函館とその周辺

19. Hakodate and its Environs.

Arrival. Steamships customarily proceed up the Bay and draw alongside the pier. The customs officers examine luggage on ships arriving from foreign ports only. The examination is prompt, courteous and lenient.

The Railway Station is near by. That part of the port where the hotels, banks and chief business houses are is about 2 M. southwest.

Red-capped rly. porters similar to those at the chief stations in Japan, help travelers with their luggage. Prices are about double those of Japan proper, but the traveller will not find them excessive.

Autos are available at prices higher than those of Japan proper. As they are subject to change, and generally represent the caprice of the driver, one is recommended to come to an agreement with him before employing him.

Hotels. Gotoken Hotel, semi-foreign, with foreign food, etc. English spoken. Rates from 6 to 12 yen a day, American Plan (room and meals).

Consuls from many nations have offices here. Consult the local directory for addresses.

Hakodate (hah-ko-dah'-tay), a new, flourishing frontierlike city with 21,000 houses and 91,000 inhabs., stands near the southernmost point of Yezo Island, in the province of Oshima, facing the Tsugaru Strait, in E. long. 140° 44' and N. lat. 41° 47' — practically that of Chicago or Rome. It extends for nearly 4 M. along the curving shore of Hakodate Bay and possesses post- and telegraph-offices, a number of schools, a big prison, a marine museum, several foreign churches, a meteorological station, and enough energy to convert it eventually into a much larger and more populous port. It is the financial center of the E. section of the Hokkaido, and its imports and exports run into large figures. The native business quarter clusters near the rly. station (PI. D, 2) and is uninteresting. Not far from it is a small but pretty Public Garden overlooking the sea, while stretching to the right is the attractive foreign settlement backed by a range of lofty fortified hills (forts closed to visitors) referred to collectively as the Peak, and as Hakodate Head. The general situation reminds one of Hongkong or Cape Town; the resemblance to the latter being accentuated by the host of wild flowers which grow in the vicinity. A succession of wide, fairly clean (wind-swept) streets lead up from the bay to the pine groves on the slopes of these hills, and are crossed at right angles by higher and more attractive thoroughfares flanked by substantial dwellings like those of Shanghai. The views from some of these vantage-points are superb, and embrace the city and bay, the Japanese town on

the N. side of the sand-pit, and the lofty mts. of the interior. The groves which gird the hills serve as a sort of Brooklyn for many rascally crows that help the street-cleaning department and are as much in evidence (and just as vociferous) as those of certain towns of British India. Here they foregather at eventide, and before they settle themselves for the night their ill-humored wrangling scandalizes the neighborhood. Wandering Ainu are seen occasionally in Hakodate, usually in the vicinity of the docks. The water-front presents an architectural hodge-podge which represents Japanese, French, German, American, Russian, English, and Chinese ideas of comfort adapted to a winter climate considerably colder than that of Japan proper. Corrugated tin roofs, iron stovepipes encased in square stone collars and projecting through windows to the street, and snow-sleds hanging against the houses underneath the eaves are things one does not see in Honshu. Most of the streets lack sidewalks, and when they are not deep in mud or dust, they are usually covered with snow or ice. Signs placed at intervals throughout the city warn strangers that it lies within the strategic zone and that the War Department will be rude to all and sundry who photograph, sketch, survey, or record impressions of land or sea within a radius of 3500 ken (about 4 M.). The local authorities evidently believe in signs, for they have placed them at many points and have loaded them with 'Don'ts' intended for the commonalty. Those in the park are worth looking at. The newness and mayhap the cosmopolitan character of the Hokkaido has not improved Hakodate's Fourth Estate, which appears to lack the culture and gentleness of true Japanese.

The Public Garden (Pl. C, 4) contains the Court-House (Saibansho), the Public Library (Toshokwan), and a small Fisheries Museum (open from 8 to 4; 2 sen). The Shinto shrines which stand at intervals along the shoulder of the ridge behind the port are interesting only for the fine views obtainable from their elevated situation. The drinking-water (not recommended) is brought (7 M.) from the Akagawa; the waterworks were installed in 1889. — The suburbs offer but little of interest to the stranger; a locally popular resort, Yuno-kawa Hot Springs (Homei Hotel, ¥5), 4½ M. E. of the town (tram-cars every ½ hr., 10 sen), is near the old Goryo-kaku Fort (a relic of Tokugawa times). Between it and the city is the penitentiary and a race-track. The Lakes, to which many go in summer, are mentioned in Rte. 24.

Hakodate Bay (5 by 4 M.), the best in Yezo (with 12-15 fathoms of water), is entered at the W. between Hakodate Head and Katoshi-zaki. When several score ships of different nations anchor below the high peninsula which protects them from the strong winds at the E., the effect is pleasingly

suggestive of Alaska or the Far North. Dense masses of fog often lie over the bay between May and October, and biting winds howl across it from early fall to late spring. During this period snow often lies 4 ft. deep in the Hakodate streets and many sleighs are brought into service. There is a wireless station at Hakodate Head, and a submarine cable (which crosses Tsugaru Strait) at the bottom of the bay (wan). The harbor-works under construction will cost 12 million yen. The shore-front is often fringed with a forest of masts rising from sea-going junks of many classes — the carriers of the thousands of tons of salmon which enter and leave the port each year.

According to the consular reports 500 or more sailing-vessels and steamers leave Hakodate every summer for Kamchatka, Saghalien, and other points in the North Seas, and return with catches valued at approximately 20 million yen. After extracting the roe and shipping it to Russia as true caviar, the Russian merchants sell the rejected fish at almost any price. The value of those thus treated reaches 3 million yen a year.