From the airport, we visited Goryokaku Park, Hakodate's largest cherry blossom viewing spot, via the Trappistine Monastery.
Goryokaku Park, Hakodate's most famous tourist attraction, is a surprisingly distant 15-minute drive from Hakodate Station, although most tourists travel there by tram.
Parking is available at
(1) Hakodate City Art Hall, North Sea Museum, and Hokkaido Hakodate Museum of Art parking lot (next to Goryokaku Tower)
(2) Goryokaku Tourist Parking Lot (next to Goryokaku Park) opposite Hakodate Central Library
Both parking lots cost 200 yen for one hour, and 100 yen for every 30 minutes thereafter.
First, we climbed Goryokaku Tower to view the cherry blossoms from above.
(View from the Goryokaku Tower Observation Deck)
From the observatory, it is possible to see the entire Goryokaku area with the cherry blossoms that you have seen on the news at least once.
In my preliminary image, I thought that someiyoshino cherry trees covered the entire moat of Goryokaku, but in fact there are many cherry trees around Goryokaku Tower and outside the moat of Goryokaku as well.
The cherry trees in Goryokaku were first planted in 1913 by the Hakodate Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, which planted 5,000 cherry tree seedlings in the following three years to commemorate its 10,000th issue.
Later, about 11,300 cherry trees were planted by around 1965, but only about 1,600 remain today.
(From the second floor of Goryokaku Tower)
I took this photo as I was just above the cherry tree when I took the elevator down from the observation deck of Goryokaku Tower.
The petals were white rather than pink, partly due to the cloudy weather.
(Goryokaku Tower and cherry blossoms)
After leaving Goryokaku Tower and entering Goryokaku Park, it is possible to take a commemorative photo with Goryokaku Tower and cherry blossoms in the background from the top of the half-moon barrier.
(Front from the second bridge)
There are fewer cherry trees around the ruins of the gate guard station across the second bridge.
（Hakodate Magistrate's Office and Cherry Trees)
There are no cherry trees around the reconstructed Hakodate Magistrate's Office, so I took this photo on the way to the Hakodate Magistrate's Office from the gate guard station ruins.
There are also cherry trees between the Hakodate Magistrate's Office and the army depot.
(Uramon Bridge area)
There are many cherry trees planted around the Uramon Bridge, the furthest point from Goryokaku Tower (I took a panoramic photo).
Cherry trees are planted around the Hakodate Magistrate's Office, and it would be nice to climb up to the top of the main base to take pictures.
It is possible to view the cherry blossoms outside the moat from the Uramon Bridge.
There were many people viewing the cherry blossoms outside the moat.
The cherry blossoms at Goryokaku are often introduced as a spectacular spot, but since the timing of the blooming coincides with the Golden Week holidays, airline tickets and hotels are difficult to find.
However, the actual cherry blossoms are more impressive in person than in photographs, so I highly recommend that you take the opportunity to visit Goryokaku at least once.
