Choosing the right transportation can make exploring Hakodate and Hokkaido much easier and more affordable.

For Long Distances: The JR Hokkaido Rail Pass
For longer journeys, the JR Hokkaido Rail Pass is a great option. Available in 5- and 7-day versions, it offers unlimited travel on JR Hokkaido trains, including Limited Express services. If you're planning trips to destinations like Sapporo or Noboribetsu, the pass can quickly pay for itself.

For Rural Exploring: Renting a Car
For exploring beyond the city, renting a car is often the best choice. Popular spots such as Onuma Quasi-National Park, the Esan area, and Mizunashi Kaihin Onsen are easier to reach by car than by public transportation.

For Central Hakodate: Stick to Public Transit
If you're staying in central Hakodate around the Motomachi district, Hakodate Morning Market, and the Bay Area, public transit is usually the better option. The city's tram (streetcar) system is fast, convenient, and often more practical than driving and paying for city-center parking.

Hakodate West District Bar Street returns for its 40th edition in September, turning the historic streets at the foot of Mt. Hakodate into a citywide tasting route. The festival received the Suntory Regional Culture Award in 2019, and features 56 restaurants for Fall 2026, including French, Italian, Japanese, cafe, bar, and hotel restaurants, as well as guest participants from Imakane and Hirosaki. A five-ticket booklet comes with a map, and each ticket can be exchanged at a participating restaurant for its special pinchos dish and one drink.

The food crawl is accompanied by programs around the district, including wine and prosciutto service, flamenco, and the Kimono de Bar project. There’s also a special return tram and bus for the evening (free for ticket booklet holders), which is useful for visitors staying away from the western district.

Kanemori Train Festival 9 fills Kanemori Hall with railway models and large-scale layouts over the September holiday weekend. Popular Plarail builder Petazou will construct a five-meter-wide, two-meter-high Plarail layout with a tunnel that visitors can look up into from underneath. Train builder Sekiyama will also bring an L-gauge block railway diorama, where original train models run through a large landscape built from blocks, while local N-gauge enthusiasts contribute additional dioramas.

Tsugaru Railway mascot Tsutecchi is scheduled to appear during the festival. A separate Popondetta train goods store opens in BAY Hakodate BAY Gallery from September 18 to 21 with original and railway-themed merchandise. The exhibition itself runs September 19 to 21, and three-day passes are available for visitors who want to return across the full weekend.

Gourmet Wonder Park Hakodate returns in September as one of the city’s largest fall food events. Hakodate Green Plaza and the surrounding downtown area become a two-day food park built around products and dishes from Hakodate and southern Hokkaido, with the event also used to introduce specialties and tourism from other participating regions.

The 2026 event runs from 10 AM to 5 PM on Saturday and 10 AM to 4 PM on Sunday. Admission to the grounds is free, with food and drinks purchased separately from participating booths. The official event site is continuing to update the detailed vendor and stage lineup, so the final restaurant list may expand further before opening weekend.

After a pause in regular service, the vintage Hakodate Haikara-go tram returned in 2026 with a restored streetcar based on the vehicle originally built in 1910, later reconstructed with wooden interiors, rattan hanging straps, open decks, and the old-fashioned rescue net at the front and rear. The restored tram runs on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays through October 12 as a fully reservation-based sightseeing ride.

All rides are reservation based through the DohNa web app, with credit card payment and a smartphone ticket. Four services operate on each running day, covering two round trips between Goryokaku-koen-mae and Hakodate Dock-mae with stops at Matsukazecho, Hakodate-ekimae, Jujigai, and Suehirocho. Capacity is limited, so passengers have seats, making the ride a sightseeing experience in its own right as the car passes through the city’s major historic and waterfront districts.

The Donan regional tournament of the YOSAKOI Soran Festival brings roughly 25 teams from Hokkaido and beyond to the plaza and streets outside Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station on September 6. YOSAKOI Soran began in 1992 by combining the naruko clappers of Kochi’s Yosakoi Festival with Hokkaido’s Soran folk song, and the Donan event brings that format south with large group choreography, colorful costumes, and performances by teams that also appear at the main Sapporo festival.

