15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido – Day 12 – Goryokaku Park

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Day 12 and we’re headed to the last leg of our trip – the port city of Hakodate. Our original plan was to spend a night in this city, but now that we’d added an additional night, we have quite a bit more time to cover the city. Hakodate is particularly famous for a couple of sights, all of which we’ll be covering this leg and more: Goryokaku, Mt. Hakodate, and the Motamachi area. ‘

Goryukaku is the site of a massive military citadel built in the early 19th century to guard against the threat of western invaders. It’s very distinctive feature is its shape – that of a five point star, with an additional large triangular shaped fortification pointed directly at the port-side where invading western ships were expected to arrive. The fort has been since converted into a park in modern times, and is one of the best places in Hokkaido to view cherry blossoms. The star-shaped feature isn’t observable on the ground – we’d have to go up Goryokaku Tower for that – but one can tell that the design was very much intended to protect against invading troops, what with its all surrounding moat, walls, and vantage 90 degree corners with natural defensive placements.

As Goryukaku was just down the road and about 20 minutes away, we reached the place easily by one of several buses plying the route.

There are two bridges leading into the park: one west, and the other east. This one is the bridge on the west side and faces back into the city; the back door if you like!
Ice was slippery. We’ve had to learn very quickly how to walk on ice this trip.
Hard to tell from this picture, but this tree still had some berries left hanging on its branches.
Numerous walls providing defensive positions against invaders.
The central part of the citadel, and the former Hakodate Magistrate’s Office
Snowfall against some remaining greenery making for a pretty picture.
The Tower in the near distance.
The snow layer wasn’t too heavy at less than an inch deep.
This tunnel like structure should be an area for visitors to view flower blossoms.
Partially frozen lake.

Continued in the next post when we went up Goryukaku Tower!