14 Places To Visit In Hakodate

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Filter (14)
Viewpoint (3)
Church & Cathedral (2)
Historical Site (2)
Observation Deck (1)

1. Mount Hakodate

2 km from city center

Viewpoint

The city sits on an isthmus, so from the 334 metre summit the lights narrow to a waist between two dark bays, which is why this is counted among Japan's three great night views. The ropeway takes three minutes and costs 1,800 yen return, not the 1,500 many guides still print, and the first car is at 10:00. It closes for mandatory inspection for a stretch in late October and early November.

Top Attraction

4 km from city center

Historical Site

A five-pointed star fort of 1866, the only Western-style fortress in Japan, built to defend the newly opened treaty port and then taken by the short-lived Republic of Ezo, which fell here in 1869 in the last battle of the Boshin War. The park is free and always open, and 1,600 cherry trees fill the star in early May. The park and the tower beside it are separate tickets.

Top Attraction

1 km from city center

Shopping Market

Around 250 stalls beside the station, running from roughly 06:00 to 14:00, selling crab, scallops, sea urchin and the squid the city is known for, with counters serving kaisendon bowls for breakfast. One tank lets you fish your own squid and have it prepared on the spot. It is two minutes from the station, so it is the natural first stop on arrival.

1 km from city center

Waterfront

Bayside warehouses of 1887, built when Hakodate was one of the first Japanese ports opened to foreign trade, now holding shops, a beer hall and a small concert space around a canal basin. It anchors the whole Bay Area waterfront and draws well over a million visitors a year. Lit in the evening, and a short walk from the Motomachi slopes.

2 km from city center

Neighborhood

The hillside quarter where the foreign consulates, churches and trading houses went up after the port opened in 1859, laid out on steep cobbled slopes that run straight down to the water. Russian, Catholic and Anglican churches stand within a block of each other. It is free, it is all outdoors, and it is the single best hour of walking in the city.

2 km from city center

Church & Cathedral

The first purpose-built Orthodox church in Japan, rebuilt in 1916 with white walls and green onion domes, and an Important Cultural Property. Locals call it gan-gan dera after the sound of its bells. It closed for major conservation from February 2021 for roughly two years and has since reopened, so guides describing it as shut are out of date.

7. Goryokaku Tower

4 km from city center

Observation Deck

A 107 metre tower beside the fort, and the only way to actually see the star shape, which is invisible from the ground. Inside the observation floor are models and displays on the Boshin War. Admission rose to 1,200 yen in October 2024, so guides quoting 1,000 are stale. Open 09:00 to 18:00 with last admission at 17:50.

2 km from city center

Historical Site

A blue and yellow colonial-style wooden hall of 1910 standing above Motomachi, with a balcony looking down over the harbour and a ballroom upstairs. It is a National Important Cultural Property and you can hire period dress to walk through it. It reopened on 26 April 2021 after three years of seismic work, so anything saying closed until further notice is stale.

2 km from city center

Viewpoint

A straight cobbled street dropping from Motomachi to the bay, lined with trees and lamps, framing the water and whatever ship is in port at the bottom. It is the photograph that defines Hakodate in every brochure, and it costs nothing. Walk up it rather than down for the view, and come back after dark in winter when it is lit.

5 km from city center

Hot Spring

A hot spring quarter on the coast, in use for around 400 years and five minutes from Hakodate Airport, connected to the centre by tram. This is where the city's ryokan are, so it is the natural base if you want to sleep in a bath town rather than a business hotel. There is a free public footbath at the Yunokawa tram stop if you are only passing.

24 km from city center

Day Trip

A quasi-national park of two lakes scattered with 126 small islands, linked by footbridges you can walk in about an hour, with the broken cone of Mount Komagatake standing behind them. Twenty-five minutes by limited express, which makes it the easiest escape from the city. Cycling, rowing boats and cruises in summer; snowshoeing in winter.

7 km from city center

Church & Cathedral

A working Cistercian convent founded in 1898 above Yunokawa, where the nuns live in enclosure. The cloister is closed, but the brick and cypress approach, the gardens and the shop are open, and the madeleines and butter cookies the sisters bake are the reason most people actually come. Modest dress, and quiet.

5 km from city center

Garden & Park

A municipal greenhouse of some 300 tropical species at Yunokawa, with an outdoor enclosure of Japanese macaques that is filled with hot spring water through the cold months. The monkeys sitting in the steam from roughly December to early May are what people come for. Cheap, indoors when it matters, and right next to the onsen quarter.

2 km from city center

Viewpoint

A cliff headland at the southeastern foot of Mount Hakodate, with the open Pacific on one side and the city behind you, and a monument to the poet Ishikawa Takuboku who is buried nearby. It is free and reachable on foot or by bus. Use it when the ropeway queue is long or the summit is in cloud, which happens more often than the brochures suggest.