You could visit most of tourist-must-see places by walk and tram. Hakodate is a compact tourist destination. Also it is a place I wanted to live. The city was developed as one of the five treaty port in the modern history. There are histrical buildings and places built during the early period of the port opening like churches, western style buildings, the foreign cemeteries, the warehouses, to name a few. They are kept in a good condition to this days. Many of the are around the foot of the Mount Hakodate near the dock area. People are climing up and down the slopes. The trams crisscross the town as an important transportation for the people living there. There is a ship builder’s dock. All of them remind me of Yokohama some 50 years ago although the function as international commercial port was lost. Yokohama was developed as one of the five treaty ports at the same time. We have histrical buildings and places related to the history, many of which are around Yamate area on the hill near the port. Trams were used. A ship builder’s dock occupied the west of the dock area, now Minato Mirai area.
There are fish markets near Hakodate station. Shops are handling seafood harvested in Hokkaido as well as here. (Large amount of squid are landed at the port. ) Restaurants in the markets offer seafood dishes like Sashimi, Sushi, Rice bowl…. I tried Yakitori Bento at Hasegawa store, Shio ramen or ramen in salt based soup, Chinese Chiken burger at Lucky Pierot and Hotdog at Carl Raymon’s sausage shop during the visit. Around the south part of Hokkaido, it means pork belly BBQ when people say Yakitori, or Chiken BBQ on a stick. I ate, walked around, and slept like a baby during my visit. I want to visit the town again.