Hakodate, Hokkaido Trip (Day 7)

17th May 2019, Friday

Today, we just planned to explore more in Hakodate city as we found there were more to see in the city. We woke up slightly late and got ready to explore the city again. We actually planned to have our breakfast in Hakodate Morning Market again, but when we were walking towards there, we got drawn by coffee smell from a cafe. But it wasn't opened yet but it was 10 mins before the cafe opened. So we decided to wait for the cafe to open for our breakfast. It was really cold standing outside while waiting but we were so excited with it. There was a couple of people who also came early to buy their coffee from the cafe.

Available Coffee Beans

Roast Machine

Our Wonderful Breakast

Finally the cafe opened its door and off we went in. The cafe's name is Misuzu Coffee, they do sell coffee beans (by weight) and they will roost the seeds for you. You can even request them to grind it into powder. We took a look on their menu and ordered a breakfast set that was curry rice. There were many cakes available too. We ordered coffee, hot chocolate and a cake too. The hot chocolate was nice (but this was the only place i got to drink hot chocolate so far)...lol....but i like it...We also bought some coffee beans to bring back home.. My friend even bought a coffee-flavoured ice cream to go...She can't get enough of their coffee...hahahaa....

Cakes in Snaffles

Mini Store

Dried Fishes

Available Food Products in the store

After the breakfast, we walked towards Hakodate-Meijikan, Hakodate's old Post Office which was now a shopping mall. Along the way, we passed by Snaffles and went in to buy their mini cheesecakes and pudding. After that, we continued walking and ended up a mini store where it was selling all sorts of dried fishes and even crabs. We went curious and went into the shop to check the fishes. The store auntie was quite friendly and introduced us the dried fishes. She even let us try out the fishes (tara and kamari) before buying. The dried fishes were actually quite nice. My friend had a great time shopping the fishes and she even asked the lady how to cook the fishes. Of course, she bought a couple of the dried fishes to bring home. We were also surprised the auntie was still using the manual weighing scale...The lady even showed us how they use the weighing scale...think the auntie was also having a good laugh with us although she can't understand English well.

Hakodate Beer & Potato Croquettes

Cute Musical Box

Ancient Musical Box

Introduction

After that, we continued walking and we saw Hakodate Beer building. So we decided to go in to try their beer and food. We ordered potato croquettes and a peach beer to try. The croquettes weren't that impressive. After that, we hit the road again and continued walking towards Hakodate-Meijikan. We finally reached the place without stopping for food again. There was a square in the central of the mall where there was a performance by playing music using ancient musical boxes. The performance times were set daily. So we waited for the performance to start and the shop lady will do an introduction on the musical instruments in Japanese. She showed the musical disc (like our music CDs except hers was very big and contained only 1 song). She then put the disc into the instrument and started to play the music. The performance lasted about 15 mins.

Curry Rice

Salad

Skewer

After that, we went shopping at the shops around the area. Later, we decided to visit Hachimanzaka Zaka slope and Russian Orthodox Church. So we walked towards the church area. It was quite a distance away from where we were. After some time, we stumbled upon a turkish restaurant named Pazar Bazar before the slope going up Hachimanzaka. The smell of the curry was drawing us into the restaurant. Since we haven't eaten our lunch, we decided to give it a try. There was no other customers except us as it was almost 3 plus. We had curry rice set (which included a salad) and grilled chicken on skewer. The food was quite nice except my friend preferred the Misuzu Coffee over the coffee here.

Higashi HonganJi Temple

Carl Raymon Cottage

Hachimanzaka Zaka slope

 After lunch, we continued to climb a very steep slope up to see the Hachimanzaka Zaka slope and churches. First stop, we arrived at Higashi HonganJi Temple (Hakodate Branch). Inside the temple, it was very quiet. However, the door was quite low and my friend had a hard hit on her head when she exited the temple...kekeke....When we came out from the temple, we caught the attention of a cottage looking building opposite and it was like calling to us to go in which we did. What we found in the building was that it was selling sausages under a brand named Carl Raymon. They were selling a lot of different sausages there and you can even order sausages to eat in the store. So we decided to come back tomorrow morning for our breakfast as we were full from our lunch. After that, we continued up the slope and reached Hachimanzaka Zaka Slope. We took some photos on top of the slope and continued walking towards the churches. There were a couple of churches around the area.

Roman Catholic Church

Russian Orthodox Church

Episcopal Church of Japan Hakodate Episcopal Church

The first church we visited was Roman Catholic Church, it was huge and there was a tree with no leaves standing in front of the church (like in those vampire movies)....hahaha... We went into the church to have a look and of course we had to remove our shoes and wear the slippers provided. After that, we wen to the next church - Russian Orthodox Church. The building was white and beautiful. The bell sound can be heard around the area too and it only sounded at certain times. After that, we went to Episcopal Church of Japan Hakodate Episcopal Church. The uniqueness of this church was that the building was built in a cross-shaped. We didn't managed to have a look into as the church was closed. After that, we made our way to Mount Hakodate Ropeway station.

Mount Hakodate Roepway

Mount Hakodate Radio Station

Weather condition streaming

Inside the station, there was a mini radio station where you can see the radio dj having the broadcast live. Also, there was also a monitor to show the live steaming of the weather conditions on top of Mount Hakodate. Unfortunately, the fog was very heavy on the summit and nothing can be seen. My friend asked the staff if the fog would be cleared later in the evening. The lady told us that it can be hard to say, however she suggested us to check the weather condition through the website. So we decided to try again tomorrow if the fog can be cleared. So we walked back to Red Bricks Warehouse there and went for a bay cruise under Blue Moon (wasn't cheap). It was a 1-hr cruise and the wind was blowing very strongly, it was also foggy even out in the sea. The sky got dark by the time we came back from the cruise.

Cruise tickets

Warship at the port

Fog and more fog

Our cruise

Pork Ramen

Spicy Ramen

Daimon Yokocho Entrance

Eating Alley

Later, we had our dinner at Ajisai Ramen where we ordered a non-spicy ramen and a spicy ramen. However, we found the ramen so-so but the place was quite packed with customers. After that, we walked to Daimon Yokocho, an eating alley. Coincidentally, the entrance was just behind Misuzu Coffee (the one we went in the morning). The alley was quite quiet with the restaurants there. But we were full with the earlier dinner, so we ended up not trying any of the restaurants. Therefore, we went back to the hotel to rest as we had a long day.

Places visited:
Misuzu Coffee Daimon Branch (Address: Hokkaido Hakodateshi Matsukazechou 7-1)
Hakodate Beer
Hakodate-Meijikan
Pazar Bazar (Address: 17-19 Suehirocho, Hakodate, Hokkaido 040-0053, Japan)
Higashi HonganJi Temple
Carl Raymon Cottage (Address: 3-92, Suzuran’oka-cho, Hakodate-shi, Hokkaido)
Hachimanzaka Zaka slope
Roman Catholic Church
Russian Orthodox Church
Episcopal Church of Japan Hakodate Episcopal Church
Mount Hakodate Ropeway Station
Ajisai Ramen (Address: 12-7 Toyokawa-cho, Hakodate)
Daimon Yokocho

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Paco Hakodate