Hakodate is a port at the southern tip of the island of Hokkaido. Hakodate is the third largest city in Hokkaido, with a population of only 280,000.

We took a 3 1/2 hour train ride from Sapporo to Hakodate on Saturday, 21 July, arriving at around 4 p.m. We were surprised that it was much colder than in Sapporo. There were also very few people in the streets, except for tourists.

We stayed at Loisir Hotel, less than 5 minutes' walk from the JR terminal and also a similar distance to the morning market serving the freshest seafood probably in the whole island of Hokkaido. It is not only a picturesque city, worth spending at least 3 days, but also a paradise for seafood lovers.

We took a bus to the mountain summit before dinner. The view of the city from Mt Hakodate at night is its main attraction. Although I brought along my tripod for the night shots, it was difficult to get a good picture as we were elbow-to-elbow with the large crowd viewing the night scene.

We reached downtown in time for a late dinner. I ordered a grilled king crab claw that was as meaty as a full lobster (Yen 3500) while V had a grilled squid.

The following morning (Sunday) which was also our departure day in the afternoon, we decided to have breakfast next door at the morning market. The place reminded us of the food stalls in the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. After breakfast, we took a tram to tour the "church buildings area", only 15 minutes away. From the tram stop, we walked and fortunately, we reached the Catholic church in time to attend Sunday mass. We had to remove our shoes and change into leather slippers to enter the church. After the mass, all out-of-town visitors, including us, were introduced to the rest of the congregation by city or country of origin.

After the mass, we went to the neighbouring Russian Orthodox Church. The premises outside were practically a floral garden. From there we took a leisurely walk, heading back to our hotel. The city is hilly and its slopes offered varying views of downtown. Being summer time, we missed the cherry blossoms at Goryoukaku Park. However, we did see many summer flowers throughout the city.

By chance we saw a sign directing tourists to the red brick warehouses area which are now modernised shopping complexes. We were quite surprised to find many people there doing their Sunday shopping and eating. There was also a harbour cruise available. We decided to have lunch at one of the "brewery" dining areas. Being in Hakodate we, of course, ordered seafood.

After a bit of rest at Starbucks near the cruise centre, we walked back to the hotel to wait until it was time to take the bus to Hakodate airport, for our flight to Haneda and from there back to Singapore.

Will we go back to Hakodate? Yes, it's worth another visit probably in spring as well as for its seafoods.

We had dinner at Haneda airport before boarding our SQ flight just past Sunday midnight. V and I ordered the same dish for the first time. It looked like prawn tempura but, after tasting it, it was really fried prawn cooked with another type of batter. Yes, it was tasty.

So our final comments were:
--Excellent marks for JTB, especially for Ms Toshie. We would like her to be our guide again the next time we book JTB.
--Excellent marks for Authent Hotel in Otaru, Kangetsuen near the Tokachi River and Keio Plaza in Sapporo.
--OK marks for Park Hills Hotel in Biei and Loisir Hotel in Hakodate.
--Excellent marks for most of the meals we took. It will be very difficult for us to be satisfied with budget Japanese cuisine back in Singapore
--Excellent marks for Japanese service and courtesy shown by all the Japanese we interacted with, even though many of them could not speak English.

Our next Japan trip will most likely be in April, to view the cherry blossoms in Kyoto and northwards.