Here’s my look at the streets and neighborhoods of Hakodate, Japan in winter. One dark evening, and then the next day, I walked the icy sidewalks, then took streetcars, around to see what Hokkaido’s third-biggest city is like in the middle of winter. Answer: cold but vibrant. And there’s a phenomenally great way to stay warm built right into one of the street corners. Bliss.
🚠 NOTE: I keep saying “cable car” in this video; it should be “ropeway”. Oops.
0:00 Intro
0:52 Canceled ropeway
2:33 Hakodate history
7:42 Famous fire hydrant
9:29 Snowy park and shrine
10:39 Nightlife and stores
17:29 Morning
19:09 Hakodate tram
22:05 Free footbath
24:46 Outskirts of Hakodate
28:38 Thanks for watching
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Music provided by mellowstu / Pond5
Good evening. I am in Hakodate, Japan, way up north on Hokkaido. It’s snowing tonight, a very light snow. I have just left my hotel here at Hotel Resol, and I had a whole thing planned for tonight. Today, I’m in the northern Japanese city of Hakodate. “People!” I’ll be walking around the streets to explore the town first at night and then during the day. After dinner, I’ll leave my hotel and wander around to see who is out and about in the frigid
Air, talk about the colorful history of Hakodate, and learn how to negotiate the icy sidewalks. “I’m not a snow and ice guy.” And then, in the daylight, I’ll explore the city’s streetcar system and admire the colorful and vibrant buildings as I hunt for a legendary healing footbath in
A city said to have one of the three most beautiful views in the world. [Music ends] There’s one thing to do when you come to Hakodate, one famous thing that everybody needs to do, and that is to go up and see the view of the city from Mount Hakodate.
You go up by cable car and you look at the top; you look down on the city which – the people that live here and other people say it’s one of the top three beautiful city views in the world along with Naples and Hong Kong. Hakodate is supposed to be amazingly beautiful.
I’ve already seen the famous picture of it from that angle a few times since I arrived a couple of hours ago here in town. It’s on posters and in the train stations and everything. It’s a famous view. And in my hotel. Anyway, the cable car tonight is canceled because of high winds.
It’s not windy here in the city, but unfortunately, apparently it’s too windy for the cable car so I can’t go up and see the view tonight. But I think we need to look at this in the optimist’s way.
So, we can’t see the big sweeping view of Hakodate all at once, but we can be down here on the streets getting an actual closeup look of the streets as it snows here at about 8:00 p.m. And we can see the buildings and the roads and the
Snow and the lights and the people up close. Even better. So, my alternate plan here is just to sort of wander around and get to know the town, kind of at randomly, ’cause it’s a great way to see a town too.
And while we’re wandering, I’ll tell you a few things I’ve learned about Hakodate, some facts I know. If I can remember them. For one thing, there is the tram. You see the tram going. There are two cities in Hokkaido with tram systems, Hakodate and Sapporo, the capital.
Hakodate, is the third biggest city in Hokkaido after Sapporo and Asahikawa. It used to be the biggest until a bad thing happened. But what happened was, well, to go back in more in history: long, long ago,
There was Mount Hakodate which formed off the island, a little bit out into the water. And it was there for a while, and slowly over time, sand gathered between Mount Hakodate and the mainland of Hokkaido. And that sand, which was a sandy isthmus, that isthmus was done
Being formed by about 3,000 years ago. And that sandy isthmus is now where I am now. It’s the city of Hakodate. Originally, there were Ainu people living here, as most of Hokkaido. Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido.
And in 1454, the first Japanese person came here to actually establish a sort of settlement. He built a manor. In 1854, Matthew Perry, the guy who President Monroe sent over from the United States to open up Japan, he came up here.
While he was here, one of his men died and was buried here. He was the first American citizen to be buried in Japan. By the way, I’m not quite sure where I’m walking. I’m walking towards the mountain anyway, even though I can’t go up it.
I do recognize that there’s not much happening out here on this street. But, I gotta tell you, it’s freezing cold, literally freezing cold. It’s about 0 degrees, and my hand is very cold ’cause I’m holding this camera, and the air feels very, very crisp and really nice.
So anyway, to continue our story, the next year, in 1855, after Perry came and the guy died and all that, Hakodate became the first port in Japan to actually open for foreign trade. This was the first place that actually saw trade, first port that saw trade. And it was very successful.
Hakodate became a very, very big city. It was Hokkaido’s biggest city for a long time until 1934. A fire broke out, and of course, everything was made of wood because that’s how Japan was back in those days, and a huge part of the city burned down.
