Hakodate winter trip Part 6: Snowy Hakodate Night

[Introduction]

I traveled to Hakodate, which is in the north of Japan, and is the largest city in southern Hokkaido, for three days and two nights. Overall I was satisfied with the trip, because I was able to take photos of winter Hakodate in both sunny and snowy conditions. In this article, I will write about snowy Hakodate night as part of Day 2.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Hakodate Morning Market and Bay Area
* Day 1: Motomachi
* Day 1: Motomachi and Bay Area (Evening and Night View)
* Day 2: Old Fort Goryokaku
* Day 2: Tropical Botanical Garden and Trappistine Convent
* Day 2: Bay Area (Night View with Snow) [This article]
* Day 3: Kitajima Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru
* Day 3: Hachiman-Zaka Slope and Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse (Evening View)

[Travel Date]
2017.01.28-30

[Main Part]

I returned to the hotel to take a short rest from Trappistine Convent. Then, I moved to Mt. Hakodate to see night view.

There are a lot of sightseeing spots in Hakodate such as Motomachi are and Bay area, but I guess the night view from Mt. Hakodate is the most famous. So, I looked forward to seeing it.

I climbed up to Mt. Hakodate, but …

To begin with, I will ride a ropeway.

There are several options to access to Mt. Hakodate such as mountain bus, taxi and car etc. However, the road to Mt. Hakodate is closed during winter, so ropeway is the only way to visit Mt. Hakodate in winter.

Hakodate Ropeway is often suspended due to strong wind. Actually, the operation was cancelled all day for the last two days. It was less windy today, so the ropeway was operating smoothly, but the weather forecast predicted it would start to snow later.

Anyway, I will ride on the ropeway, though it was already cloudy.

Just passed by another cable car.

I arrived at the observatory, but found there were already so many visitors.

Since the forecast predicted the sun went down around 16:45 and the night view would start around 17:15, I assumed it should be OK to reach the observatory around 16:15. However, I was surprised to see there were already lots of audience.

Anyway, I just took a photo.

I waited and saw the situation for a whole, but I realized most of visitors here were waiting for night view. In particular, it seemed visitors waiting at the front would not move.

So, I kept my position at the second front and waited for night view.

However, it started to snow.

In addition, snow became heavier gradually.

Then, the sun went down and the night view started, but it had poor visibility due to heavy fog. To make the matter worse, the number of visitors were growing over time, which led to a kind of chaotic situation, so I found it was difficult to take photos smoothly.

I gave up taking photos and left Mt. Hakodate 🙁

Snowy night in Hakodate (on tram road)

It was unfortunate that I was not able to take photos of Mt. Hakodate, but there was another thing which I expected in Hakodate. It was snow. I bought an external flash before the trip to take photos of snowy scenery. Since it was snowing now, it’s time to use the flash.

Here is the first photo of snowy Hakodate with the external flash.

Wow, I was surprised to see snow was visible in the photo.

Next, tram.

This old building was built in 1923 and used as a department store.

It was renovated in 2007 and has been used as “Community Exchange and Development Center”.

Here are some photos taken at Jujigai tram station.

Snowy night in Hakodate (Bay area)

I returned to Bay area where the hotel (La Vista Hakodate Bay) I stayed was located.

I will take photos around Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse, which is a landmark of Bay area.

This photo is about a combination of a ship and snow.

This bridge is often used for film and drama shooting.

I just took another photo without using the flash. You may not believe the photo was taken at the same timing with the previous photo 🙂

Conveyor belt sushi at Hakodate Marukatsu Suisan

Now I will have a dinner. Since I didn’t want to go around further in this snow weather, I visited Hakodate Bay Bishoku Club, which was a food complex and located next to La Vista Hakodate Bay, the hotel where I stayed.

Among several restaurants, I chose Hakodate Marukatsu Suisan, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant run by a fish market.

Customers are able to oder sushi from a tablet PC as well as picking up sushi from the conveyor belt.

I ordered “Special 5 pieces of sushi set”.

I added “3 pieces of tuna set”.

Then, I returned to La Vista Hakodate Bay and the second day of my Hakodate trip was over.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about snowy Hakodate night as part of Day 2.

I used the external flash to take snow photos and was surprised at its effects. It was more than what I expected. Just for your information, the external flash I bought was Nissin Digital’s i40 (for SONY).

I chose this product due to its balance between size and power.

In the next article, I will write about Kitajima Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru etc. as part of Day 3.

[Map]

[Related Link]
Hakodate Official Travel Guide
Mt. Hakodate Ropeway
Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse