(Japan Jan 2015) Day 9: Tokyo to Hakodate. Stay at Hakodate

Day 9 (31/1): Tokyo to Hakodate. Stay at Hakodate

This day's itinerary:
(Day 8 of our 14 days JR Railpass)
0638-0950 Ueno station to Shin-Aomori station via Shinkansen Hayabusa (192mins)
1017-1222 Shin-Aomori station to Hakodate station via Ltd Exp Super Hakucho (125mins)
Deposit luggage at hotel
Had lunch at a Ramen shop next to our hotel
Walk to Red Bricks Warehouse area
Walk up the slope to the Mt Hakodate Ropeway base station
Took Ropeway up to Mt Hakodate (1200yen for return trip)
Visit Mt Hakodate (1 of Japan's top 3 evening views)
Took Ropeway down
Took short cab ride (less than 5mins) to Red Bricks Warehouse area for some light shopping.
Bought some dinner from convenience store back to our room for dinner.

This is the day where we had to make the long journey from Tokyo all the way up north to Hokkaido.

Since we are using the JR Railpass, therefore the railpass covers the entire train journey from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori (via bullet train), as well as from Shin-Aomori to Hakodate (via Ltd Exp train). 

To go to Shin-Aomori, we had to go to either Tokyo station or Ueno station at Tokyo to catch a Shinkansen (bullet train). Since our hotel at Tokyo was just opposite Ueno station, therefore we boarded the 1st Shinkansen of the day from Ueno station early in the morning at 6:38am. The journey takes about 190mins to go from Ueno to Shin-Aomori station.

Taking photos of Shinkansen in the morning at Ueno station.

Onboard the comfortable Shinkansen. This 3hr journey passes by really quickly.

 After 3hrs onboard the Shinkansen, we arrived at Shin-Aomori station where we had to catch a transfer to the Ltd Exp Super Hakucho train to Hakodate at southern Hokkaido.

Boarding the Ltd Exp Super Hakucho train at Shin-Aomori station

 This train will pass through the Seikan Tunnel which is under the sea that links Honshu to Hokkaido.

This tells us the exact times of when the train will go through the Seikan tunnel.

 After exiting from the Seikan Tunnel, we are finally at Hokkaido!!

 After a long train journey from Tokyo, we finally arrived at Hakodate station at 12:22pm after nearly 6hrs of train journey. 

Hakodate station.

 From Hakodate station, we just walked across a street to reach our hotel for the night, Smile Hotel Hakodate. It is a pretty budget hotel with basic amenities, but since it's cheap and near the station, so I've always stayed at this hotel whenever I go Hakodate.

Our room

View from the room

 From the recommendations of the staff from our hotel, we went to the Ramen store just next to the hotel for our lunch. And it was really good!! The Ramen and Fried rice was yummy!!  Prices were decent (about 700yen for a bowl of ramen) but the cook's attitude was a tad grumpy though. 

Oh well, but the food's good, so we didn't really minded that much.

The ramen shop's opening hours.

 After a very satisfying lunch, we had a short stroll towards the Red Bricks warehouse area.

Shiroi Koibito Ice cream

Walking up the pretty steep and extremely slippery slope to reach the ropeway station to go Mt Hakodate.

Ropeway to Mt Hakodate. 1200yen for return trip

Since it was a really windy day, so we were informed that if the winds get too strong, they might temporarily suspend the ropeway services. Therefore we took some photos, and decided to make our way back down since we still had to visit Red Bricks warehouse area for some light shopping.

The view from Mt Hakodate is supposedly 1 of Japan's top 3 evening views. So if you are planning to visit Hakodate, I would strongly recommend that you pop by Mt Hakodate in the evening for at least a quick visit. Do note that in winter this place will be really windy and cold though. 

From the ropeway station, we took a short cab ride to Red Bricks Warehouse area because I am unwilling to slide my way down the steep and slippery slope again.

Shops inside the Red Bricks Warehouse shopping mall

2 tired guys finally finding some benches to rest their aching legs

After a long day, we were too tired to walk around to look for restaurants, so we ended up buying food from the convenience store back to our hotel room for our dinner.

Go to previous blog entry: Day 8 Kinugawa onsen to Tokyo / 
Go to next blog entry: Day 10 Visit Onumakoen and Noboribetsu