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Difino
| • | Hakodate (函館市; -shi) is a city and port located in Oshima, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture and the sister city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
As of 2004, the city has an estimated population of 299,737 and the density of 442.24 persons per km². The total area is 677.77 km². Hakodate's size nearly doubled on December 1, 2004 when the neighboring municipalities of Toi, Esan, Todohokke and Minamikayabe were merged into it.
The port of Hakodate was opened to American trade on March 31, 1853 under the conditions of the Treaty of Kanagawa, as negotiated by Commodore Matthew Perry. A mariner of his fleet died during cruising and his body was buried in Hakodate cemetery for foreigners. He was the first U.S. citizen to be buried in Japan. Hakodate was later awarded the status of city on August 1, 1922.
Soon several countries settled their consulates in Hakodate. One of them, the Russian one, had a chapel, from where Eastern Orthodoxy arrived in Japan, now the Japanese Orthodox Church. The Orthodox church is neighbored by several other churches, including Anglican and Catholic.
The city is overlooked by Hakodateyama (Mount Hakodate), a lumpy, totally forested mountain. The summit of the mountain is easily reached by either hiking trail, cable car, or car. The nighttime view from the summit is renowned all over Japan as one of the loveliest sights in the country. An obscure local nickname of the bumpy mountain is Gagyuzan ("Mount Cow's-back"), which alludes to the way the mountain's shape resembles that of a resting bovine.
Hakodate is home to the famous European-style Goryokaku fort, which was built in the shape of a five-pointed star in 1866. During the last pha
Source: [wikipedia: hakodate, hokkaido]
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