What other travelers are saying about Goryokaku Tower
We arrived close to closing time (20 minutes before) and made a quick tour of the observatory deck.
The view in the evening was beautiful, pictures can't capture its full beauty. There's also some history to read about.
Parking (with a fee) is just across the road, but the person in charge did not charge us, probably due to our short visit close to closing time.
I would recommend visiting at least once.
Visited the Goryokaku Tower on a weekday at noon time. There was no queue at the ticketing counter.
The beautiful view of Hakodate welcomes us as the elevator door opens at the observatory level. We had fun walking around the 360 observatory, looking at the picture map indicating the locations we are looking at.
The walls were plastered with pictures, history summary, and miniature displays of the civil war between the Tokugawa soldiers and the pro-Imperial troops during the 1869 period in Hakodate near the Goryokaku fort. So, it was pretty educational & easy to understand.
There is a huge souvenir shop at level 1 of the building. Ice cream shop and restaurants are located at level 2 where you can have a meal or ice cream after walking around the tower before going over to Goryokaku for a stroll.
Overall, it is not just an observatory tower with a 360-degree view, but also a mini-museum with the history of Hakodate. Definitely recommend this place to first-timer visiting Hakodate.
Beautiful fort in the summer, it has the most amazing miniatures I have seen! The attention to detail is truly remarkable. There are spikes on shoes for these rice grain size human figures!
It's interesting to learn about the history of the fort. There are very detailed descriptions of each scenario. It's like mini musuem with superb view!
Goryokaku tower overlooks Goryokaku park and the old fort. The view from up on top shows you the spectacular star shape of the fort and it's moat. During spring, when the cherry blossoms go in full bloom, the star shape becomes white from the cherry blossoms and makes for an awe-inspiring sight
Visited the park 1st May 2024. Just missed the 1st bloom of Sakura by a couple of days but it was still rather spectacular. The tower was very busy as it was Golden week in Japan, 4 public holidays in 1 week. The queue moved quite quickly and we were soon at the top. 360° views with lots of history explained. Well worth the 1000 yen (£5, $6). The park/fort is free. There is a charge to enter the old Magistrate's office, which is a museum, 500 yen. A very enjoyable vusit, especially during Sakura