For 2026, the prefectural road in front of the station will be closed for a grand street parade in addition to the stage programs. The venue is immediately outside Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station and viewing is free.

The reconstructed Hakodate Magistrate’s Office inside Goryokaku holds its seasonal “Enjoy Autumn” program on September 19. The 2026 event is specifically themed around appreciating flowers and tea, placing the program inside the tatami rooms and formal architecture of one of Hakodate’s major historical sites. Detailed info is still TBD at the time of writing, so please check the city’s current annual calendar and the Magistrate’s Office announcements for updates.

Hakodate City Museum of Northern Peoples holds a two-day Ainu craft course devoted to making an emushiat, the woven strap used to hold an Ainu sword. Instructor Reiko Kawagishi joins the museum as an Ainu cultural activities advisor dispatched by the Foundation for Ainu Culture, guiding participants through the traditional braiding techniques used to construct the strap.

The course is designed as a continuous program, so applicants must be able to attend both sessions. Once the basic technique is learned, the same braiding principles can also be applied to original craft pieces. Capacity is limited to 20 participants, with selection by lottery if applications exceed the limit.

IRONMAN Japan South Hokkaido returns on September 13 with a full-distance triathlon covering 226 kilometers across southern Hokkaido. The race begins with a 3.8 km swim in the Tsugaru Strait from the west side of Kamiiso Fishing Port, continues with a 180 km bike course over the Hakodate-Esashi Expressway, and concludes with a 42.2 km run through Kikonai.

Race week also brings related programs to Hakodate before competitors move to the Hokuto and Kikonai race course. The rolling swim start begins at 6:30 AM, and the full-distance format means activity continues well into the evening. Spectators should check the official race schedule and traffic information to choose viewing areas and avoid entering restricted course sections.

Mt. Komagatake remains open for regulated autumn hiking through October 31, with access currently limited to the Akai River Trail as far as Umanose. The mountain gives visitors a direct look at southern Hokkaido’s volcanic landscape, with views of Onuma when the weather is clear.

Hikers are required to submit the entry form at the 6th Station trailhead before starting, including a contact phone number, and are requested to plan their day to return to the parking area by 3 PM. The official notice also recommends protective equipment such as a helmet, mask, and goggles, as there is no shelter beyond the trailhead.

Caution!
Because the mountain is an active volcano at alert level 1, the rope beyond Umanose marks the end of the permitted route, and hikers must not continue toward the crater past that point. If the volcanic alert is raised to level 2, the access gate will be closed.

Japan has also recently experienced an increase in bear encounters out in the wild, so we highly recommend taking extra precautions like checking Kuma Map for bear activity in your destination, and carrying bear spray as a safety measure.

DRUM TAO brings its 2026 Super Live tour to Hokuto on September 7 for a 90-minute stage production centered on Japanese taiko. The company describes its performance style as “THE Japanese Entertainment,” combining powerful ensemble drumming with choreography and theatrical staging. DRUM TAO has performed for audiences around the world and appeared at the Osaka-Kansai Expo before bringing the current tour to southern Hokkaido.

Hakodate Keirin is Hokkaido’s only keirin venue and the northernmost keirin track in Japan. Through early autumn, the venue holds race days, with night racing as part of the schedule, making it a great evening option for travelers looking for a live sports event they can enjoy after a day of sightseeing. General admission is free, with paid seating available for a more comfortable view. A free shuttle bus from Hakodate Station is also scheduled on Hakodate race days.

Pianist Shinya Kiyozuka comes to Hakodate with members of the NHK Symphony Orchestra for the Colorful Music Tour 2026 on September 20. The concert places Kiyozuka’s piano at the center of an ensemble drawn from one of Japan’s leading orchestras, with the full performance held in the 1,300-seat main hall of Hakodate Salmon Marunama Hall.

