Otaru

Hokkaido, Japan · City, Snow

A former fishing port turned canal city, with the illuminated Otaru Canal at night, historic Sakaimachi Street lined with stone warehouses, and a glassblowing tradition dating back to the Meiji era.

The essentials

Getting there

Train — About 30-40 minutes by rapid train (JR Rapid Airport / Hakodate Line) from Sapporo Station.

Frequently asked questions about Otaru

What to do in Otaru: 28 activities

• Nikka distillery at Yoichi 3.5 h must-see

  It is in Yoichi, a different town, twenty-five minutes by local train. Entry is free and the self-guided tour with English audio guide takes an hour, ending in a tasting room. Masataka Taketsuru founded it in 1934 because Yoichi's climate reminded him of Scotland, and it still distils over direct coal fires, almost unique in the world.

• Otaru Canal Walk 1.5 h must-see

  The 1,140-metre canal built in 1923 on land reclaimed from the sea, flanked by Meiji-Taisho era stone warehouses and 63 gas lamps that are lit at dusk. It is worth knowing that the canal came close to disappearing: in 1966 a plan was approved to fill it in for a dual carriageway, and it was a residents' movement that saved it. The stretch people photograph is half of the original canal.

• The neighbourhood battle that saved the canal 1.75 h must-see

  In 1966 the council approved filling in the canal for a six-lane highway and demolishing the stone warehouses. A residents' preservation association formed in 1973, changed tack in the late seventies and proposed the canal as the basis of a tourist economy; in the early eighties a compromise narrowed part of the canal for the road and turned the rest into a promenade. The walkway everybody photographs is, literally, half the original canal.

• Yuki Akari no Michi, the path of snow light 2.5 h must-see only early February

  Eight days in early February, five to nine in the evening and free: three hundred metres of canal with floating candles, half a kilometre of the old Temiya railway line with lanterns, and a snow slide in the square. Many of the candles are placed by neighbourhood volunteers and it is the most moving winter event in Hokkaido. It usually overlaps with the Sapporo Snow Festival.

• Sushi Row (Sushi-ya Dori) 1.5 h

  Otaru has one of Japan's highest concentrations of sushi restaurants per capita, thanks to its fresh catch of sea urchin, salmon and monkfish liver.

• Blue Cave cruise 1.75 h booking

  A speedboat from the port to a sea cave of turquoise water, inside the coastal quasi-national park. Roughly May to October, and very dependent on the swell: cancellations are frequent.

• Former Temiya Line 1 h

  A free walk along the preserved rails of Hokkaido's first railway, built in 1880 and closed in 1985: a green corridor with original carriages and signals between the station and the canal. In February it is one of the venues of the candle festival.

• Glassblowing Workshop at Kitaichi Glass 1 h booking

  Kitaichi Glass, founded in 1901 to make fishing floats and oil lamps, offers guided glassblowing experiences to make your own piece.

• Kerosene lamp hall 1 h

  Inside the Sakaimachi glass complex, an old warehouse lit solely by one hundred and sixty-seven kerosene lamps, lit by hand every morning. It is the part of Sakaimachi that still makes the crowds worth it.

• Nishin Goten, the herring mansion 1 h

  The house of a 19th-century fishing master moved to Shukutsu in 1958, where the labourers' long sleeping platforms can be seen alongside the owner's rooms. Fortunes were made on herring until the 1950s, when the stocks collapsed and the industry with them. Closed from late November to early April.

• Otaru Art Base 2.25 h

  Five historic buildings brought together since 2016: the stained glass museum in two warehouses from the 1920s and 1930s, the former Mitsui Bank branch of 1927 and the art museum in the old Hokkaido Colonial Bank. It includes windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Japanese painting by Kuroda Seiki.

• Otaru Music Box Museum (Otaru Orgel Dō) 1 h

  Japan's largest music box collection, housed in an 1912 trading-company building with a steam clock tower out front.

• Sakaimachi Street and Historic Bank Buildings 1.5 h

  Otaru's main Meiji-era street, with old stone bank buildings converted into glassware shops, cafes and museums. Warning: overcrowding here is an acknowledged problem and the city has deployed guards to stop pavements being blocked and private property being entered. The black spot is the Funamizaka slope and its level crossing, where a tourist was struck and killed by a train while taking photographs. It is best visited before half past nine or after five, and never step on the track.

