Ikameshi: How Hakodate Locals Really Eat Japan's Famous Squid Rice

# Ikameshi: How Hakodate Locals Really Eat Japan's Famous Squid Rice

That shrink-wrapped squid-rice souvenir you bought at Sapporo Station? A Hakodate fisherman's wife would laugh at it — then sit you down and show you what ikameshi is actually supposed to taste like.

## The Wartime Fishing Boat Origins Most Tourists Never Hear About

Ikameshi didn't start as a cute regional delicacy. It started because people were hungry and rice was rationed.

During World War II, Hokkaido's fishing communities faced the same brutal rice shortages as the rest of Japan. In the waters around Hakodate and the Oshima Peninsula, squid was one of the few things still abundant. Fishermen's wives — and the fishermen themselves, out on boats for days — figured out that stuffing a small amount of precious rice inside a whole squid and simmering it in soy sauce and mirin accomplished something clever: the squid body acted as a pressure vessel, causing the rice to swell and absorb all that savory cooking liquid. A tiny portion of rice became a filling, protein-rich meal.

The technique wasn't born in a restaurant kitchen. It came from the galley of small squid-jigging boats (いか釣り漁船) operating out of ports like Mori (森町), a small town about 50 kilometers north of Hakodate along Uchiura Bay. Mori-machi is the town most credited with popularizing ikameshi, and its connection to the dish dates back to 1941, when Abeshi Shōten (阿部商店) began making them as provisions.

What most travel blogs skip is the context: this was desperation cooking. The sweetish soy glaze that now defines the dish was originally just the cheapest available seasoning stretched as far as possible. The glutinous rice (もち米) mixed with regular uruchi rice wasn't a texture choice — mochi rice expanded more, meaning you needed less of it.

Knowing this history changes how the dish tastes. That dense, almost aggressively savory chew isn't quaint. It's the flavor of ingenuity under pressure.

**Local secret:** In Mori-machi, older residents still call homemade ikameshi 「船弁」(*funaben* — "boat bento"), a term you'll never see on any souvenir packaging.

## Ekiben Fame vs. the Real Thing: Why Locals Shake Their Heads at the Train Station Box

Ikameshi's national fame comes almost entirely from one thing: the ekiben (駅弁) ranking. Every year, department stores across Japan hold ekiben festivals, and the Mori Station ikameshi from Abeshi Shōten routinely lands in the top rankings. It's become arguably Japan's most famous train station bento, sold at kiosks from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka.

Here's what locals actually think of it: it's fine. It's also a mass-produced, vacuum-sealed product that bears roughly the same relationship to fresh ikameshi as a gas station sandwich bears to your grandmother's cooking.

The ekiben version — typically two small squid in a plastic tray, retailing for around ¥780 to ¥900 — uses a standardized recipe optimized for shelf stability. The soy-mirin glaze is heavier than what you'd find in a home kitchen, because it has to preserve the rice during transport. The squid is cooked long enough to be uniformly tender, which also means it's lost that slight resistance, that faint oceanic sweetness, you get from fresher preparations.

At Mori Station itself, the ekiben sells out fast when the limited batches arrive — there's a small kiosk right on the platform — and honestly, buying one *there* is part of the experience. The issue is when tourists eat one at Tokyo Station and think they've tasted ikameshi.

The bigger problem is portion distortion. Real homemade ikameshi uses larger squid, often the full-sized *maika* (真イカ, Japanese flying squid), resulting in something substantially more generous than those cute little ekiben squid, which are selected specifically for small, uniform size.

**Pro tip:** If you do buy the ekiben at Mori Station, go on a weekday morning. Weekend stock often sells out before noon. The shop is called いかめし阿部商店 and is located right in the JR Mori Station building. Expect to pay ¥790 for the classic two-squid box as of 2024.

## Where Hakodate Residents Actually Go for Ikameshi (Hint: Not the Morning Market)

The Hakodate Morning Market (函館朝市) is wonderful for uni bowls and crab, but it's not where locals go for ikameshi. Most of the ikameshi sold there is either reheated ekiben-style product or a secondary offering at seafood restaurants focused on other things. You'll pay ¥1,000+ for something unremarkable.

Instead, here's where people who actually live in Hakodate eat the real thing:

**Ikkatei Tabiji (一花亭たびじ)** — Yes, this place is technically near the morning market area on Donburi Yokochō, but locals go for the *ika-odori-don* (live squid rice bowl) and also order their ikameshi as a side. Their version uses fresh squid from the Hakodate port tanks, and the rice filling is less aggressively sweet than the ekiben standard. Budget around ¥600-¥800 for ikameshi as a side dish.

**Kodera (小いけ)** and other small izakayas in the Goryōkaku area — This is the real move. Several izakayas in the residential neighborhoods around Goryōkaku and Yachigashira serve homemade ikameshi as a seasonal appetizer (突き出し or お通し), often included in your ¥300-¥500 table charge or available as a single-squid order for ¥500-¥700. Ask: 「いかめしありますか？」("Ikameshi arimasu ka?")

