Hakodate

As luck would have it the cable car was out of service (and literally thousands of raucous crows coming in to spend the night roosting on the inactive wires).
So we caught the service bus in early evening to take us up the long twisty road to the observation platform on top of Mount Hakodate, to join the multitude and overlook the city and port.
We are in the Province of Oshima, Hokkaido, and its capital city.
This is widely rated (it is claimed) third most spectacular city at night in the world (after Hong Kong and Naples).
It certainly looks it! - despite the fact that this was a slightly cloudy and drizzly nightfall.
As of July 31, 2011, Hakodate had a population of 285,000, and was third biggest on Hokkaido after Sapporo and Asahikawa.
This was also the first city in Japan to have its port opened, in 1854, to foreign trade.
It used to be the most important port in northern Japan, as well as the biggest on Hokkaido before the devastating Great Hakodate Fire in 1934.
The city was also the scene of the final bombing and battle of WWII.