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First ‘Date Tips

Some tips for hungry travellers visiting Hakodate in Hokkaido for the first time

December 2018

Just like a rodent doesn’t know it’s entered a rat trap until it’s too late, most people only realise they’ve walked into a tourist trap when the bill arrives.

This is usually true of big cities as well as third world countries but virtually unheard of in Japan – unless you’re in a port city called Hakodate.

Some countries are proud of their laid-back lifestyle, others think their hawker culture is the best, but Japan has always been special for its people’s honesty and hospitality.

So it may come as a surprise that some Hakodate tradesmen didn’t get the memo about service quality and professionalism.

Hakodate lies at the southern tip of Hokkaido, which is one of Japan’s four main islands and its northernmost.

For Singaporeans, Hokkaido is better known for its two S’s – skiing and seafood.

Not everyone can ski but everybody eats, so Hokkaido’s sea urchin, king crab, scallop and fish are famous and they also chalk up more frequent flier miles than seafood from other places travelling to restaurants around the world.

Hokkaido is also a wonderland for sweet fruit and vegetables, like melon, corn and potatoes, as well as wholesome dairy products. Half of all milk in Japan comes from Hokkaido, and the island produces 90 per cent of the country’s cheese.

Hakodate seafood market
All that super fresh produce from land and sea means a visit to Hakodate should be a delightful experience for anyone who doesn’t like stale food, and it mostly is.

Just opposite the Hakodate train station are the well-known seafood markets in low buildings covering a few blocks.

Most are clean and neat and if you are approaching on foot, you will be greeted by the Donburi Yokocho Market with its small casual restaurants serving kaisendon or rice bowls covered with sashimi slices.

Connected to that at the back is the Ekini Market. This is an older section that looks like a “wet market’’, with stalls selling raw fish, dried seafood products as well as fruit and veg.

Smack in the middle of the space is what appears to be a big blue bathtub.

It’s actually a squid pond and for a fee, you can go squid fishing with a short rod. In other words, some harmless fun traumatising a slippery sotong before devouring it while unwittingly entertaining perfect strangers with your squealing and lack of hand-eye coordination.

Serious seafood
Beyond this, through a doorway, is the newer-looking Hakodate Morning Market area with a food court, an area where farmers sell their vegetables mainly to locals and domestic tourists, and a cleaner and brighter collection of stalls with everything from packaged seafood, fresh fruit, healthcare/personal grooming products and even trendy sneakers.

But if you exit the big doorway to the side street, there are more interesting seafood shops and restaurants. This is Nakadori Street and it’s messier here but livelier too.

If you can walk through the gauntlet of touts to the end, you will arrive at a small building that is the tourist temple to sea urchin. This is the famous Uni Murakami restaurant with its uni rice bowls.

But don’t make the mistake of going to the tarpaulin-covered alley beside it where there is another restaurant with a huge display of salmon roe or ikura and other packaged seafood like dried squid outside. No matter how friendly and welcoming the young Taiwanese chap preparing the dried squid is, or how large the samples he offers you.

Because while he is genuinely nice, his employer is the inspiration for a Japanese version of Horrible Bosses. Why? Because there’s an incoming busload of tourists and he’d rather not waste time or table space on you.

Uni Murakami
Uni is just one of the toppings for the rice bowls here and it can be combined with ikura, salmon, prawn or crab.

There are other items too, like an interesting uni porridge, sashimi platters and various grilled fish.

But like its name says, uni is the main attraction here and the quality depends on your personal standards. If you’re not picky, it’s acceptable. If you avoid conveyor belt sushi like you avoid malaria and dysentery, then it’s a bit fishy.

Instead, try the seafood ramen in a grubby little shop on the main street where an elderly gentleman alone cooks and serves.

Melon heaven
Down south in the Tokyo and Osaka regions, the green-fleshed musk melon is king (is that why it’s called a Crown melon?).

But up north in Hokkaido, orange is the not so new alternative. The Raiden melon is not only sweet and juicy but said to relieve all problems from constipation to cancer.

If you don’t want to overdose on fructose, buy a slice for 300 yen (100 yen is about S$1.25). A whole fruit will go for 2,500-2,800 yen each.

If bigger is better for you, hunt down the 2.2 kg versions priced at 3,500 yen and carry a couple home.

Jiba Sumigoya
Hakodate might be in the boondocks compared to a big city like Tokyo or Osaka but it does have Michelin-rated eateries.

One of them is an izakaya Japanese bar/pub called Jiba Sumigoya or literally, small local charcoal house.

A 10-minute bus ride from Hakodate station, it was recently awarded a Michelin symbol for “good cooking’’.

Why, we are not sure. Maybe it’s because it serves a mind-boggling range of yakitori, sashimi, oysters, grilled fish, tempura and a decent range of sake, including an aromatic but pricey Juyondai junmai daiginjo.

Or maybe, it’s because its food is a bit different – our order of vegetable tempura came with a rubber band tied around an asparagus spear. We’re not sure if it was the secret ingredient in the batter or customers there really like their food chewy.

Sushidokoro Kihara
This large opulent-looking sushi restaurant in an imposing house beside the river is awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand for “good quality and good value cooking’’.

A 20-minute bus ride from Hakodate station, it is impressive by local standards, with a long L-shaped sushi counter and spacious private rooms.

Even more amazing is the pricing, at under 10,000 yen per person for a sushi set with a couple of starters, or less than half what you would pay in Ginza.

Then again, you also get less than half the taste.

But it’s not the young and enthusiastic chef’s fault; he’s probably working with whatever fish is left over after sending the best of the catch to Tokyo.

When it comes to eating out in Hakodate, it seems less “Cheap and good’’ and more “Cheap and good luck!”

First ‘Date Tips

First ‘Date Tips

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