to look more like an afterthought.
I got back on the tram and then off again when it passed somewhere interesting. Like Otaru, Hakodate also boasts old warehouses, made from bare red brick. They weren’t very interesting but they led to the main tourist hub of the place, right next to the sea and filled with restaurants and shops.
Walking around that area I found something very noteworthy.
You may not be able to spot what it is, and neither did I until I read the sign.
Yes, the oldest concrete pole in Japan, placed here because Hakodate is so vulnerable to fire. The sign continues that another pole was placed across the street, “People began to call them a ‘couple pole,’ which became the topic of conversation among the people.”
This begs two questions. Firstly, wasn’t there something more interesting than concrete poles to be the topic of the people’s conversation? Secondly, what did they say? Surely it’s quite hard to make scandalous gossip over concrete poles, unless you catch them reaching across the road to each other in the middle of the night.
Back waiting for the tram I was looking around for something worth taking a picture of. And then I saw this.
It was an enormous teddy bear propped up on someone’s balcony and looking down at the street as if it were waiting for somebody.
It was brilliant. I wanted to take a picture of it from right underneath but the tram arrived too soon. I was still taking pictures when the tram pulled away.
Hakodate is particularly famous for its nightview. Because the land the town is on gets narrower in the middle the nightview has a beautiful hourglass appearance. See
No you don’t see do you.
Because it was cloudy.
I had suspected this might happen but when I bought my ticket the woman behind the desk confirmed it by holding up a sign saying, in several languages, “Cloud may interfere with the view.”
So that was a disappointment, but then the cloud was quite beautiful in its own way. No one invited me out to drinks though.
Once back on the ground proper I found a park that had been locked for the night but was lit by an enormous floodlight. There was fog around but the floodlight made it particularly obvious and sort of eerie.
Near the tramstop was a small jetty.
Sadly it didn’t really look like that, it was my camera that added the orange tinge.
One of the lanterns at the end of the jetty.
The boats and buildings were lit up.
The street and its tramlines.
And that was Hakodate really. Next stop was Sendai, but that’s another post.