And it was no longer the biggest city because a lot of people just left; they’re like, “Yeah, forget this place,” so they took off. Now, Hakodate is number three, roughly number three. It’s actually about 230,000 people live here now, which is respectable,
Certainly, but it’s lost almost a quarter of its population in the last 40 years. Just because, people get old and they move out to the bigger cities down south, and no one’s moving in here. People aren’t having kids that much, so it’ll probably continue to drop.
It was also bombed in World War II by the Allies, as a lot of places were. Let’s cross the road here. Got to be careful because the road can be a little slippery here. And I’m not a snow and ice guy. I like it, but I’m from the southern United States,
And I live in Osaka where we don’t get this sort of stuff. You know, I think I may have led you astray here. Perhaps I should turn around and find a different road. That’s what we’ll do: next time we see a place where we can
Cross the road here back to the right, which would be the west, we’re walking south now, we’ll cross over. We’ll go one block over, and then we’ll walk back north towards the station. I’m going to have to put a glove on while I’m using this camera.
Alright, the lights are red, no one’s around, there’s no cross right here, should I jaywalk on my first night here in Hokkaido? If I end up in jail, it’s your fault. There’s a poster in the train station of, like, a collage of like Hakodate stuff,
And it was the view from the mountain, and it was a park or something like that. One thing was a woman crouching down just like this, taking a picture of one of these fire hydrants. And I didn’t understand it at first.
I was like, “What? Why is she taking a picture of this yellow fire hydrant?” Then I realized, this is not really a Japanese thing; this is how they look in America. So I guess to some Japanese tourists, this just seems really interesting and foreign or, you know, something like that.
Maybe they are normal here, maybe it’s actually being used for that here. But there you go: if you miss America, a little taste of home. And I do kind of miss America, so thanks. I think it would behoove me to put on my gloves. Where are my gloves?
This is actually the first day of a longer trip here to Hokkaido. I’m going all over Hokkaido, and I’m not quite sure what to expect with the weather, so I brought a lot of layers of stuff. I’m not wearing the stuff now, but I got like, I’m wearing a hat now,
But I’ve actually got two hats that I can wear if it gets colder. I’ve got two pairs of long underwear instead of one, and three or four, like, real warm Uniqlo inner shirts, and got two pairs of gloves, one that’s like a real skin-tight, and one that’s these.
So, I think I’m prepared. Got a scarf. I’m not wearing any of that stuff tonight, so it’s kind of a test. But this is the southern point of the trip, so this is as warm as it’s going to get, probably. I see a wooden fence over here, what’s this?
Oh wow, cool, look at this park. Oh, I’m glad I walked down south after all. Snowball! Ah, it’s been a while since I threw a good snowball. Okay, anyway, what was this thing? Why, it’s a Shinto shrine.
Normally when you come to a Shinto shrine, you can ring the bell and get your prayers heard. And I could do that, but kind of seems a shame to break up the peaceful quiet here. Don’t know if you can see that. But up there on that mountain, there are some,
You see like red and yellow lights and stuff? That is where I would have gone, way up there by ropeway, to see this view. But I don’t know, I’m not complaining about this view, this is nice from down here. I mean…
One thing about Japan is that, different places in Japan, different regions, have a different side of the road they tend to walk on. A different side of the sidewalk. And in Osaka, we walk on the left, sidewalks and escalators and stairs and everything. But when people
From other parts of Japan visit Osaka, they often tend to walk on the right. I think in maybe Tokyo, people walk on the right. Here, I don’t know. And I have a feeling I keep
Getting in everybody’s way, so it might be the right here, but then a lot of people are walking on the left. So I haven’t figured that part out yet. So either I’m annoying everybody or people need to get out of my way. Perhaps I’ll solve that by the end of this Hokkaido trip.
A lot of really nice stuff here, like nice. Looks like a lot of cool like bars and restaurants and stuff – but nobody’s out. Check it out, Hakodate beer, nice looking building. Whoa, almost lost my footing here. Have to step carefully,
Even when you don’t think you need to, you never know where the slippery slush is going to be. This has to be one of the stranger first looks at a city I’ve ever had: Very, very cold – some wooden animals –
Very, very cold, and not many people around and just drifts of snow everywhere. And the sort of psychological feeling that you’re way, way far north. It’s not actually that far north like latitude-wise, I think it’s about the same as maybe Oregon or something here. It’s just
That it’s a different situation with the wind and the weather. I mean it’s 0 degrees now Celsius, 32 Fahrenheit, that’s not really that bad for here, it gets a lot colder. And some of the cities I’m going to in the next few days are some
Of the coldest in all of Japan and have some of the highest snowfalls of any city in the world. Wonder what this little shed is. Hmmm… Am I allowed to open this? Can’t get it open, probably better not. We’ll never know what the shed is for. But we can guess! Write
Your best fiction about the cold shed in Hakodate park and leave it in the comments. [Music from outdoor speaker] That song, I don’t know that song but I can hear enough of the words to know that it’s a jingle for this restaurant talking about Jingis Khan. Which is named after Jingis Khan,
Or Genghis Khan as we say in English. And it’s like Mongolian style beef or something cooked on a little circular grill thing. Choose your own seafood. Okay, we’re here back at the station, there seems to be more going on, plus some downright bizarre sculptures and stuff. [Music from outdoor speaker] Cool!