Tickets are fully reserved, with S seats at 8,800 yen, A seats at 8,000 yen, and wheelchair seating at 4,000 yen. The concert begins at 3 PM after doors open at 2:15 PM, and preschool children are not admitted.

teamLab’s Learn and Play! Future Park remains at the Hokkaido Hakodate Museum of Art through September, with interactive digital installations built around drawing, movement, touch, and creation. In Sketch Aquarium: Connected World, visitors draw sea creatures that are scanned into a projected aquarium, where the individual drawings begin moving through the same shared digital environment.

Hakodate Airport Festa ’26 takes over the terminal on September 5 with an aviation program including performances by local school groups and the Hakodate Fire Brigade Band, a police dog demonstration, an intro to Hokkaido Ballpark F Village, and a Fighters Girl performance.

Hands-on and exhibition areas include cabin attendant and Japan Coast Guard uniform photo opps and airline merch sales. Some limited programs required advance reservations, but the general festivities are open to daytime visitors. Participants can also use airport parking free on the day of the festival.

Hello, Otei-san introduces Matsumae-born calligrapher Kaneko Otei through a memorial room exhibition that centers on works showing how he transformed contemporary Japanese language and poetry into visual compositions, bringing modern text into a field long associated with classical models.

A featured work is Otei’s 1958 calligraphy of Yamamura Bocho’s poem Landscape, Pure Silver Mosaic, owned by Hakodate City and entrusted to the museum. The exhibition ends September 23, which is also the museum’s anniversary day and a free-admission day for this display.

Hakodate City Museum’s one-square-meter museum project gives visitors something unusual for a sword exhibition: a replica of the Hokkaido designated cultural property Sword Inscribed Minamoto no Masao that can actually be handled. The replica was produced with citizen participation through the museum’s Innovate MUSEUM “Expression and Creation” project, allowing visitors to experience the form and scale of the object without risking the original.

An accompanying Exploration DESK uses drawers and display materials to introduce the historical background of the sword and the information connected with it. The hands-on display continues through March 31, 2027, so it remains available throughout the fall even after the museum changes to shorter winter hours in November.

Hakodate Salmon Marunama Arena fills both its main and sub arenas with large inflatable attractions for a two-day Halloween event on October 31 and November 1. The event is designed for children from age two through elementary school, with attractions assigned point values and two main ways to play: a limited unlimited-play passport or point tickets that can be spent across individual inflatables.

The advance-only Fuwafuwa Passport costs 2,300 yen and is limited to 350 children per day, covering unlimited play on attractions costing up to five points. A 10-point ticket costs 1,200 yen in advance or 1,500 yen on the day, while single points are 150 yen. Children arriving with at least one Halloween costume item receive a free three-point ticket once, and accompanying parents can buy a 1,000-yen same-day companion passport.

Hakodate MOMI-G Festa lights the autumn foliage of Kosetsuen in Miharashi Park from October 16 through November 8. The garden began as the Iwafune family’s villa landscape in the 1890s and covers about 13.3 hectares, with a brick greenhouse, Japanese-style pavilion, and around 150 species of trees. Its roughly 100-meter maple avenue becomes the centerpiece as the leaves turn red and gold.

The 2026 illumination runs from 4 PM to 9 PM each evening. Hakodate’s seasonal tourism program also lists activities connected with the foliage period, including colored lighting around the garden, a kimono fashion and dressing program, matcha and handmade craft experiences, and a stamp rally linked with the Hokuto Autumn Leaves Corridor. Admission to the garden and illumination is free.

October brings the final operating days of Hakodate’s restored Haikara-go streetcar, with weekend and holiday services continuing through October 12. The car recreates the atmosphere of an earlier generation of city transport through its wooden interior, rattan straps, open decks, conductor service, and period-style exterior details while still running on the modern Hakodate tram network.

Four reserved services operate on each running day between Goryokaku-koen-mae and Hakodate Dock-mae, passing Hakodate Station, Jujigai, Suehirocho, and other sightseeing districts. Reservations are made through the DohNa web app, and capacity is managed so everyone has a seat. The October holiday weekend is the final chance to ride before the 2026 sightseeing season ends.

