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Rokkatei Art Village (Nakasatsunai Bijutsu Village)

Rokkatei Art Village (Nakasatsunai Bijutsu Village) is a serene cultural park operated by Rokkatei, Hokkaido's beloved confectionery brand, where multiple art museums are scattered among the forest. Spread across roughly 145,000 square meters, the grounds include distinctive museums such as the Aihara Kyuichiro Museum and the Koizumi Junsaku Museum, letting visitors enjoy art while strolling through birch woods. The adjoining Rokka no Mori forest features elm trees over a century old, and this fusion of art and nature across the seasons makes it a highlight of any adult getaway to Obihiro and Tokachi.

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Urahoro Town

Urahoro Town sits at the eastern edge of the Tokachi region on the Pacific coast of Hokkaido — a small, nature-rich town where the wide sandy beaches of Tokachibutu meet the open Pacific Ocean. Urahoro Forest Park, selected as one of Japan's 100 Urban Parks, is a verdant park offering auto-camping, heated swimming pools, and sports facilities ideal for families. In recent years, Urahoro has attracted attention for its sturgeon (Chozame) aquaculture initiative — an effort to cultivate this once-native 'phantom fish' of the Tokachi River as a premium local food brand. Agriculture and dairy farming are also central to...

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Otoineppu Village

Otoineppu Village, a tiny community of around 600 residents in the Teshio district of northern Hokkaido, is one of the smallest municipalities in Hokkaido. Its greatest attraction is 'Otoineppu Soba' — a black buckwheat noodle made by grinding the entire buckwheat grain, outer hull and all, with stone millstones using heirloom varieties. The resulting jet-black noodle has an intense fragrance and rich depth of flavor, and was beloved by travelers as the legendary 'station soba' served at JR Otoineppu Station for generations. After a period of closure, a new craftsperson revived the tradition in 2025, making a visit here a...

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Shiranuka Town

Shiranuka Town, in the Shiranuka district of eastern Hokkaido, is home to Lake Shiraltoro — a coastal brackish lake beloved as a seasonal gathering place for whooper and tundra swans during migration. The area has deep roots in Ainu culture, with many Ainu-derived place names, and the 'Shiranuka Ainu Culture Global Dissemination' initiative is actively sharing this heritage with the world. 'Michi-no-Eki Shiranuka Koitoi' roadside station, adjacent to Koitoi Fishing Port, is a favorite stop for fresh local seafood — surf clams (hokki-gai), atka mackerel (socheya karrei), and shishamo smelt among them. Conveniently located on the Dohigashi Expressway between Kushiro...

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Hokkaido

Betsukai Town

Betsukai Town, in the Nemuro Sub-prefecture of eastern Hokkaido, is home to the Notsuke Peninsula — Japan's longest sand spit at approximately 28 km, curling into the sea from the coast like a dragon's tail. Notsuke Bay, a Ramsar-registered wetland within the peninsula, shelters a rare and fragile ecosystem; the haunting forest of dead standing trees known as 'Todowara' and 'Narawara' is one of eastern Hokkaido's most surreal landscapes. In winter (January to March), Notsuke Bay freezes completely, creating the legendary 'Ice Horizon' (Koori Heisen) — an endless, white, flat expanse stretching to the horizon where ice walking tours and...

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Kottaro Wetland

Kottaro Wetland, within Kushiro Wetland National Park, is one of the most pristine and untouched sections of Japan's largest marshland. The observation deck reveals an endless panorama of marshland and meandering rivers stretching to the horizon, and visitors may spot red-crowned cranes (tancho), Ezo deer, and red foxes in the wild. With scenery virtually untouched by human hands, Kottaro offers some of the clearest, quietest views in the entire Kushiro Wetland — an iconic vista of eastern Hokkaido's grand nature.

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Takikawa City

Takikawa City, in the Sorachi region of central Hokkaido, is home to one of Hokkaido's most celebrated rapeseed flower landscapes and Japan's largest gliding airfield. Each year from late May to early June, 180 hectares of rapeseed fields turn the city into a vast yellow carpet for the 'Takikawa Nanohana Festival,' attracting huge crowds from across Hokkaido and beyond. Takikawa is also renowned as Japan's premier gliding city — the 'Takikawa Aviation Glider Competition' is a major annual event, and visitor gliding experience flights are available. Rich agricultural produce nurtured by the Ishikari River, and spring landscapes ablaze with yellow...

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Ehon no Kan (Picture Book Museum)

Kenbuchi Town's Ehon no Kan (Picture Book Museum) grew out of the 'Building a Picture Book Village' movement launched in 1989, and is now one of Japan's leading picture book facilities. With a collection exceeding 40,000 books donated from across the country, it offers an immersive, hands-on space where children and adults alike can lose themselves in the world of picture books. The museum also features original picture book illustration displays and reading spaces, serving as a cultural hub where generations connect through storytelling.

