We could have accomplished those things before we hit the hotel, but railway ticket offices and Black Monsters aren't a good match, so we took the item in question to its overnight lodgings, where we found our room was ready for us. That, at least, took another item out of the equation since there was no need to get back to formally check in.
Downstairs we had a chat to the very helpful gentleman on the front desk, and headed back to the station for tickets and cash replenishment. There were, basically three main items on the agenda, and the discussion at the hotel had done a fair bit to sort them into a workable sequence.
We started with a trip across town to the star shaped fortress at Goryokaku, a relic of the era when Japan was just opening up to contact with the West, built in the last years of the Edo Period to defend Hakodate against imperialist threats from Western powers. Completed in 1864, Goryōkaku was Japan's first European-style fortress, finished just in time for it to be occupied as the headquarters of the secessionist Ezo Republic after Shogunate rebel Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hakodate with the remnants of his navy and his handful of French advisers in 1866. They formally established the Republic of Ezo on Christmas Day and made unsuccessful attempts to gain international recognition through the foreign legations in thecity, but government forces defeated the secessionists in the Battle of Hakodate in 1869 and the city and fort surrendered peacefully. 
Once the fort had lost its military significance, it was turned into a public park, with 1,600 cherry trees were planted round the moats, making it one of Hokkaido's best cherry blossom spots and the best views come from the nearby Goryōkaku Tower though you’re apparently likely to be waiting up to three hours to make the ascent at the height of the sakura season. A hundred metres up looking towards the Former Magistrate Office in the centre of the fort, you can see why.
The area around the castle and tower is a noted eating and drinking area, and we'd picked up two recommendations for lunch. Faced with a choice between curry and ramen the noodles won, largely due to the number of encounters I've had with curry over the past week. Ramen was always going to be Madam's preferred option anyway, so there was an element of diplomacy in there as well.