Hakodate Eco Festa moves to Grandir Ichii for two days on October 3 and 4, filling the venue with booths built around seeing, trying, and learning about environmental action. The program ranges from a waste-sorting game, food-loss and food-drive activities, recycled-product quizzes, scrap-fabric art, blue-carbon displays, and electric-vehicle exhibits to collection points for used plastic writing tools, small rechargeable batteries, and clothing.

Hands-on programs change across the weekend. October 3 includes sea-glass herbarium making, while October 4 adds a hand-crank generator model-train activity. Visitors can also complete an eco stamp rally for a limited souvenir, and six refurbished bicycles are displayed for a free lottery, with three adult and three children’s bicycles available. The festival runs from 10 AM to 3 PM on both days.

Hakodate Jomon Festival 2026
Hakodate Jomon Festival 2026 is held on October 11 at the Kakinoshima Site, part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. Holding the festival directly at the archaeological site places the city’s Jomon heritage program in the landscape where people lived for thousands of years, with the Hakodate Jomon Culture Center nearby.

Hakodate City has confirmed the October 11 date, a 10:30 AM start, and the Kakinoshima venue. The final activity lineup and participation charges had not yet been released in the city’s current event calendar at the time of writing, so visitors should use the current city or Jomon Center notice once the detailed program is posted.

Jomon Pottery Firing Experience
Hakodate’s Jomon craft program also returns on October 18 for an outdoor pottery-firing experience. The program uses the Jomon Plaza at the World Heritage archaeological site, connecting hands-on making with the place where Jomon communities lived along the southern Hokkaido coast.

The city’s 2026 calendar confirms a 10 AM start at the Kakinoshima Site Jomon Plaza. The final participation fee and registration conditions were not yet included in the current annual calendar as of publication, so anyone planning to take part should confirm the detailed Jomon Culture Exchange Center notice before the event date.

Hakodate City Museum of Northern Peoples follows its September braiding course with an Ainu pattern woodcarving class on October 24 and 25. A traditional craft artist dispatched through the Foundation for Ainu Culture teaches the carving techniques and decorative patterns used in Ainu woodwork, giving participants direct practice with the design vocabulary represented in the museum collection.

Participants choose either Saturday or Sunday instead of attending both days. Each session runs from 10 AM to 4 PM and is limited to 10 people, with registration accepted from September 24 by phone or email on a first-come basis. The only participation charge is the approximate 1,000-yen materials cost.

Sports, Spectator, and Outdoors

THE BOOSTER ROCK FES. 2026 brings a full outdoor rock lineup to Hakodate’s Green Island on October 10. The announced artists are Survive Said The Prophet, TOTALFAT, FLOW, Blue Mash, Young Skinny, and ALI, with the harbor-side venue opening at 10 AM and live music beginning at 11 AM.

The festival has a long route to this first Green Island edition. An arena event planned for 2020 was canceled during the COVID period, the project restarted with a smaller festival in Nanae in 2023, and the organizing committee has continued building toward a larger outdoor Hakodate event. The 2026 program is scheduled to run until 7:30 PM, with separate general and student ticket categories and free admission categories for younger children listed on the official ticket page.

The 2026 Donan Ekiden turns Hakodate’s Toi district into a four-leg road relay on October 18. Teams start and finish at Hakodate Toi Gakuen and cover 11.42 kilometers in total, with legs of 2.74, 3.15, 2.48, and 3.05 kilometers. The course uses the Route 278 Koyasu Bypass and coastal roads, giving runners views toward the Tsugaru Strait and Shimokita Peninsula along parts of the route.

The event accepts up to 120 teams across school-age and general categories. Team entry costs 4,000 yen for youth categories and 6,000 yen for high school and adult categories. Organizers are also planning the event’s signature octopus curry at the venue, adding a local Toi food element around the finish area.

Kaneko Otei and the Future of Calligraphy
The Hokkaido Hakodate Museum of Art marks two anniversaries at once with Kaneko Otei and the Future of Calligraphy: the museum’s 40th year and the 120th anniversary of Otei’s birth. Born in Matsumae in 1906, Otei became a major figure in modern Japanese calligraphy and helped develop forms of poetic-text calligraphy that brought contemporary language into large visual compositions.

