Reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader in our WeChat group, Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. Original link.

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At check-in, the hotel asked what time we wanted to have breakfast, and that time was also printed on the breakfast voucher. But our ability to sleep in proved that this time didn’t really need to be followed, and we didn’t show up until 20 minutes before breakfast service ended.

The hotel breakfast was excellent, with seven or eight sections in total and plenty of choices. Just a few examples: there were several kinds of raw fish, including salmon and tuna, though no uni. You could eat them as sashimi or make your own seafood rice bowl with the ingredients provided. There was also a self-serve ramen station, and the broth changed daily. Hot dishes included Hokkaido specialties like venison. Drinks and desserts were plentiful too, with a strong Hokkaido flavor. The daily soup was prepared tableside by the staff in a small pot; we ordered it on our second day, and it was venison soup, which was very good. That said, when we eat hotel buffet breakfasts, we somehow never remember to take out our phones and snap photos.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Hakodate Morning Market. If your hotel doesn’t include breakfast, eating at the market is a great option too.

I had read beforehand that the morning market offers the experience of catching a live squid and having it prepared on the spot, but I didn’t know which stall was best. Worried about backtracking, we just stopped at the first one we came across.

My kid thought it was hilarious. The squid could actually squirt water, and it sprayed the owner all over, which was pretty funny. A few foreign tourists gathered to watch while we were fishing, and one of them even got drenched by a sudden splash of water falling from the roof.

After we caught it, we went inside and sat down, and a few minutes later it was ready. When it was served, the squid was still moving, which fascinated my kid. We’d had freshly killed squid before, but it was our first time eating the eyes. The eyes were not good—super, super salty. The squid itself was very fresh and sweet, and the little suction cups even stuck to your tongue.

After eating, we kept wandering around. Since there were fewer check-ins, the market wasn’t exactly deserted at that hour, but there still weren’t many visitors. It felt like it must have been hard for vendors to make much money.

Even in Hakodate, where uni comes from, it still isn’t cheap, so hotel breakfasts almost never include it.

We bought a small cup of cut melon from a roadside stand for 500 yen. Honestly, it tasted pretty similar to Hami melon from Xinjiang, and nowhere near as good as my favorite laohan melon. Throughout our Hokkaido trip, I kept thinking the Japanese are really good at marketing—high-quality agricultural and dairy products get promoted in all kinds of clever ways. Xinjiang could really learn from that.

This melon was 1000 yen each. Highway robbery! Fruit really is expensive in Japan.

The horsehair crabs on the scale were still moving—they all looked incredibly fresh.

There were soft-serve and ice cream shops all over Hokkaido. We had at least one every day, and on some days, several.

This place seemed to be the original live-squid fishing shop, but since we had already done it, we skipped it. It looked like there would be lines during peak season, though on the day we went there was no line at all.

A machine for processing some kind of seafood. My kid was very curious and kept asking questions.

The Hakodate Morning Market is made up of many areas similar to produce or wet markets in China, a bit like a traditional morning market back home. This was one of them.

Hakodate really feels like a small town, and the morning market is already one of its busiest areas. All the seafood looked so tempting, but unfortunately there was no way to take it with us.

Then we took the streetcar to our next stop, Motomachi, near Mount Hakodate. If you want to combine the route efficiently, you can visit Motomachi first and then go to Mount Hakodate in the evening.

After getting off the streetcar, it was time to begin our uphill climb.

These slopes are called “zaka,” and the most famous is Hachimanzaka. On the way there, there’s another slope lined with hydrangeas, and the scenery is just as lovely.

Looking down from these slopes, you get a view of the harbor.

The photos below are from Hachimanzaka.

A group of students had stopped there, and I intentionally included them in the frame—it really felt like a classic Japanese TV drama scene.

It was still early, so we followed a small path toward Motomachi Park and bought melon-flavored ice cream along the way. It was really good.

We passed yet another ice cream shop, where a group of students were eating and chatting outside.

We passed the Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward, which you can go inside and visit.

Motomachi Park is made up of multiple tiers of steps. We sat down for a short rest, then slowly made our way down while enjoying the sea view.

Across from the bottom of the steps was a bus stop, with buses heading toward the JR station area. Once we boarded, we found that there was hardly anyone on it—the bus was nearly empty.

The Meiji-kan was under renovation, with the exterior covered in green vines, while the interior gave off a strong sense of age and history.

Inside were all small shops selling handicrafts, but unfortunately we had barely looked around before our kid said she was hungry and wanted to eat. I checked the time and it was around 2:15 pm, so we made a last-second move and took a Didi to Uni Murakami Hakodate Honten, which had been closed on its regular day off the day before. This restaurant has a tabelog score of 3.63 and is the highest-rated seafood rice bowl spot in Hakodate. https://tabelog.com/hokkaido/A0105/A010501/1000136/

We got to the restaurant around 2:25, with only 5 minutes left before the afternoon break, but the staff still welcomed us warmly. Even though it was almost break time, there was only one table open inside, a sunken tatami table.

