GOTOKEN

It is in the Motomachi district that you will discover this quite amazing hotel-restaurant whose history remains edifying. In 1870, during the Commune, Kawai Junnosuke taught the profession of cook in Paris with his wife. He dreamed of returning to Japan and settling in Hakodate, because the city seemed to be the most suitable for the opening of a French restaurant in a very westernized world. He dreamed of calling his restaurant Sekkatei, the meeting of his name and that of his wife, which also meant a snowy day where a river flows. He died in Paris, but twenty years later his wife and son would realize his desire. This luxury restaurant is surprisingly inexpensive and has lounges with French furniture, engravings of Paris, etc. But what Strikes Most is the collection of paintings from different periods, especially a 1934 Art Deco stained glass stained glass window. A small museum houses prints. At present, the restaurant is headed by Mr. Wakayama who continues to enrich the collection.