Winter Trip to Hakodate [Day 3] ~Kitajima Saburo Museum, Fresh Uni Donburi, and Mashu-Maru~

The hotel’s buffet breakfast is extremely highly rated.
I had their famous seafood donburi. Other than that, I chose different things than what I had the previous day.
(For more details on the hotel’s breakfast, please see the article on the 2nd day of my trip.)

I visited the Kitajima Saburo Museum, located in an award-winning hotel in the Bay Area.
This facility showcases the path that Kitajima Saburo, a songwriter from Shiriuchi on the outskirts of Hakodate, has taken so far in his life.

After purchasing my ticket on the 1st floor, I headed up to the 2nd floor.
The 1st floor has ticket sales and a souvenir shop.

Robo Sabu-chan came out and performed the iconic song “Matsuri” with some realistic movements.
It’s a great reproduction of his performances with great acoustics.
You can enjoy this exhibit even if you aren’t a fan of Saburo Kitajima.

I felt that the adult admission fee of 1,540 yen was a bit high, but after seeing the number of staff and the facilities, the cost clearly goes to supporting them.

Lunch was at “Uni Murakami,” a restaurant near the Hakodate Morning Market that’s famous for its uni donburi.
There were already some customers lined up outside 15 minutes before opening.

The restaurant was packed full of customers right after opening.

The restaurant’s most popular dish is the “Fresh Uni Donburi with No Additions.”
It’s made without alum.
However, I ordered the small to be conscientious of the price and amount of food! (2,592 yen, tax incl.)

I was really impressed with the flavor of the uni itself.

Additionally, the small was, well, rather small, so if you have a big appetite, you should get the regular size (4,320 yen, tax incl.).

This ship, “Mashu-Maru,” was a connection ship between Japan’s mainland’s Aomori and Hokkaido’s Hakodate until 1988, and it currently is used as a museum.
You can check out various parts of the ship, like the navigation room and the wireless communication room, in the same condition they were in while the ship was operational.

Let’s go on inside.

In addition to the crew, the ship also had on-board information and sightseeing broadcast “marine girls” as part of ship’s employees.

And finally, here was my view from the deck.

Kyuchaya Tei is a café where you can enjoy matcha and sweets.

Both the interior and exterior have a retro feel to them.

Most of the furniture is mismatched, so the different styles all create an exotic atmosphere.

This was made with fresh mochi, and it was amazing!

I’d taken pictures of the warehouse’s outside several times up to this point, but this time I actually went inside.

Accessory Cases to Use at the Gym

I had dinner at Lucky Pierrot’s Marina Suehiro location in the Bay Area.
Lucky Pierrot is a Hakodate-local hamburger restaurant.
It’s been ranked as the #1 hamburger restaurant by The Nikkei’s “Nikkei PLUS1,” and is overall a very popular restaurant.

Each of the 17 locations has a different theme, and the marina location’s theme was “Bayside Restaurant by the Pier.”

I ordered their most popular item, the Chinese Chicken Burger.
Chicken kara-age from Hokkaido’s Date City is dipped in a sweet and salty soy sauce-based sauce, then paired with crispy lettuce from Hakodate’s neighboring Hokuto City’s Ono.

This was a sort of sinful choice for me, since I have a medium build, but it was so good that I couldn’t help but think “It’s so good that I don’t care if I get fat (?)”!

There were a lot of people around since this is one of Hakodate’s famous sightseeing locations.

I altered the colors of this shot, trying to give it a fantasy feel.

It was about time for me to go back now.
I was still taking pictures of the Bay Area at night as much as time would permit.

Hakodate has a lot of sightseeing locations all packed together, so it’s easy to go from one to the next, and the food is also amazing.
I think it’d be great to visit during spring, summer, fall, or winter, so next time I’d love to visit in another season.