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Urakawa Town

Urakawa Town is the central city of the Hidaka region and the heart of Hokkaido's Thoroughbred breeding industry — the 'Hidaka Horse Country.' Many of Japan's greatest GI race champions were born and raised here, and the sight of foals galloping across vast pasturelands is the defining landscape of the Hidaka road trip. Tourism ranches and riding facilities are plentiful, and hands-on horse experiences are enormously popular with foreign visitors. High-quality dairy products including yogurt are another Urakawa specialty, alongside 'Hidaka Kombu' — a premium variety of kelp. 'Urakawa Yushun Village AERU' lets visitors see retired racehorses up close, with...

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Nayoro City

Nayoro City, in the northern Kamikawa region of Hokkaido, is known as 'Japan's coldest city' — winter temperatures sometimes plunge below minus 30°C, and heavy snowfall defines the long winter months. Each February, the city hosts the 'Shibare Festival' (Shibare = the Hokkaido word for extreme cold), a unique celebration that turns the freezing temperatures into entertainment with ice sculptures, fireworks over snow, and a variety of winter events drawing visitors from across Japan. In summer, stunning sunflower fields at 'Seiry' and other locations bloom beautifully throughout the city. Nayoro's Kitasubaru Astronomical Observatory, with Hokkaido's largest sliding-roof dome, offers spectacular...

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Horokanai Town

Horokanai Town, in the Uryu district of northern Hokkaido, proudly holds the title of Japan's largest soba (buckwheat) cultivation area. In late August to early September, the rolling farmland is carpeted with pure white soba blossoms in a display that feels like the original, unspoiled Hokkaido landscape. 'Horokanai Soba' is of such exceptional quality that several local soba restaurants have been listed in the Michelin Guide. The 'New Soba Festival' held each autumn attracted soba lovers from across Japan. Lake Shumarinai — Japan's largest oxbow lake — is revered as the home of the elusive legendary fish 'Itou' (Huchen taimen),...

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Shibetsu City

Shibetsu City, in the Kamikawa region of northern Hokkaido, is Japan's top producer of Suffolk sheep and home to 'Hitsuji to Kumo no Oka' (Sheep and Cloud Hill). The 'World Sheep Museum' (Sekai no Menyokan) showcases around 15 sheep breeds from across the globe and lets visitors feed and get up close with these gentle animals. The pastoral spectacle of Suffolk sheep roaming freely across rolling summer hills is quintessentially Hokkaido, and hugely popular for photography. Shibetsu is also known as a 'Motorcar City' — multiple Japanese automakers maintain cold-weather test tracks here for winter performance testing. In winter, sub-minus-20°C...

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Okushiri Island (Okushiri Blue Sea)

Okushiri Island floats in the Sea of Japan off southwestern Hokkaido, about 100 km southwest of Hakodate. Its legendary 'Okushiri Blue' — an extraordinary water clarity that ranks among the world's most transparent coastal seas — makes this a destination for divers and snorkelers from Japan and abroad. The island's seafood is equally celebrated: sea urchin (bafun and murasaki), abalone, and yellowtail of the finest quality are among the prized products that have made Okushiri famous across Japan. 'Nabeturi Rock,' a dramatic natural stone arch sculpted by wave erosion, is the island's most iconic landmark and a favourite subject for...

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Biratori Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum

Biratori Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum is a specialized museum in the Nibutani district, known as a center for the transmission and promotion of Ainu culture. It houses a valuable collection covering Ainu daily tools, clothing, and crafts, offering visitors an in-depth look at traditional ways of life and spiritual culture through actual artifacts. At the adjacent Nibutani Kotan, demonstrations and hands-on programs in traditional crafts such as woodcarving and embroidery let visitors experience Ainu culture firsthand. The Nibutani collection of everyday implements, designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan, is one of the largest of its kind in the...

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Iwamizawa City

Iwamizawa City, the central city of Sorachi region in central Hokkaido, is home to Iwamizawa Park Rose Garden — Hokkaido's largest rose garden with over 10,000 roses spanning approximately 650 varieties. During the blooming season (June–September), the fragrant, color-filled garden draws visitors from across Hokkaido. In winter, Iwamizawa is celebrated for heavy snowfall that supports the Iwamizawa Kitamura Ski Resort, popular for family skiing. The city is also one of Hokkaido's premier ice hockey towns, with deep community roots in the sport and an enthusiastic local fan culture. Rich agricultural products, excellent access via the Doo-o Expressway, and a thriving...

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Shikaoi Town

Shikaoi Town, in the western Tokachi region, is home to Lake Shikaribetsu — Hokkaido's highest lake at 810 meters above sea level, sitting within Daisetsuzan National Park. Surrounded by primeval forest and harboring the endemic 'Miyabe char' fish, the lake's mystical scenery captivates visitors year-round. Each February, the frozen lake surface hosts 'Shikaribetsu Lake Kotan' — a temporary ice village built on the ice itself, featuring an open-air hot spring bath, an ice bar, an ice church, and other surreal experiences found nowhere else on Earth. This unique winter event has won the Suntory Award for Regional Culture. Summer brings...