Assuming this music they’re playing is not something copyrighted that I can’t use this footage on YouTube for, I will say good night here. Tomorrow I’m going to wake up and do something to right a wrong from a previous video, and I can do it here in Hakodate. I hope it’s
Open. But anyway, I’m going to call it a night and I’m go get some sleep in my hotel which seems pretty warm and comfortable and quiet. And I will see you tomorrow morning for more of Hakodate. Alright, good morning, it is the next morning. Um, I have just gone
To Hakodate station to buy tickets for today because I’m leaving for Otaru today. Now, the thing I’m going to do today: if you saw a video recently where I was on a train called The Kyoto Tango Railway in Kyoto, there was one station that had – or one platform, train platform
– that had a foot bath on it. And I was unable to get off the train to actually use the foot bath. “The one regret I have about not getting off the train today…” But here in this town, way, way down here somewhere there is a public foot bath on a street corner.
I saw it online, I don’t know if it’s open right now in winter, I don’t know anything about it. But I’m going to take a tram to get there. So this is supposed to right the wrong
Of that foot bath. And I think it’s a really cool thing to do here today, because even if the thing is not open or it’s no longer there or something like that, at least I will have ridden the tram.
I’ve also got this scarf on, I’ve got an extra layer, I’ve got a wool sweater now underneath all all the other shirts, I’ve got little heat pads in my shoes and it’s actually working, I do feel quite warm out here, it’s about minus one, minus two degrees Celsius,
A little below freezing but I feel good except for my hands and I’ll find gloves for that. It’s about half an hour, about a half-hour ride through town on the tram to get to this place that has supposedly a foot bath.
I wonder if I’m overdressed and then I see that some people are way underdressed. People! So we are here, we want to go all the way up here to Yunokawa Onsen. And while waiting:
I was asking the hotel guy this morning if I could take a picture of the night view of Hakodate that was on the wall in a framed picture, behind him at the front desk. And he said yeah, so I did. But
Then he went in the back and he pulled this out. He gave me this: my own color postcard view of it. You know you’ve ridden the tram car far out of town when you’re the only person left on the train.
Alright, I see the hot bath, and I see somebody actually starting to use it, taking their shoes off and putting their feet in; that means it’s working. It was all worth it! We got a little story here too: “Almost 400 years’ history. In 1653, a mother who had a son of the Lord,
The son was dying of a serious illness, had a strange dream. In her dream, God appeared and told her to take her son to the hot spring and there he would be cured. So she took her son to the hot spring God taught her, and let him bathe there.
Soon he was able to resolve completely. This is the story said to be the discovery and the beginning of Yunokawa hot spring. It is well known as a beneficial and good saline hot spring.” So what’s the point of the foot bath? Well:
“The effect of the foot bath is said to be effective as well as usual bathing. By putting your foot in the hot water, you can stay longer in the hot spring than putting your total body, and so blood is warmed enough and circulates around the body.
Foot bath is very effective especially to the people who feel swelling or suffer from excessive sensitivity to cold. Please enjoy our Japanese culture foot bath and have a relaxed time watching Yunokawa’s townscape and feeling a Hakodate breeze.” Alright, sounds good to me, let’s see how this works. Quite hot. Oh, that’s great.
Between the toes… Alright, we couldn’t get this on the railway a couple weeks ago but finally! And we have the beautiful Hakodate cityscape as the sign said. Man, that was so good, that was so nice. That was almost, that was almost worth coming to Hokkaido just for that.
That’s the most relaxing and warm and friendly and peaceful and wondrous thing that’s happened to me all day. Well, I think the tram is here, the trams come every 5 minutes or so, so they’re very frequent.
So what I’m going to do is going to walk – I have to go get my train, there are not many trains in Hokkaido for a lot of routes, so I don’t have much option. So my train’s 10:45 this morning; I have to be back at the station and I’m way,
Way, way outside of town now but the trams are frequent. I’m going to walk a couple blocks just to get a look at Hakodate in the daytime and then I’m going to have to call the video there because the next thing is a-coming. So anyway, foot bath, 800 million thumbs up.
