Long weekend in Hakodate (mainly food pics)

We had a long weekend in Japan this week, so I took the liberty of taking an extra day off to do some traveling in the southern part of Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan). A good friend of mine goes out there quite often and offered to show me around; so of course, I accepted.

Hakodate, located fairly south of Hokkaido

Hokkaido was one of the last developed island in Japan and has a lot of European influence after the opening of the Japanese ports to the rest of the world. Hokkaido itself is a fairly sparse island, rich with forests and nature. The seafood out there is also exceptionally good and I was fortunate to have had first hand experience to verify this.

I spent 4 days traveling around Hakodate. I considered going to Hakodate via plane but unfortunately all the cheap flights were booked up so quick that I didn't have a chance, so I arranged to take a train out there. A 1 way trip from Yokohama to Hokkaido spanning 850 km covered in about 7 hours over land. Meaning I had an average speed of over 100 km/h, the train network in Japan is pretty amazing.

Unfortunately, I was so busy traveling, eating and driving around that I didn't have much time to take a lot of pictures but I'll post the few that I have.

Hakodate isn't particularly huge city but has a population of close to 290,000 people. There aren't many tall buildings which added a country side feeling to the city. The city itself is located right by the ocean bringing in a variety of good seafood to the city and I had the chance to go visit one of their seafood markets.

One shot of the fish market

The huge scallops they had for sale

I can personally attest to the greatness of eating fresh seafood in Hakodate compared to Tokyo-- the seafood in Hakodate tastes as fresh as it is good.

Seafood bought at the local market and eaten as Sashimi for dinner

Hokke (a type of mackerel) baked with salt in an oven
You'd never guess that grilled shitake mushrooms could look so good

I'd write so much more about the trip and the great nature out there too, but there's only so much time I have tonight. The seafood was one of the best highlights of Hakodate. More pictures can be found on my online album here.