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Engaru Town

Engaru Town, in the Monbetsu district of central Okhotsk, Hokkaido, is home to Sun Hill Engaru Park — one of Japan's largest cosmos flower fields. When over 10 million cosmos blooms carpet the roughly 10-hectare hillside from late August to late September, the park becomes one of Hokkaido's most celebrated floral destinations, drawing visitors from across Japan and beyond. The same hillside transforms into a sea of pink shibazakura (moss phlox) in spring (May–June), offering a completely different but equally spectacular display. Maruseppu Forest Park features 'Amayu No. 21' — a vintage steam locomotive that is a Hokkaido Heritage site...

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Horonobe Town

Horonobe Town, set on the 45th parallel in the Soya region of northernmost Hokkaido, is an agricultural town of sweeping dairy pastures and pristine wilderness. Its biggest draw is the Horonobe Reindeer Research Ranch — Japan's only facility where visitors can get up close with reindeer. The hands-on experience of feeding and petting these gentle animals is enormously popular, especially when baby reindeer are born from May to July. The vast Sarobetsu Wetlands, a Ramsar Convention-registered site, offer spectacular birdwatching and the unmistakable sense of wide-open northern Hokkaido. Sunsets over the pastures with distant Mount Rishiri silhouetted on the horizon,...

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Nakashibetsu Town

Nakashibetsu Town, in the Nemuro Sub-prefecture of eastern Hokkaido, is Japan's largest dairy farming region. The Kaiyodai Observatory (270 m elevation) is famed for its 330-degree panoramic view that makes you feel the actual curvature of the Earth — endless pasture, straight roads reaching the horizon, and open sky have made this a legendary destination for motorcyclists from across Japan. The combination of sunrise, sunset, and stargazing views from Kaiyodai is simply unmatched anywhere in Hokkaido. Yoroushi Hot Spring, a celebrated 'secret hot spring' hidden in deep nature, offers a tranquil retreat where steam rises into the forest air. With...

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Lake Miyajima

Lake Miyajima is a Ramsar-designated wetland and paradise for migratory birds, where up to 70,000 white-fronted geese (magan) gather each spring and autumn migration. The pre-dawn spectacle of tens of thousands of geese taking flight simultaneously from the lake surface — known as the 'magan scramble' — is one of Hokkaido's most profoundly moving natural events. Migration peaks in late March to early April and late September to early October, drawing birdwatchers and photographers from across Japan during these windows. The Miyajima-numa Waterfowl and Wetland Center on the lakeshore offers expert-guided insight into the ecology of these migratory visitors up...

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Shibetsu Town

Shibetsu Town in the Nemuro Sub-prefecture of eastern Hokkaido is celebrated as the 'Holy Land of Salmon' — a small fishing village with over 10,000 years of continuous salmon fishing history dating back to the Jomon period, recognized as Japan Heritage. The Shibetsu Salmon Science Museum is the world's largest salmon exhibit facility, where visitors can observe a spectacular variety of salmonids including sturgeon, Chinook salmon, and king salmon in massive tanks; in autumn, cherry salmon can be seen ascending the stream right outside the museum. Shibetsu is also a member of 'The Most Beautiful Villages in Japan' association, set...

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Mikasa City

Mikasa City, in the Sorachi region of central Hokkaido, is home to Mikasa Geopark — a registered Japan Geopark covering geological strata formed approximately 100 million years ago on an ancient seafloor. It is one of the world's greatest ammonite fossil sites, and the Mikasa City Museum displays impressive real fossil specimens. A fossil excavation program lets visitors dig up ammonite fossils themselves, a wildly popular hands-on activity for all ages. The ruins of the Sumitomo Betsubi Coal Mine, which preserves Hokkaido's largest coal mine headframe (hopper tower), have become a major draw for industrial heritage enthusiasts and urban exploration...

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Hoshino Resorts Tomamu

Shimukappu Village, a mountain community of around 1,000 residents in the Kamikawa region of central Hokkaido, is home to Hoshino Resorts Tomamu — one of Hokkaido's most famous year-round resort destinations. Tomamu turns its famously misty, cloud-covered weather into an attraction: the 'Sea of Clouds Terrace' observation deck at 1,088 meters elevation offers breathtaking views when the right conditions produce a vast cloud sea below. In winter, Tomamu's abundant light powder snow draws skiers from Europe, North America, and across Asia. Summer programs include the spectacular 'Water Room' outdoor pool surrounded by forest, outdoor activities, and stargazing. This world-class resort,...

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Kitami City

Kitami City, in the Okhotsk region of eastern Hokkaido, is a proudly distinctive agricultural city — Japan's leading producer of both peppermint (hakkа) and onions. At its peak, Kitami peppermint once held a 70% share of the world market, earning the city the title 'capital of mint.' The Kitami Mint Museum traces this extraordinary history. Today, Kitami onions are Japan's top-yielding, and the autumn harvest season blankets vast fields in golden-yellow bulbs. Kitami is also 'Japan's curling city' — having sent athletes to three consecutive Winter Olympics (Turin 2006, PyeongChang 2018, and Beijing 2022). The city's fierce yakiniku (Japanese barbecue)...

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