Hakodate 函館

13 Dec 2013 - Hakodate morning market and around
The snow storm was setting in ... good thing for us the market was only 2 mins away


Yes, even the plastic food looks delicious


"Fishing" for live squids ... and sashimi on the spot. Touristy but it had to be done.



Bought a large きんき(kinki) fish for ¥1500 at a slight discount. Finally figured that that I could buy a fresh fish and had it grilled by a restaurant on the 2nd floor for additional ¥100.


Nicely grilled for ¥100, flesh was juicy and the fish oil was delicious. Super friendly folks at the restaurant.


In case you have not noticed, Hakodate is all about squids ... squid ink bun with squid filling was yummy.
Top it off with a 3 color bowl (crab, roe and sea urchin)

Now that we had "Breakfast", it was time to walk around a bit

Bought some hand-scrapped seaweed and hakodate kumbo


Braving the cold to explore the outdoor stores



Had a fantastic Aoimori apple for ¥450 and equally fantastic persimmon


Before we could get far, had to stop again for grilled scallops and the famous melon. Not from yubari itself, but its yubari melon grown in  kumamoto (熊本)



We took the street trams and the plan was to walk the motomachi area to view the old public and other historic buildings in the area. Started snowing quite heavily and the slopes were all icy. So aborted the plan to go up the hill


We stumbled upon this small one-man operated shop with fantastic cheese cake and cream puff. In my opinion, better then snaffles, more spongy texture and less sweet.




Since the weather did not permit us to do outdoor activities ... what else is the to do but eat !
Fast food chain yakitori Hasegawa was good ... in Hakodate, its a misnormal but yakitori is pork not chicken meat.


As much that I was not convinced that I should eat fast food burgers in Japan ... Lucky Pierrot burgers are definitely an exception and worth a go. The patty and the bread were all very well made and the service in a fast food restaurant was impressive. Looks deceiving simple but taste fantastic.


Check out the Mount Hakodate burger that someone else ordered. Comes complete with the waitress ringing a hand-bell as she serves it.
Darn ... should have ordered that.

While it was a total snow blizzard, the Christmas illumination were pretty for that few minutes that you brave the cold winds to go outside to look at them.

                                   

Found an old friend at the teddy bear museum



Even with all the food, somehow you still need dinner.
Did not want to navigate in the dark in the cold and strong winds, so we settled for a ramen restaurant in the redbrick warehouse area.
While it looks like a chain store and not my usual idea of a small shop ramen ... it did taste quite good. We ordered the curry ramen, Shio Chasu Ramen and the Tsuke men




Took a taxi back to the hotel and it actually cost ¥760 vs ¥800 if we had taken the tram for 4 pax

Hakodate 函館