Breathtaking, simply the most incredible view I ever seen in my life. If you have to choose between day or night, don’t. Just visit twice, it’s only 1800 yen per ticket. Especially if you love taking photos, you will definitively enjoy the whole experience even more.

Ropeway takes about 5 minutes ride to the top, then quickly rush on stairs to the observatory just to get the best viewing spot. ** I went during low season, late September. During the day, simply easy, not many people at all. Night time, much more difficult! I made a mistake arrival at 5pm to Ropeway station, not early enough. Already tons of people secured the front row at observatory, all the way until night time. Few of them left about an hour later so I got to fully experience front row, middle spot after 6pm. Weather gotten colder with some cold winds, as expected in September ** Can’t imagine how crazy crowd it is during Winter season like right now! For me, I prefer less people without seeing snow everywhere.

The view, it’s difficult to describe how beautiful really was in person. A balance of bright sky, mountain, ocean, city, together all in one is just spectacular!

You can pretty much stay at observatory as long as you like, until satisfied. The only difficult part though, night time when you exit. A long, I mean very long line of people waiting for ropeway ride back down. Still, not as bad during September.

If I have a choice to come back again. Yes, I would but it will have to be during day time, clear sky on Winter where I can witness snow all over the city. Yeah, looking forward to be back in Hakodate again!