• Cape Kamui and the Shakotan Peninsula 8 h

  It is in the town of Shakotan, about two hours away: a day trip, not a city activity. The path out to the cape is twenty or thirty minutes along a ridge above the sea, and the blue of this coast is real, not a filter.

• Denuki Koji 2 h

  About twenty food shacks beside the canal, lookout tower included: the night-time alternative to Sushi-ya Dori, at considerably lower prices.

• Former Aoyama Villa 1.25 h

  A kilometre inland from the previous one: the luxury residence of a family of herring masters, with paintings on the sliding doors and a garden. The decorative excess is the measure of that boom.

• Former Bank of Japan Otaru Museum 1 h

  Otaru's former Bank of Japan branch, an 1912 building designed by Kingo Tatsuno, now a free museum on the city's history as a trading port.

• Mt. Tengu Ropeway and Viewpoint 1.5 h

  A ropeway up to the 532-meter Mt. Tengu, with views over Otaru Bay and, in season, a small ski slope.

• Night Canal Cruise 0.7 h booking

  A roughly 40-minute boat ride along the canal and harbour, past the historic warehouses lit up from the water.

• Otaru in Golden Kamuy and Love Letter 1.5 h

  The city is a central setting in the Ainu-themed manga Golden Kamuy and in the 1995 film Love Letter, responsible for much of the Asian tourism it receives and for the phenomenon of the Funamizaka slope.

• Otaru Ushio Matsuri 3.5 h only the fourth weekend of July (Fri-Sun)

  From 24 to 26 July. It was created in 1967 to give the city an identity after the port's decline: a parade with thousands of dancers, illuminated boats and fireworks over the water. The dance groups accept participants.

• Sankaku Market 1 h

  A postwar fish market by Otaru Station, with fresh seafood stalls and seafood-rice bowls for breakfast or lunch.

• Shukutsu and its viewpoint 1.5 h

  A fishing district to the northwest, cradle of the herring masters, with cliffs over Ishikari Bay and far fewer people than Sakaimachi.

• Skiing at Tenguyama and Asarigawa 4 h

  Mount Tengu has its own runs and sledding, and Asarigawa Onsen, also within the municipality, lets you combine skiing and a hot-spring bath the same day.

• The Sarutahiko who walks through fire at Furubira 4 h Furubira (península de Shakotan) · 70 min only the second Saturday of September and the Sunday after

  The annual festival of Ebisu Shrine, in the fishing town of Furubira, ends both its nights with the same act: a column of fire some three metres high is lit and a Sarutahiko in vermilion robes and a tengu mask passes through it, followed by the lion dance and the mikoshi. The prayers are for health, a calm sea and a good catch, which in a town that lives off the sea is not a formula. The rule for the date is the second Saturday of September and the Sunday after, and it holds for all three years checked: 2017, 2024 and 2026. The fire is crossed at around eight in the evening, though the town hall warns the time shifts with the procession. Two things before you go. First: Furubira has two festivals with this same rite, and the July one is not this but Kotohira Shrine's. Second, the way back, which is the real problem here: the town has no railway, you come by bus from Yoichi in half an hour or from Otaru in an hour, and we could not confirm that any bus runs back after the fire, so settle that before you set off. None of the sources consulted gives a heritage designation, a founding year or an admission price.

• Otaru Aquarium 2.5 h

  An honest warning: it is a classic aquarium with dolphin, seal and sea lion shows, and the enclosures are old and small by current standards. For families who care about this, the beach and the seabirds at Shukutsu are the alternative.

• Otaru Sumiyoshi shrine 0.75 h

  The city's main shrine, on a hill above the port; its mid-July festival is among the largest in Hokkaido.

• Tasting at Otaru Beer Brewery 1 h

  A craft brewery set in a canal-side warehouse, brewing beer under the German purity law since the 1990s.

What only happens on specific dates

• Yuki Akari no Michi, the path of snow light early February
• Otaru Ushio Matsuri the fourth weekend of July (Fri-Sun)
• The Sarutahiko who walks through fire at Furubira the second Saturday of September and the Sunday after

Chains well with

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