We ordered another seafood bowl, a sea urchin bowl, and a sea urchin pudding. Only after ordering did we realize the sea urchin bowl also came in a two-color version, but sadly last call had already passed, so we couldn’t add it. The sea urchin’s fresh sweetness really stood out, and the rice was at just the right temperature and texture. We finished everything in no time.

Right at the entrance, they had all kinds of live seafood on display, so you could immediately tell how fresh the ingredients were.

We quickly finished the meal, and since it was still early, we considered heading to Onuma Quasi-National Park. But when we rushed to the JR station, we found out this train was a limited express, and with only a minute before departure, there was no time to buy the limited express ticket. The next one was more than an hour later, so we decided not to go after all. Onuma Park wasn’t really part of the plan anyway, and it’s more beautiful in winter.

So we took another Didi to shop at the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse.

The Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse used to be a trading warehouse, but now it has been turned into a gift-shopping complex. Every store here had its own distinct style, with very little overlap, so it was fun to browse without everything starting to look the same.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my passport, and I also hadn’t had time to set up the duty-free QR code... so I could only shop at stores that didn’t offer duty-free anyway, otherwise I would’ve been too annoyed.

Our kid always sleeps the best during shopping time, and after all the uphill walking that morning, we were tired too, so my partner and I sat in chairs and dozed off for a bit as well. Then we kept shopping after waking up.

We saw Lucky Pierrot again.

There was an especially adorable glassware shop, filled with all kinds of tiny glass figurines.

The warehouse is right by the harbor, so when we got tired of shopping, we sat by the water for a while and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon.

It was still early when we finished, so we decided to walk back to the hotel along the coastline and rest up. The whole way was full of small-town scenery.

Along the way, we passed what looked like some kind of seafood harvesting center or something—honestly my dream job.

Back at the hotel, we picked up the free pillow and aroma diffuser. There were twenty or thirty scents to choose from, and we smelled them one by one, only to find out each room could take just one. The pillow could stay in the room, but the aroma diffuser had to be returned to the front desk.

After a short rest, we took a taxi out again for dinner. Dinner was at Asari Sukiyaki Honten, another famous spot in Hakodate. tabelog 3.64: https://tabelog.com/hokkaido/A0105/A010501/1003362/

The hotel we were staying at couldn’t help make restaurant reservations, and I couldn’t find any way to book this restaurant online, so I had no choice but to call. Thankfully, the staff could all speak simple English, so the reservation went smoothly.

This place is very popular. Since our schedule was pretty relaxed, we thought about eating dinner a little earlier, but when we called the restaurant, they told us the evening was already fully booked, so we could only go at our original reservation time. That’s why we were able to go back to the hotel and rest first.

The way they prepare the sukiyaki here is quite different from other places. The meat and vegetables aren’t pan-seared first—they just pour in the sauce directly, so it feels more like suki nabe than sukiyaki.

Even so, it was still delicious! The meat was thinner than at the place we had in Tokyo, but that also made it less rich. The setup here was kind of semi-self-service: the server got the first round started and then left, and after that we served ourselves and cooked the next round on our own.

Our kid loves sukiyaki. Out of four slices of meat, she ate nearly half, so my partner and I had to order another portion of meat before we were finally full.

At the end they served a very refreshing yuzu ice cream, and they even gave one to our kid too, which was very generous.

This meal was really a great value. The moment I saw the bill, I understood why this place is so popular. The taste was no worse than other places, but the price was better.

After dinner, we had planned to take the streetcar back, and we were once again at Jujigai Station. Apparently even more people were heading up to Mount Hakodate for the night view that day—the line at Jujigai Station had stretched all the way onto another street. It looked like we might not even fit on the next tram and would have to wait for another one, so we decided to walk back to the hotel instead and burn off some of our meal.

At night in Hakodate, it felt like every tourist had gone to Mount Hakodate. The streets along the way were completely empty, with practically no one around. I guess that makes sense—Hakodate is a bit less convenient to reach, so it naturally gets fewer visitors than some other places.

Even though the streets were empty, the convenience stores we passed were surprisingly packed inside.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed another relaxing soak. Once again, I was reminded how nice the onsen at this hotel really was. I especially liked sitting in the rooftop bath and looking out at the night view—because there were so few people, it felt especially peaceful. And after an onsen soak, I really did sleep incredibly well.

The next morning, we slept in again and woke up naturally. I only captured a small glimpse of breakfast that day: ramen and ochazuke.

That day, we were picking up a rental car and heading to our next stop—Toya. The rental car location was near the JR station, so we checked out first, left our luggage at the bell desk, walked over to pick up the car, and then drove back to the hotel to collect our bags. Even though our credit card included coverage, we declined the basic insurance. For extra peace of mind, my travel companion still bought one of those Japan-specific insurance options. My rental car guide is here: Japan Guide You’ll Regret Not Reading - Updated 2023.8.

Before leaving, we asked the front desk to refill our child’s water bottle and only then realized the hotel had a laundry room. Too bad we didn’t get to use it.

2023 Japan Trip Series

This series covers the author’s travels in Japan after a trip back to China and before returning to the U.S.

About the Author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account "懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐," run by a reader from a WeChat group. The articles are all original, and you’re welcome to follow if interested.