The history of the Hakodate Morning Market started in postwar years when food was scarce and farmers from the countryside began to sell vegetables in the city. An illegal black market started outside Hakodate Station near the ferry dock, and fishmongers and rice peddlers went back and forth between Hokkaido and Aomori. Afterward the market became the “kitchen” of the city, selling foodstuffs like rice to items like melons and crab. The market sells vegetables picked fresh that morning, laid right on the ground for sale. The market boasts around 250 stalls as well as “donburi lane,” where visitors pile bowls of rice high with fresh seafood called “seafood rice bowl.”

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