One thing that’s very, very evident here that really strikes me as somebody who lives in Osaka is – I’ve said this in other videos – but there’s just no color in Osaka. There are lights and flashing things in the shopping areas, but I mean like people’s houses and most buildings
Are just gray drab boxy concrete. And here, there’s lots of wooden buildings and even like bright colors. I saw a big bright orange building earlier. I wish we could have that down in Osaka but we just don’t. The buildings here are often a little bit worn but they’re obviously, they have
A different kind of feel to them. This is not like not like the Japan I’m used to in Honshu. What am I supposed to do, this guy is waving me somewhere. Escorted even! And the other thing that struck me about the tram ride is that for a
Fairly small city, 230,000 people, it’s quite big. I’m many, many kilometers away from the station and it’s still kind of a hoppin’ little town out here. So, spread out, I guess . I guess in Osaka and other big cities down in Honshu,
Everybody lives up in the sky. There’s like these big, big tower blocks, apartment blocks and stuff. And here you just live on the first floor of wherever. Okay, well I’m the only one waiting here at the tram stop and I’m going to end this video here.
The next video will be my ride on a train through the mountains, through a very steep and windy mountain train route that is actually destined to be discontinued in 6 years from now. This is going to be probably my last chance to take it. Nobody really takes it that often,
It’s very strange little local line. That all starts from Hakodate station. So that’ll be the next video: Today’s big train ride through probably some very snowy and curly and curvy crazy mountains. I’m excited, I will stop talking now. [Tram wheezes] Excuse you!
Um, so anyway, thanks for watching this look at Hakodate and I will see you hopefully in the next video on the train ride. Many thanks to my Patreon supporters who help make these videos possible and who,
For as little as a dollar a month, can watch new videos at least a week before they’re published. Special thanks to David Rychly, Jacob Fatz, Lever Wang, Nathaniel Holland, Omayr, Ray Nichols, Samantha, and Will Phillips. And thanks to subscribers to my free weekly email newsletter,
Which features links to new videos a day before they’re published, as well as behind the scenes info from my travels. Links to both are in the video description. And thanks for wandering around with me.
11 Comments
great stuff Jeremy. I have been watching the Hakodate harbor-area webcam for years. Seems to snowing there 75% of the time in winter. Its first on my list to visit when i get to Hokkaido. Seafood and footbaths…2 of my favs.
THE GREEN DOOR – by Duncan Harley
Most every park in Japan sports a little wooden shed for keeping safe the park keeper’s tools and maybe his or her lunch box. And the tiny shed at the entrance to the park in Hakodate looked at first glance to be no different to any other. Tako the groundsman kept the only key and he could be seen tending to the paths and the vegetation on a daily basis just as he’d been doing for decades. But when the old man died, no one and I mean no one at all, could recall ever seeing the inside of Tako’s shed.
A few weeks after the funeral, a new park keeper appeared on the scene to tend to the old man’s legacy. The new man had no keys to the shed and when the door was forced, all he found was a toy piano and a note that read:
“Bet you thought I was busy all those days tending to the leaves and the grass an all that stuff. But hey! It all sort of took good care of itself most of the time. Truth is, I was busy smokin’ weed and writing lyrics for the likes of Marvin Gaye and Shakin' Stevens. And I got paid plenty for that line of work. Way more than what the park authorities ever paid me.
You may have heard this song before:
‘Midnight one more night without sleeping
Watching 'til that morning comes creeping
Green Door what's that secret your keeping?
There's an old piano and they play it hot behind the green door (Green door)
Don't know what they're doing but they laugh a lot behind the green door (Ooh, green door)
Wish they'd let me in so I could find out what's behind the green door (Green door)
Knocked once tried to tell 'em I'd been there
Door slammed hospitality's thin there
Wondering just what's going on in there
Saw an eyeball peep in through a smoky cloud behind the green door (Green door)
When I said Joe sent me some one laughed out loud behind the green door (Ooh, green door)
All I want to do is join the happy crowd behind the green door (Green door)
Yeah
Oh, rock on in now!
Woo! Weeah!
Oooooh!’
Kato
😏
Great video and beautiful city, thank you for sharing with us! 😊
Wooooooot!!!! Another great one. I hope traveling doesn't get to tiring for you J.
Jeremy-san, I strongly recommend to insert Japanese subtitles. As you know mostly Japanese people doesn't speak English. And many Japanese train geeks are interested in overseas transportation.
"It's also good to look at things from the Optometrist's way."
My guess about the pen and pad would have been it's for the Chinese Tourist as Chinese Characters are still in use for place names, but then the advise was only in English and Japanese???
I am tired of seeing Japan what's next the prison system
Tfs Jeremy! Always so interesting! 🇯🇵
Another great glimpse of a place and your wanderings—thanks!
Merry Isthmus Hakodate Wanderer!
800 million and 1 thumbs up on your foot bath brother!
I have a travel channel and posting weekly about Japan. I’ll do one soon on this town and some good footage of the cable car trip. Please check out Boondoc Travels