After crossing to Hakodate, Curzon and I set out on our second day to find some history. After all, Hakodate was one of the first ports opened to American trade under the Treaty of Kanagawa, and has long been associated with foreigners of the Victorian variety.

Of course, they are all dead, but they still get some of the nicest property in town.

This is one of the “foreigner cemeteries” located at the south end of Hakodate, about a kilometer from the nearest tram stop. This area was set aside during the city’s treaty port days as a resting place for all the gaijin wandering around town at the time.

There are several separate plots in this area, each administered by one of the local churches. What you see above is the Protestant cemetery. Orthodox Christians are buried farther up the hill.

That pillar on the right says “Hakodate Church of Harisutosu”—Harisutosu being the Japanese transliteration of the Greek word Χριστός (Christós) or “Christ.”

And the Chinese are right next door, on a plot maintained by the local Chinese temple, carefully walled off to keep nosy foreigners from taking pictures.

While I like the idea of having my final resting place on a hill overlooking the whole city, I think it would be much cooler to actually live there. Unfortunately, looks like the corpses get to have all the fun this time.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Japan, Photography, Travelogue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.