hokkaido41.78° N, 140.78° E
Hakodate
Hakodate is the port city at the southern tip of Hokkaido, facing Honshu across the Tsugaru Strait, and one of the first Japanese harbours opened to the world, in 1859.
Bourou Noguchi Hakodate, YunokawaPhotograph: Bourou Noguchi Hakodate
- Region
- Hokkaido
- Our journeys
- Two stay here
- Where we stay
- Bourou Noguchi Hakodate
Our tours stayA day on tourA Custom Tour of Japan
the place
A harbour city between two seas, lit like a necklace after dark.
The city still carries that history: a star-shaped fort, a hillside of churches and consular houses at Motomachi, and the lights of the whole peninsula seen from the 334-metre summit of Mount Hakodate.
We stay at Yunokawa, Hakodate's hot-spring quarter on the shore east of the city, where the onsen look out across the strait. On the Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan it is the night between Hokkaido and Honshu, at Bourou Noguchi Hakodate; on Pure Hokkaido, in The Private Collection, it is two nights on the dates you choose.
what we do here
Hakodate, as we show it
Goryokaku
The star fort completed in 1864 to a Western plan, five points of earthwork and moat, read whole from the tower beside it.
Mount Hakodate
The city by night from the summit: a narrow waist of light between two shores of dark water.
The morning market
Squid, crab and sea urchin at the Hakodate morning market, a few streets from the harbour.
Motomachi
The slope above the harbour where Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican churches stand within a few minutes of each other.
Yunokawa
The hot-spring quarter by the sea, where the day closes in an onsen over the Tsugaru Strait.
Onuma
The lake country beneath the volcano Komagatake, a short drive north, where the Cherry Blossom Tour of Hokkaido begins.
where we stay
Bourou Noguchi Hakodate
A modern onsen ryokan in the hot-spring quarter of Yunokawa, its top-floor onsen looking out across the Tsugaru Strait.
On The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan
our journeys here
The journeys that stay in Hakodate
the japan edition
Reading on Hakodate
- Matsumae and the Castles of the Northern BloomHokkaidō's late cherry blossom season has its clearest architecture in three places: Matsumae's park of ten thousand trees in relay, Goryōkaku's star-shaped fort seen from above, and the port city of Hakodate that opened Japan to the world before most of the country had agreed to it.
- Autumn in the North: Tōhoku and HokkaidōTōhoku and Hokkaidō hold Japan's earliest great autumn, colour arriving broad and cold across mountains and open land weeks before the old capitals have begun.
- The Northern Table: Hokkaidō's FoodCold water, open pasture and a short hard summer built a northern kitchen with a character all its own. Crab, urchin, roe, milk and a bowl invented in Sapporo explain how.
questions
Questions about Hakodate
How do you reach Hakodate?
By the Hokkaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, about four hours, or by air to Hakodate Airport, a few minutes from Yunokawa. On our tours the train and the private car are arranged for you.
Which of your tours stay in Hakodate?
The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan spends a night here, at Bourou Noguchi Hakodate, before the Shinkansen carries you beneath the strait to Honshu. Pure Hokkaido, in The Private Collection, spends two nights here on the dates you choose. The Cherry Blossom Tour of Hokkaido begins nearby, at Onuma.
Where do you stay in Hakodate?
At Yunokawa, the hot-spring quarter on the shore east of the city centre, where the ryokan look across the Tsugaru Strait. On the Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan that is Bourou Noguchi Hakodate, with its top-floor onsen over the water.
Can Hakodate be part of a private journey?
Yes. Pure Hokkaido gives Hakodate two nights on your own dates, and the Custom Tour of Japan can give it as many as you wish, alongside anywhere else in Japan. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans the days for you.
Hakodate, created for you alone.
The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, and Hakodate can be any part of it. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.