Hakodate winter trip Part 7: Kitajima Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru

[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 Kitajima Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru etc. as part of Day 3.

[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)
* Day 3: Kitajima. Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru [This article]
* Day 3: Hachiman-Zaka Slope and Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse (Evening View)

[Travel Date]
2017.01.28-30

[Main Part]

Breakfast at La Vista Hakodate Bay

The 3rd day, the final day, of my Hakodate trip has started. To begin with, I will have breakfast at La Vista Hakodate Bay, the hotel where I stayed. I arrived at the restaurant at 6:05 a.m., which was 15 minutes earlier than its operating hours, but I was surprised to see there were about 10 people waiting for breakfast.

While I chose Kaisen-don (Seafood rice bowl) just like yesterday, I picked up different foods such as western cuisine from the previous day.

Kaisen-don (Seafood rice bowl).

For more information about breakfast at La Vista Hakodate Bay, please see the following article.

I checked out La Vista Hakodate Bay.

Morning walk (Bay area and Motomachi area)

Then, I walked around Bay area and Motomachi area. Here are some snap photos.

Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse.

London bus.

Higashi Honganji Temple Hakodate Branch.

Motomachi Roman Catholic Church.

Hakodate St. John’s Church.

Hakodate Orthodox Church.

Motomachi Park.

For Bay area and Motomachi area, you can see the following articles.

Kitajima Saburo Museum

Then, I visited Kitajima Saburo Museum, which was located in the Winning Hotel at Bay area.

Kitajima Saburo Museum is an amusement museum which shows Kitajima Saburo’s history etc. Since he is one of the most famous enka (Japanese ballad) singers in Japan, I decided to visit the museum.

The second floor was the history zone.

Pictures of his childhood.

He went to high school at Hakodate by train.

He determined to become a singer and moved to Tokyo.

He sang songs at night clubs before becoming a professional singer.

His younger days.

He also appeared on movies.

His discography.

The 3rd floor was the theater zone where his stage was reproduced.

The robotic Saburo Kitajima appeared from underneath the stage set.

He sang “Matsuri (Festival)”, one of his signature songs.

Then, I just went around the goods store on the 1st floor and left the museum.

Uni don at Uni Murakami

I moved to Hakodate station from Bay area by tram.

I just took a photo of a train.

I will have a lunch at Uni Murakami located at the end of the Morning Market main street (naka-dori)..

Uni Murakami is famous for its additive-free Sea Urchin Rice Bowl (Uni don). I arrived at the restaurant 15 minutes before its operation and found several people queuing.

In the restaurant.

I ordered additive-free Sea Urchin Rice Bowl (Uni don).

Note: this was small size.

If you are hungry, I would recommend regular size 🙂

Seikan Ferry Memorial Ship “Mashu-maru”

After lunch, I went to Seikan Ferry Memorial Ship “Mashu-maru”.

Mashu-maru was one of the Seikan railway ferries that operated between Hokkaido and Honshu until 1988. It has been moored at the Hakodate port as a memorial.

From the side of Mashu-maru.

Let’s go into the ship.

Exhibitions such as history of Seikan Ferry.

First class sheets.

Uniforms of staff.

Other snap photos.

Cockpit.

View from the deck.

Bay area

I returned to Bay area. Since I visited all of the places I planned to go to for this Hakodate trip, I will just relax before the departure.

I took a rest at Tea Room Kyu-Chaya-Tei.

The house of Tea Room Kyu-Chaya-Tei was originally built at the end of Meiji era and had been renovated as a cafe.

I ordered “Oshiruko (sweet red-bean soup)” set.

Then, I went to Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse. I had taken photos of Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse so far, but I haven’t entered it, so I visited it. Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse consisted of several facilities.

First, Hakodate History Plaza.

I bought one of them for souvenir.

Kanemori Yobutsukan.

Bay Hakodate.

In addition to Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse, I visited other facilities. For example, Hakodate-Meijikan,

Hakodate Rusama-ya Sweets.

I just took a short break at a Starbucks.

Now it was late afternoon and the sun was a little bit lightning.

Then, I will take evening view photos before the departure and I will write about it in the next article.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about Kitajima Saburo Museum and Mashu-maru etc. as part of Day 3.

In the next article, as the final article of the Hakodate trip series, I will write about evening view of Hachiman-Zaka Slope and Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse.

[Map]