My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
July 2024
We went to Hakodate a couple of times, but I was only able to get off the ship there once. My first week on the Diamond I met an American who was living in Tokyo and she was cruising with her daughters while her husband was working. She told me that she went to a burger place in Hakodate and had a chicken burger that blew her mind. She loved it so much that she bought a sweatshirt and T-shirts for her whole family (her daughters had chosen sleep over the chicken burger – big mistake, it seemed, as much of a fan as I am of sleep). I wanted to go to this place. When I asked my friend Kotoha if she had plans, she said there was an incredible burger place she wanted to go to – it was the same place!
We walked out from the port and crossed the bridge to the town (I love when a port is easy to walk to off the ship). We got to the burger place before the rush and were able to order right away.
There was a drink that Koto described as “Lucky Pierrot’s version of Dr. Pepper”
The chicken burger was incredible and absolutely worth the hype. The bread had the soft texture of the milk bread in Japan, the chicken was lightly breaded and not to greasy and it was perfectly seasoned. If you’re ever in Hakodate, I would definitely recommend this place. It also has a lot of silly, over-the-top merchandise if you’re into that.
Hakodate was such a cute town. It had lots of shops and a cute market that I had a wonderful time browsing through. Koto had to go back to work, but I wasn’t done with Hakodate yet. I ran into Dave, the resident guitarist, and Fernando, the Cruise Director, and convinced them to go to the Hakodate Brewery with me – if there’s a local brewery I want to make that part of my local experience. At the brewery I also ran into my mom’s friends, Joanne and Gary.
Hakodate is way up high on my list of favorite ports in Japan. Like my other favorite ports, there were shops for the things I needed to buy for myself, it was docked right there so I could walk into town without taking a shuttle, and there was good food and a brewery. But in this town the buildings were really cute – I felt like it was an event just walking around, there was lots of stuff to look at. I could be wrong, but there also might be a gondola. I think Fernando climbed a hill if you’re into hiking. It is a port that I would very much like to visit again.
When I got back to the ship for afternoon trivia, one of the guests had a present for me. One of the prizes we give away is a plastic coaster and there are many jokes made about them. This guest had gotten me a coaster from Hakodate!
Her teenage daughters were completely embarrassed that she was giving me this coaster, but I loved it. This family was super fun and came to so many of our events, I was smitten with Hakodate, AND the coaster lit up and changed colors!
It was such a great gift – to remember them, to remember the day and it’s light enough (it both lights up and it’s not heavy) that I now take it with me as I travel around the world.