Hakodate, Japan Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

If you travel to Hokkaido by train, the first major city you'll come to after emerging from the Seikan Tunnel is the attractive port of HAKODATE , 260km southwest of Sapporo. Along with Shimoda on the Izu Hanto, this was one of the first ports to open to foreign traders following the Japan–US amity treaty of 1854. Over the next few years, ten countries including Britain, Russia and the USA established consulates in Hakodate, and foreigners built fancy wooden homes and elaborate churches on the steep hillsides, leaving the city with a legacy of European and American-style architecture. In 1868 the last of … more »