Hakodate is a pretty lonely town. When you walk through the morning market or ichiba (Hakodate’s version of Tsukiji), shopsellers show their desperation as they shove sample pieces of melon and corn in your face. It’s hard to say “no” to their persistence, but just saying no was the only option, if we wanted to check out of our hotel at 10am.

Seems like even in the North, cute is in.

Didn’t have the time to pop into this place, Kujiraya (Whale shop).

The morning market against a beautiful clear blue sky that could never be enjoyed in smoggy Tokyo:

We went to Shinsen-Gumi for our ichiba experience.

It was kind of deserted.

You can choose three toppings on your morning rice bowl.

This is how you eat it.

The sashimi was fresh and the ikura sweet, but this mystery condiment was the best part of the meal.

Until this was served – squid ink soft serve!

Ale Road 2
22-1 Otemachi
Hakodate City, Hokkaido
TEL: 0120-16-8580

*Yoko lives in Tokyo. She loves dips, dashi and deals.

Hakodate is famous for its fresh seafood, so eating sushi was necessary. Being total newbies to the area, we chose a sushi restaurant that was listed in our JTB (Japan Travel Bureau) guide magazine.

About a 10 minute walk from Hakodate JR Station, Oujousushi is located on a desolate stretch of road next to a kimono shop. It was encouraging to see that there were two parties already seated there when we arrived – it was a Monday night.

They serve the sushi right on the counter:

The sushi chef grates the wasabi for you and serves it to you on your own individual shark-skin paddle:

Three-sashimi plate, freshest catch of the day:

Amaebi (sweet shrimp):

Live uni (Check out the video footage of this at the head of this post. It might be hard to tell, but the uni is definitely moving as its innards are being devoured.):

To die for saba (mackerel). This was the star of the night. The saba melted in my mouth and didn’t have a hint of sourness – very different from any type of saba I have had.

Classic maguro:

Glistening ika (squid):

Ikura in Hokkaido was all very sweet. It was delicious, but I have to admit, I might be a Tokyo girl who likes salty ikura.

Hirame (fluke):

Half-time soup:

Jelly-coated vegetable (forgot the name), popular in Hokkaido:

The chef strongly recommended we order anago. The roastiness was great, but I prefer my anago a little softer, with a more delicate sauce.

Kani (crab):

Squid caught that morning:

Grilled, on the house, as a celebratory nod to our recent union.

Uni:

Overall, the ingredients were great because they were extremely fresh. But I prefer my sushi in smaller portions. The rice was packed a little too densly as well. Oujousushi scores points for really friendly staff and service, but loses some points for being a little pricey (our bill came to 15,600 yen including sake).

Oujousushi
5-6 Shinkawamachi
Hakodate City, Hokkaido
TEL: 0138-22-3079
closed Thursdays

One of the best things about Hakodate, Hokkaido was that there were no McDonalds. This seems very odd, considering Hakodate isn’t such a tiny city. But not so odd, when you know that it has its own home-grown fast food chain Lucky Pierrot that could take over the world, just like McDonald’s, if it wanted to.

As soon as I started planning for our trip to Hakodate, I knew I wanted to visit Lucky Pierrot. It was the one touristy thing I wanted to do. We saw our first Lucky Pierrot (the original location) literally 10 minutes after I scarfed down the huge soft serve at Hanabatakebokyjyo. Although I was on vacation, my stomach was definitely not. I decided to put it to work, double-duty style by fulfilling one of my main missions during the trip: to eat a whale burger.

The menu

The exterior and interior of Lucky Pierrot failed to dissapoint with crazy decor spilling out of every pore of its walls. Although this seemed kind of gimmicky, it was comforting to see later on in the trip that all Lucky Pierrots are crazy in their own way. It was also comforting to see that the Lucky Pierrot we visited was packed with locals even on a Monday at 4pm.

Lucky Pierrot’s most popular burger is the Chinese Chicken Burger. This looked really appetizing as well, but I was determined to order the Whale Miso Burger.

The Whale Miso Burger was 380 yen. The burger had some lettuce, mayo, miso sauce and a few nuggets of fried whale.

Surprisingly, the whale tasted very fishy. The whale that I had had before (raw and barbecued) tasted more gamey, like lamb or venison. The smell of the whale meat in the burger wafted a bit of sardines, yet the texture was a little tough, like fish jerky. I enjoyed the burger, but they saturated it too much with the miso sauce. The breaded surface area ratio to the whale meat was also too high – I could not get a proper grasp of the taste and texture of the whale meat because of the distractions surrounding it (breading and sauce). That said, I am very satisfied to have tried the whale burger, especially since this is something you can only eat in Hakodate.

Although I like the fact that Lucky Pierrot exists only in Hakodate, I would be ecstatic if they made a branch out here in Tokyo. I would be in line on the first day to try their Chinese Chicken Burger.

Lucky Pierrot (Original location)
23-18 Suehiro-cho
Hakodate Japan
TEL: 0138-26-2099