**Home kitchens** — The honest truth is that the best ikameshi in Hakodate is made at home. This is still fundamentally home cooking. If you're staying at a guesthouse or have any local connection whatsoever, expressing interest in homemade ikameshi is one of the fastest ways to get invited to someone's kitchen table.

For a middle ground, try the prepared food section (惣菜コーナー) at **Marukyū Fujiwara (丸久 藤原)** or the local co-op supermarkets. Hand-made ikameshi appears seasonally for ¥400-¥600, and it's closer to the real thing than anything marketed to tourists.

**Local secret:** The izakayas along the backstreets of Matsukaze-chō (松風町) — the slightly worn neighborhood behind the Hakodate station area — often serve the most no-frills, home-style ikameshi. These places rarely appear on English-language websites.

## How to Eat Ikameshi Properly — Cutting Technique, Soy Sauce Debate, and Side Pairings

Watching a tourist bite into a whole ikameshi like it's an apple causes visible pain among Hakodate locals. There's a right way to do this.

**Cutting:** Ikameshi is meant to be sliced into rounds, like a thick sausage. Use chopsticks to hold it steady and a sharp knife to cut cross-sections roughly 2 centimeters thick. At home, people use a slightly wet kitchen knife (dampened with water or a thin coat of cooking oil) to prevent sticking. In restaurants, it'll usually arrive pre-sliced. If it arrives whole, don't be a hero — ask for a knife: 「ナイフをお願いします」("Naifu o onegai shimasu"). Slicing reveals the beautiful cross-section of rice packed tightly inside the squid tube, which is half the aesthetic appeal.

**The soy sauce debate:** This is genuinely controversial in Hakodate households. The traditional stance: properly made ikameshi is already cooked in a soy-mirin-dashi broth, so adding more soy sauce is redundant and suggests the cook's braise was weak. The pragmatic counter-argument: a tiny drop of raw soy sauce on each round adds a fresh, sharp contrast to the deep cooked sweetness. If you're eating in someone's home, err on the side of *not* adding soy sauce until you see what the host does. In an izakaya, nobody cares — do what you want.

**Side pairings locals actually use:** Thinly sliced pickled ginger (紅生姜, not the sushi kind — the red, aggressively vinegary type). A small bowl of miso soup with tofu. Tsukemono pickles — especially Hokkaido's excellent *nishime* (煮しめ) or pickled daikon. And beer. Specifically, Sapporo Classic (サッポロクラシック), the Hokkaido-only Sapporo variant that you cannot buy outside the prefecture.

**Pro tip:** If you see karashi (Japanese hot mustard) alongside ikameshi, use it. A tiny dab on each round is the old-school pairing that most food media completely ignores. It cuts through the sweetness brilliantly.

## Seasonal Timing Matters: Why June Through August Ikameshi Hits Different

You can buy vacuum-packed ikameshi in Hakodate year-round. You can eat it at restaurants in any season. But if you want to understand why this dish matters, come between June and August.

This is *maika* (真イカ) season. The Japanese flying squid migrate into the waters around southern Hokkaido starting in early June, peaking through July and August. This is the squid that defines Hakodate's identity — the same one that lights up the nighttime fishing fleet visible from Cape Esan and the Hakodate ropeway. During peak season, fresh maika is cheap and staggeringly abundant. Supermarkets in Hakodate sell whole fresh squid for as little as ¥100-¥200 per animal. Restaurants cycle through their stock so fast that what you eat was likely swimming that morning.

The flavor difference is unmistakable. Summer maika has a thinner, more tender body wall that absorbs the braising liquid more delicately. The texture is softer, almost silky, compared to the chewier frozen or off-season squid used the rest of the year. The rice inside picks up a cleaner, more oceanic sweetness rather than the slightly flat fishiness that can creep into out-of-season preparations.

Late July through mid-August also coincides with Hakodate's festival season, including the Hakodate Port Festival (函館港まつり) in early August. During this period, street vendors and neighborhood stalls often sell one-off batches of homemade ikameshi for ¥300-¥500 — the absolute closest a visitor can get to the home-cooked experience without an actual invitation.

September brings *koika* (小イカ) — smaller squid that some locals actually prefer for ikameshi because the squid-to-rice ratio shifts toward more squid flavor. But summer maika remains the standard.

**Local secret:** If you're in Hakodate during late June, visit the fishing port area near Iriyama-chō (入舟町) early in the morning. The small boats unloading fresh maika sell directly to locals who show up with coolers. Nobody will mind if you watch. Some will let you buy a bag of squid for almost nothing — perfect if you have kitchen access and want to attempt your own ikameshi following a YouTube tutorial from a Hokkaido grandmother. Search 「いかめし 作り方 本場」 for the real recipes, not the sanitized NHK versions.

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*Getting there: Hakodate is roughly 4 hours from Tokyo via Hokkaido Shinkansen to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station, then a 20-minute local train. Mori-machi is about 45 minutes by JR from Hakodate Station on the Hakodate Main Line. Both are fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass.*