We got up early and got ready. We checked out of the Pearl Hotel Yaesu and walked to Tokyo Station. Our journey today would take us from Tokyo in Honshū to Hakodate in Hokkaidō. We used our Japan Rail Pass 🔗 and had made seat reservations on the Hayabusa 1 service from Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto; after that, we would take the Hakodate Liner to Hakodate.
We were looking forward to our first journey on the Shinkansen. When we reached Tokyo Station, we saw lines drawn on the platforms for First and Second Class passengers to organize the boarding process. The passengers in the Second Class line would wait until all passengers in the First Class line had boarded. While we waited for our train, we saw the E7/W7 Series along with E2 Series Shinkansen trainsets.
The Hayabusa 1 service from Tokyo ran on the Tōhoku Shinkansen line until Shin-Aomori and then on the Hokkaidō Shinkansen line until Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto. It was operated by an E5/H5 Series Shinkansen trainset.
We boarded and took our assigned seats. There was enough room behind the last row of seats for our bags (one medium-sized and one small-sized suitcase). The seats were spacious and comfortable compared to airplane seats. We tried to catch up on our sleep on the train since we had gotten up very early in the morning. The train sped through the Tōhoku region of Honshū, and it was nice to see the countryside go by.
After crossing Aomori, we passed through the Seikan Tunnel, which connects Honshū with Hokkaidō. It is a 53.85 km long tunnel with a 23.3 km section under the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait.
We covered a total distance of 862.5 km in 4 hours 25 minutes with an average speed of 195.28 km/h. After reaching Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, we switched to another platform to board the Hakodate Liner for the short trip to Hakodate.
After reaching Hakodate Station, we walked out and headed to Hotel Kikuya, where we were booked. When we arrived around noon, it was still too early for check-in, so we left our bags at the front desk and headed out to spend the day in Hakodate. We chose this place because of its location: it was about a five-minute walk from Hakodate Station, and the Hakodate Morning Market was only two minutes away; that made commuting easy. As with every place we visited in Japan, we were going to be out all day and just needed a place to sleep at night, so it didn’t have to be fancy.
We found a nice little place close by for lunch, Ramen Tutuiken. We were skeptical at first, but the food turned out to be fantastic. I would definitely recommend this place if you are in Hakodate.
After lunch, we bought the Hakodate Bus and Tram One-Day Pass (¥1000 per person) and took the tram from Hakodate-Eki-Mae to Yunokawa-Onsen stop for the Yunokawa Hot Spring Footbath Retreat. This is a free Ashiyu (a Japanese public footbath) where people can bathe their feet in natural hot spring water. After all the walking we had done in Tokyo the previous day, this felt good. As we soaked our feet for a while, it was nice to see that this was not a tourist-only place and that locals were also relaxing here.
We took the tram back from Yunokawa-Onsen to Jujigai stop and visited the bay area facing Hakodate Port, which had nice views of the harbor. We also saw the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses, which are now converted into a shopping mall.
From there, we walked up to see the Hachiman-Zaka Slope, a tree-lined road sloping from the foot of Mt. Hakodate towards the waterfront with a nice view of the bay and harbor. It was quite a steep walk uphill, but the view from the top was great.
The cable car to the Mt. Hakodate Observatory was not operational, so we took the tram from the Suehirocho stop to Hakodate-Eki-Mae and boarded the Hakodate Mountain Climbing Bus from JR Hakodate Station to the top; it was included in our day pass. Mt. Hakodate Observatory offered a panoramic vista of the city of Hakodate and is claimed to be one of the three best night views in Japan. Looking the other way, we could see a faint view of Aomori in Honshū across the Tsugaru Strait. We reached there just in time to see the sun setting and the city lighting up. It was magnificent.
We hadn’t seen too many tourists during the day, but this place was packed. From what we could tell, there were locals and visitors, mostly from Asia (our guess was China and South Korea). After spending some time there, we decided to head back down before the bus and the road got crowded. We bought some souvenirs at the store there and then took the Hakodate Mountain Climbing Bus back down to the JR Hakodate Station. We walked along the tram line towards the Matsukaze-Cho stop and found lots of restaurants there. We finally decided on Yondaime Ramen for dinner.
We walked back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and got our room. The room was small: a bed, a desk, and barely enough space to walk around it. The bathroom was compact but had everything that was needed. Our room window had a nice view of Mt. Hakodate.
🚍 Hakodate Bus and Tram One-Day Pass
🚋 Hakodate Bus and Tram One-Day Pass
🍽️ Ramen Tutuiken
🍽️ Yondaime Ramen
🛏️ Hotel Kikuya