While my personal highlight of Hakodate was the star-shaped Goryokaku Fort, Hakodate has to offer many other things as well. Mt. Hakodate has an awesome night view and there’s also the famous Hakodate Morning Market near the JR station that I want to introduce today!
Hakodate Morning Market
Just a few steps away from the JR Hakodate Station you’ll run into many restaurants offering fresh and raw seafood.
The banner in red and white above the restaurants says: “Hang in there Tohoku! Don’t give up, Hakodate!”
Things like that you can find all over Tohoku (and obviously even in Hokkaido) ever since the big earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
If you walk a few steps from the restaurants you’ll bump right into the Hakodate Morning Market (函館朝市) which is mainly a fish market. It opens at 6 a.m. (5 a.m. in winter) and closes around noon, so you don’t have to get up ridiculously early to experience it! .gif)
It’s a great chance to taste delicious seafood! It’s a little bit expensive, though.
Here you see Hakodate’s famous seafood-topped donburi (a bowl of rice with different toppings).
Salmon for 6000-9000 yen! Looks expensive to me!
Anybody wants to buy an octopus tentacle? (x___X’) …
It was really a big market, selling various things. I found it interesting to see that they hung up some fish and dried it with a fan.
Some more salmon. I have to admit that besides tuna, salmon is one of my favorite fish to eat.
How about you?
Wow, 18.000 yen is a lot, but that thing was HUGE, so I guess it’s a justified price.
In the picture you see “Bafun-uni (バフンうに)”, also known as Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus. It is a species of sea urchin and is edible. It is found along the coasts of Korea and China, and in Japan from Kyushu to Ishikari Bay.
I liked the cute drawings they had all over the street.
Even the manhole covers of Hakodate were pretty cute and carried the theme of the morning market.
Big crab on a scale.
The smaller ones seemed affordable.
All in all, they had a lot of different crabs there! Something Hakodate also is famous for.
Here’s a short video I took so that you can experience the atmosphere of the morning market a little bit. It was around 9am and I guess the peak was already over.
In the evening I decided to eat in one of the seafood restaurants near the station.
Speaking of fresh seafood, you could pick your dinner right there if you wanted to.
Besides its European fort, Mt. Hakodate and its big Morning Market Hakodate has a lot of European buildings and even some churches which I want to show you in my next entry about Hakodate.
Hakodate has a similar atmosphere to Yokohama and Kobe.
If you like those cities, I’m sure you’d enjoy Hakodate as well.
I still have a pictures somewhere of me holding up a HUGE tentacle at the fish market in Sapporo. I love Hokkaido, I’ve been close to everywhere there, but not in Hakodate! I’ve seen none of the three great night views either, hmm…
Eww! Did it feel as gross as I imagine it? *g*
Really? I hope you get a chance to because they’re the top 3 for a reason! :)
It was quite rubbery, but cold at the same time. I wouldn’t classify is as disgusting except for the obvious visuals :)
I’m also a fan of tuna and salmon, but those big crabs also look really good. The view from Mt Hakodate at night is really spectacular.
Have you been to Hakodate? :)
I like salmon, too! The crabs in Hokkaido are really big! It was a big surprise for me first time seeing it. I got used to the crabs in my place which are small in size.
Seafood lovers will surely find the morning market a paradise.
As long as somebody doesn’t have some kind of fish / sea creature phobia, I’m sure it’s very interesting for anybody! ^^
Oh dear…I don’t think I will ever visit this market :sweatdrop2:
While I like some fishes I’m not fond of the smell !
But it does seem interessting… conflicted! :whyohwhy:
Actually the smell wasn’t bad at all. At least I think I would remember if it was! ;)