Mt Hakodate

Mt Hakodate (函館山, hakodate-yama) is a 334m mountain that overlooks the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido. Even with its low elevation, it's a rather visible feature of Hakodate. At night you can see its lights up on the summit and if you look closely, the blue and red lights of the ropeway cars making their continuous trips up and down the mountain. Along with the star-shaped Goryokaku fort, the night-time view you can get from the top of Hakodate is one of its top attractions. It's been ranked as one of the best three night-time views in all of Japan, called the "ten million dollar view" (from thea mount of electricity you'd need to power it all). It's beautiful seeing the city stretch out below you, particularly with its rather unique hourglass shape. Mt Hakodate is actually a mountain that can be hiked - expect it to take up to an hour to climb up from the town below. However since we were coming at night, we decided to just stick with the ropeway (1800 yen round trip). If you'd like to…