28 and 29 May 2029
On both mornings of our stay in Hakodate, we had fresh seafood breakfast in the Hakodate Morning Market. The Hakodate Morning Market is held daily from 5 AM to 2 PM and is an excellent place to enjoy various types of fresh seafood, such as live crabs (kani), salmon eggs (ikura) and sea urchin (uni), as well as fresh produce such as the famous Hokkaido melons.
It was easy for us to get to the market since it is just a few steps from our hotel located on top of the JR Hakodate Station.
The market area spans about four city blocks. On the first day of our visit, we had plenty of time to spare. So we wandered, explored and check out some of the produce on sale before getting our breakfast.
Hakodate is known as the "Squid Capital of Japan" and there were plenty of squid pictures and motifs everywhere.
We saw one stall offered visitors a squid fishing experience where you could try to hook some live squid swimming in a large tank. I find this very gimmicky, so we just stood and observed others. Once caught, the poor squid is quickly sliced into katsu-ika (live squid sashimi) served with ginger soy sauce.
We loved dried cuttlefish or squid, not squid sashimi. We figured that Hakodate would be a good place to buy some to bring home. The ladies manning the dried seafood stalls were very friendly and enthused. They keep stuffing our hands with samples to try. Even before we finished chewing and savouring the first sample, she offered us another. No obligation to buy, just taste and see if you like. We were told the products were freshly made and could be kept for about 2 weeks.
Their effort paid off as we bought bags of dried scallops and dried squid of various types. Total damage was 6480 JPY! I must say, the products were very tasty and irresistible.
Some stalls were selling frozen, pre-packed seafood. These were targeted at locals or local tourists.
After exploring almost the entire market, it was time for our breakfast. I was looking forward to eating Hokkaido’s live King Crab again. Hokkaido boasts 4 types of crabs; the Horsehair crab, Snow crab, Hanasaki crab and the King crab. The King crab is the most expensive and is the undisputed king of seafood so it was worth to splurge a little to enjoy this delicacy while in Hokkaido.
Frozen hairy crabs and live squids.
There are many stalls offering live crabs and other live seafood, so it pays to shop around and compare prices.
The live crabs were sold based on their weight and the king crab can grow up to a few kilograms in size. We wanted a smaller crab since it was just the two of us and the smaller crabs were also cheaper in terms if price per kg.
The first store that we enquired quoted 17,000 JPY per kg for a small live King Crab. The seller then dropped the price to 13,000 JPY per kg when we walked away. Trying to retain us, he brought us to another shop to show us a half dead (or dead crab) with missing legs for 8000 JPY per kg.
We did not get good feelings from this seller so we decided to go to another.
We bought our breakfast from this store.
We found a nice lady who quoted us 10000 JPY per kg for small live King crab. She chose a small King crab that weighed 1.68 kg for us. She then gave us slight discount offering us the crab for 16,000 JPY which we accepted.
The price includes free cooking. She offered to cook the crab in two ways (half of the crab to be grilled and the other half boiled). We told her we prefer to have the entire crab boiled. From previous experience in Otaru, we prefer the texture of the boiled crab over the grilled crab which was sweeter but a little drier after cooking.
The crab took 30 minutes to prepare. The seller made and served free hot macha green tea while we waited.
The macha green tea was free and refillable.
The cooked crab was expertly cut and presented. It was very easy for us to eat without getting pricked by the thorny shells.
The best and sweetest parts of the king crab were the long legs.
The chef expertly cut the cooked crabs so it was very easy for us to eat without getting pricked by the thorny shells.
The store also sells donburi and other fresh seafood. We saw that the store’s menu offered fatty bluefin tuna sashimi. Tuna sashimi is a “must try” food while visiting Japan. It would be difficult to find similar quality fresh tuna sashimi back home, even at a much higher price than we are paying in Japan.
We ordered the chutoro which is the medium fatty tuna. It was good but not great. Not as good as the chutoro we had in the Maguro Koya restaurant in Nara, where we had our first taste.
After our fishy breakfast, we returned to the market square to buy some Hokkaido melons for dessert. Hokkaido melons are Japan's most prized fruit, celebrated for their intense floral aroma and melt-in-the-mouth, juicy texture. The most sought after is the Yubari melon, painstaking grown in greenhouses by farmers in the town of Yubari.
The famous Yubari melons cost 700 JPY per slice while the “normal” Hokkaido melon cost 500 JPY. We tried both. 
The Yubari melon is slightly sweeter and tastier although both were juicy and sweet.
Our second visit to the Hakodate Morning Market was on the day that we drive to Lake Toya. Unlike the first day, we wanted a quick and fast breakfast before checking out from our hotel.
There are several stores selling seafood sashimi rice bowls in the food court area of the market. There are tables and chairs in a very clean environment and we saw many locals eating at this place.
We ordered the sashimi rice bowls from the Araki store. We could choose any mixture of seafood sashimi as toppings to our rice bowl. For us the best toppings were the ones that are hard to get back home. i.e. sea-urchin (uni), salmon eggs (ikura) and crab.
This stall also offered grilled squid!
Grilled squid for 880 JPY.
Overall, this stall offered value-for-money fresh seafood rice bowls.
We had Yubari melon again for dessert before leaving the market.
Yubari melon for dessert.
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