The exhibition draws on the Hakodate museum’s extensive Otei holdings together with selected works connected with the Sogen calligraphy circle, using Otei’s career as a starting point for looking at how modern calligraphy developed and where the art form can go next.

Artists from Southern Hokkaido Season 2, Part 3: Yasuda Yuko
The third exhibition in the museum’s Artists from Southern Hokkaido Season 2 series focuses on Hakodate-based painter Yasuda Yuko. The series highlights artists working in southern Hokkaido, and Yasuda’s installment introduces her painting through works including the 2025 piece Chronicle of the Sky, held in the artist’s own collection.

Goryokaku Tower’s free Ueki Soketsu Gallery changes to an autumn theme through November 13. Hakodate-born artist Ueki Soketsu is known for his expressive kappa figures, and the 2026 fall selection gathers 14 works showing the river creatures eating and drinking under the provisional title Harvest Autumn, Appetite Autumn: Drinking and Feasting Kappa.

The display looks at the more refined and season-conscious side of Soketsu’s kappa imagery through scenes of food and drink. A separate case also introduces his haiku, reflecting the fact that Soketsu worked as both an artist and poet. The gallery is inside Goryokaku Tower and can be viewed free of charge during regular tower hours.

Hakodate City Museum’s hands-on Minamoto no Masao display continues through October with a touchable replica of the Hokkaido designated cultural property sword. The replica was made with citizen participation through the museum’s Innovate MUSEUM project, giving visitors a way to handle the sword’s form and scale while the original remains protected.

The nearby Exploration DESK adds historical background through materials hidden inside drawers, turning the compact one-square-meter display into a small research station as well as an object display. October still uses the museum’s 9 AM to 4:30 PM opening schedule before winter hours begin in November.

November 1 is the second and final day of Hakodate Salmon Marunama Arena’s Fuwafuwa Adventure Tour Halloween Party. Children from age two through elementary school can move between the large inflatable attractions in the main and sub arenas using either the limited unlimited-play passport or point tickets. Children wearing at least one Halloween costume item receive a free three-point ticket once, while accompanying parents can purchase the 1,000-yen companion passport at the venue.

November brings the final eight days of Hakodate MOMI-G Festa at Kosetsuen, with the illumination continuing nightly through November 8. By this point, the maple avenue and the garden’s many maples, ginkgo, enkianthus, and cherry trees are moving through their late-autumn colors, with fallen leaves adding more layers of color to the paths.

Kosetsuen is Hokkaido’s only garden designated nationally as a cultural property, and the illumination uses the historic landscape as the setting for the event. Admission remains free through the final night, so November visitors can see both the daytime garden and the illuminated foliage in the same visit.

The Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward holds a wine course on Culture Day, November 3, beginning at 2 PM. The city’s annual event calendar confirms the program inside the restored Meiji-era public hall in Motomachi, adding a scheduled lecture-style event to one of Hakodate’s most recognizable historic interiors.

The detailed wine theme, capacity, reservation method, and participation fee had not yet been posted in the current city calendar as of August 27. Visitors specifically interested in joining should confirm the Public Hall’s event notice once registration information is released.

The Minamikayabe Regional Cultural Festival reaches its 60th edition on November 7 and 8 at the Minamikayabe General Center. The two-day program is part of the city’s official November cultural calendar and brings the district’s annual cultural activities together in the same area as Hakodate’s major Jomon heritage sites on the eastern coast.

Both days are scheduled to begin at 9 AM. Hakodate City had confirmed the dates and venue but had not yet published the detailed 60th-anniversary stage, exhibition, or participation program as of August 27, so the city calendar remains the current reference until the district office releases its full schedule.

The Toi District Cultural Festival separates its 2026 program into live stage performances and a multi-day exhibition at Toi Western General Center. The performing-arts section begins at 10 AM on November 7, while the exhibition section opens at noon the same day and continues through November 9.

The split format gives the festival a longer run than the stage program alone, with visitors able to see the exhibition across three days even if they miss Saturday’s performances. The city has confirmed the dates, start times, and venue; the detailed list of participating groups and exhibits had not yet been published as of August 27.

