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Arrival, information, orientation and city transport
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Hakodate's
airport
(tel 0138/57-8881) lies 8km north of the city; buses take roughly twenty minutes from here to reach the train station in the city centre, and cost around ?300.
Trains
from Morioka and Aomori on Honshu, and Sapporo and New Chitose airport on Hokkaido terminate at Hakodate Station, on the eastern side of the harbour - the
bus
terminal is in front of here. If you're arriving by
ferry
from Honshu, you'll dock at Hakodate-ko Port, some 4km north of the train station. Buses #1 and #19 leave from the Hokkudai-mae stop, seven minutes' walk south of the port, to the city centre - or you can take a taxi for around ?2000.
For a map of the city, call in at the Hakodate Tourist Information Office (daily: April-Oct 9am-7pm; Jan-March, Nov & Dec 9am-5pm; tel 0138/23-5440, fax tel 0138/23-8366), next to Hakodate Station, where the assistants speak English and can also make accommodation bookings. Squeezed into a narrow neck of land jutting into the Tsugaru Straits, Hakodate's sights are sprawled over a wide area. Immediately east of the station is the main shopping and entertainment district, while on the southern side of the harbour, rising up the slopes of Mount Hakodate-yama, is the Motomachi area of old residences and foreign consulates. Some 2km northeast of the station lies Goryokaku , the site of the remains of the Tokugawa shogun's fort and another shopping, eating and drinking area.
Because Hakodate's sights are spread out, you'll need to use public transport to get around. This is no hardship as the city has a good
tram
system with two lines, both starting at the onsen resort of Yunokawa east of the city and running past Goryokaku and the train station before diverging at the Jyujigai stop in Motomachi. From here, tram #5 heads west to Hakodate Dokku-mae, while tram #2 continues further south to Yachigashira on the eastern side of Hakodate-yama. One-day (?1000) and two-day passes (?1700) can be bought from the tourist office for unlimited use of both the trams and city
buses
(but not Hakodate Bus Company buses). These passes, only worth buying if you plan to tour extensively around town, also cover the bus service up Hakodate-yama. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Japan,
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