{"id":31613,"date":"2019-12-24T19:08:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T11:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=31613"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:02:04","slug":"15-days-in-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-13-motomachi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2019\/12\/24\/15-days-in-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-13-motomachi\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido \u2013 Day 13 – Motomachi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motomachi<\/strong> is the port-side district in Hakodate that looks most un-Japanese. The area is extremely popular with visitors, but possibly in part because there were varying degrees of snowfall for the afternoon, the area wasn\u2019t as crowded as other spots in Hakodate so far (I\u2019m thinking of the congestion on Mt. Hakodate in particular!). There are several places of interest clustered in the same broad vicinity: including Western-architectural styled buildings, the iconic red brick warehouse, and also several slopes where people just go nuts with vanity poses.<\/p>\n

We checked out Motomachi after tucking in for a sumptuous Western steak lunch back at the Hakodate Station area. Motomachi can be easily reached from the station by a number of methods, including buses and trams – and in non-winter, the roughly 2 km walk is also easily doable. Pictures and commentary!<\/p>\n

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Near the foot of the Hachiman-Zaka Slope. Most people would start at the top and make their way down.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This isn’t the slope in its entirety though: it’s just about the mid-way point here. Lots of people were gathered at the top of the slope (behind me as I took this picture). This road is also in use, so whenever vehicles turn into it, everyone scrambles to get clear LOL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mt. Hakodate in the background. It was snowing at this point, so the visitors who’d just gone up the mountain’s observation deck might not be able to see much on this occasion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse, built in 1869 and today home to dining establishments and souvenir\/trinket shops. The place wasn’t nearly as crowded as I’d thought though – I was expecting the same busloads of noisy tourists milling around, similar to what was happening on Mt. Hakodate the previous day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Early sunset at 4:15 PM, and the lights start to come on – providing a lovely and romantic feel to the place.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Still snowing, and this time with wind!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lots of little items on sale inside the warehouse, including glassware similar to what we saw in Otaru.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A large Christmas tree lit up opposite the warehouse, accompanied by festive music, drew the attention of many visitors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There’s a two-level Starbucks joint just opposite the warehouse. We stayed inside for an hour in part to hide from the snowfall. We had soy lattes. I did a quick price comparison and was surprised to see that the Starbucks beverages sold in Motomachi were cheaper than in Kyushu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That’s a wrap for Day 13. Day 14<\/a> – our last full day in Japan – next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motomachi is the port-side district in Hakodate that looks most un-Japanese. The area is extremely popular with visitors, but possibly in part because there were varying degrees of snowfall for the afternoon, the area wasn\u2019t as crowded as other spots<\/p>\n

Read More 15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido \u2013 Day 13 – Motomachi<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[662,608,667],"class_list":["post-31613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-kanagawa-hokkaido-japan-2019","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-tamron-28-75mm-f2-8-di-iii-rxd","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/blog-2019-japan-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-13-A7_06638-hakodate-motomachi.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38421,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31613\/revisions\/38421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}