Hakodate Jomon Culture Center holds the second installment of its 2026 Jomon making series on November 8, this time focusing on stone arrowheads made from obsidian. The material was an important resource for cutting tools and projectile points in prehistoric northern Japan, and the workshop brings that technology into a supervised hands-on activity at the city’s Jomon interpretation center.

Enka singer Kohei Fukuda brings his 2026 concert tour to Hakodate Salmon Marunama Hall on November 10 with two performances in one day. The afternoon show begins at 1:30 PM and the evening show at 6 PM, giving audiences a choice of times without changing venue or program day. All tickets are priced at 8,000 yen, and doors open 30 minutes before each performance. The concerts use the hall’s main auditorium, and the current venue ticket page lists the Hakodate date as part of the fall performance schedule.

Anpanman comes to Hakodate Salmon Marunama Hall on November 23 for two live musical performances built for young children and families. Protect the Golden Flame brings the familiar characters onto the main-hall stage in a full musical production, with separate noon and 3 PM performances so families can choose the time that best fits their day.

All reserved seats are 3,600 yen. Children age three and up require a ticket, while one child age two or under may sit on a guardian’s lap for free; a separate ticket is required if that child needs a seat. The organizer also notes that same-day tickets will not be sold if the advance allocation sells out.

Hakodate Art Festival returns from November 12 to 15 under the 2026 theme Sky Patterns. The Foundation for Culture and Sports Promotion in Hakodate has confirmed the four-day dates and Hakodate Salmon Marunama Hall as the venue, continuing the city’s annual open art-festival program into the late-fall indoor season.

The detailed 2026 exhibition layout, participating works, daily opening times, and admission information had not yet been released by the Foundation as of August 27. Visitors planning specifically around the festival should use the Foundation’s current topics page for the final schedule once the full program is posted.

Kaneko Otei and the Future of Calligraphy
The Kaneko Otei anniversary exhibition continues through November at the Hokkaido Hakodate Museum of Art, tracing the Matsumae-born calligrapher’s role in modern Japanese calligraphy through the museum’s collection and related works. November also adds several curator programs for visitors who want more context around Otei’s work and the development of modern poetic text calligraphy.

A short curator highlights talk is scheduled for November 21 (11–11:20 AM) in the auditorium, free to attend with an exhibition ticket and limited to the first 80 people. The museum also lists a gallery tour on November 28.

Artists from Southern Hokkaido Season 2, Part 3: Yasuda Yuko
Hakodate-based painter Yasuda Yuko’s exhibition remains open throughout November as the third installment of the museum’s Artists from Southern Hokkaido series. The display introduces Yasuda through works including the 2025 painting Chronicle of the Sky and places a currently active southern Hokkaido artist alongside the museum’s larger Kaneko Otei anniversary exhibition. The exhibition is also free to view during the museum’s Art Week (November 1–7). Outside the free week, regular admission applies.

November 13 is the final day of Goryokaku Tower’s autumn Ueki Soketsu Gallery selection. The free display gathers 14 works by the Hakodate-born artist under a food-and-drink theme, showing Soketsu’s familiar kappa figures eating, drinking, and taking on a distinctly autumnal appetite.

A separate display case introduces Soketsu’s haiku and draws attention to his work as a poet as well as a painter. Because the gallery sits inside Goryokaku Tower, visitors can see the exhibition without an additional gallery charge during the tower’s regular 9 AM to 6 PM opening hours.

Hakodate City Museum’s hands-on Minamoto no Masao display continues through November with a touchable replica of the Hokkaido designated cultural property sword. The replica was made with citizen participation through the museum’s Innovate MUSEUM project, giving visitors a way to handle the sword’s form and scale while the original remains protected.

Hakodate’s fall calendar includes September food events and foliage, October Halloween activities and exhibitions, and November illuminated gardens and family-friendly performances, including some exhibitions that continue all through the winter. With events spread from central Hakodate to surrounding towns, the three-month season offers plenty to consider adding to any fall in Hakodate itinerary!