Hakodate, Hokkaido
Hakodate (Japanese函馆 市, -shi ) is the third largest city in the northern main island of Hokkaido in Japan and the administrative seat of the Prefecture Oshima.
Hakodate is connected through the Seikan Tunnel to the town Aomori on Honshu, the main island of Japan.
In the vicinity of Hakodate is the HVDC converter station of Hokkaido Honshu.
History
The city is one of the few Japanese settlements on Hokkaido, which did not occur until the 19th century. Already in the 15th century was a fortified trading post at this point.
Hakodate was one of five ports, which at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) were opened to foreign merchant ships.
Hakodate was from December 1868 to June 1869 the capital of the short-lived Republic of Ezo, the only republic on Japanese soil. In the Bay of Hakodate was held from 4th to 10th May 1869 the Battle of Hakodate instead.
On August 11, 1874, the German businessman Consul Ludwig Haber, uncle of Fritz Haber, murdered in a foreign hostile act by a samurai. His grave in Hakodate still exists.
On 11 March 2011, the movement of all trains was canceled after the outbreak of the Tōhoku earthquake. There 2.1m were observed high tsunami waves that inundated the tourist site of Bay area (Japaneseベイ エリア).
Attractions
- Goryōkaku (五 棱 郭), the remains of the first modern forts of Japan, once the seat of government of the Republic of Ezo and now a park with a lookout tower and museum.
- Cape Tachimachi (立 待 岬)
- Mount Hakodate (函馆 山)
- Russian Orthodox church in Hakodate, built in 1861
Twinning
- Canada Halifax, since 1982
- Russia Vladivostok, since 1992
- Russia Yuzhno -Sakhalinsk, since 1997
Traffic
- Hakodate airport
- Train: JR Hakodate Main Line
- JR Esashi Line
- Hakodate- Esashi- highway
- National Road 5
- National roads 227, 228, 278, 279, 280, 338
Sons and daughters of the town
- Ryohei Hirose, composer
- Juran Hisao, writer
- Kamei Katsuichirō, writer
- Okamoto Ippei ( manga artist )
- Mikio Taka (artist)
Adjacent Cities and Towns
- Hokuto
- Nanae
- Shikabe