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Hokkaido

64 places

• Akan Ainu Kotan Every year, in the first three days of October, Ainu from all over Hokkaido celebrate the Kamuinomi ritual here and return to the lake the…
• Asahi-ōhashi Bridge (朝日大橋) A bridge with a distinctive S-shaped curve over the Haboro River, about 1.5 km upstream of the centre.
• Asahiyama Zoo (旭山動物園) In July–August 2004 it overtook Ueno Zoo in monthly visitors: first in Japan.
• Biei Blue Pond It began in 1989 as a dam against mudflows after an eruption, then became an Apple wallpaper.
• Cape Nosappu and Nostalgia Promontory Park The easternmost point of inhabited Japan: the disputed island of Kaigara is just 3.7 km away.
• Cape Sōya The marker of the northernmost point is 4.53 m high: a reference to the latitude, 45°31′22″.
• Daimon Yokocho — Hikari no Yatai (函館ひかりの屋台 大門横丁) 26 stalls 5 minutes from the station: the largest yatai village north of Tōhoku.
• Engan Bus Haboro Terminal (沿岸バス羽幌ターミナル) It is the practical arrival point of the pilgrimage: from Sapporo the coach takes about 3 hours and 10 minutes, and from here the high…
• Financial Museum of the Former Otaru Branch of the Bank of Japan Built under the direction of Tatsuno Kingo, architect of Tokyo Station, it has been a free museum since 2003.
• Goryokaku Fort It was here, in May 1869, that the last armed resistance of the old Japanese government surrendered.
• Haboro Bridge (羽幌橋) A bridge over the Haboro River on National Route 232. About 160 m away is はぼろ温泉サンセットプラザ, also on the map.
• Haboro Community Centre (羽幌町立中央公民館) It is also one of the twenty public facilities in the town where the municipality has placed all 30 volumes of the manga. Address 南6条2丁目.
• Haboro Ferry Terminal (羽幌フェリーターミナル) The building also houses the head office of the 羽幌沿海フェリー company and is where you board for the islands of Teuri and Yagishiri. It stands…
• Haboro High School (羽幌高等学校)
• Haboro Onsen Sunset Plaza (はぼろ温泉サンセットプラザ) Hot spring baths and roadside station 道の駅ほっと♡はぼろ. Address 北3条1丁目29, about 160 m from 羽幌橋.
• Haboro Port (羽幌港) The shrine's shamusho, at Minami-Ōdōri 6-1, is one of the five facilities where the town installed life-size panels of the characters in…
• Hakodate Morning Market Started in 1945 as a farmers' market, today it has 280 shops open from 6:00 to 14:00.
• Hakodate Museum of Northern Peoples (函館市北方民族資料館) In the former Bank of Japan building of 1926, built in reinforced concrete after the 1924 fire.
• Heiwa-dōri Pedestrian Precinct Opened on 1 June 1972: the first permanent pedestrian shopping street in Japan.
• Higashimokoto Phlox Park (ひがしもこと芝桜公園) Pink phlox over 10 hectares of hillside: you only pay to enter during the bloom.
• Historical Village of Hokkaido 52 historic buildings on 54 hectares; a horse-drawn tram still runs along 516 metres of track.
• Hokkaido Gokoku Shrine 63,141 war dead from Hokkaido and Sakhalin commemorated here, under a name that has changed three times.
• Hokkaido Jingu For 58 years, until 2012, one of its cherry trees marked the official blossoming in Sapporo.
• Hokkaido Museum The permanent exhibition hall covers 3,000 m² over two floors and includes 8 ‘Closeup’ sections that periodically rotate the items on…
• Kawayu Onsen pH between 0.8 and 2.4, some of the most acidic water in Japan: it cures everything ‘except lovesickness’.
• Kitaichi Glass Started in 1901 to make oil lamps, it survived by producing glass floats for fishing.
• Kushiro City Museum The current building, shaped like a golden bird with its wings spread, won the 36th Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 1984.
• Kushiro Marsh The crane that symbolises Hokkaido numbered 33 in 1952: in 2026 the count is 1,927.
• Kussharo Hot Sand (Sunayu) You only need to dig 10–30 cm into the sand on the shore and the hot spring water rises by itself, free of charge.
• Lake Mashū In 1930 its transparency reached 41.6 m, surpassing Baikal; in 2015 it measured only 17.2.
• Matsumae Castle The last traditional castle built in Japan, in 1855; today's keep dates from 1960.
• Matsumae Clan Residence 13 reconstructed buildings evoke the castle town that had 30,000 inhabitants at the end of the Edo period.
• Moerenuma Park (Glass Pyramid and Mount Moere) It was a landfill: Noguchi redesigned it in 1988 and died that year; the park opened in 2005.
• Mount Hakodate (函館山) The Michelin Green Guide gives three stars to the view from 334 metres up.
• Mount Moiwa (藻岩山) At 531 metres up, the bell rewards couples: since 2015 among the NEW three views of Japan.
• Nakajima Park (Japanese garden and Hassō-an pavilion) The Hassō-an tea pavilion, from the seventeenth century, was Hokkaido's first National Treasure.
• Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum (二風谷アイヌ文化博物館) About 4,000 Ainu objects: the collection is an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property.
• Nijikken Cherry Tree Avenue (二十間道路桜並木) 7 km of cherry trees planted from 1916: 100,000 visitors in the first week of May.
• Nikka Yoichi Distillery Taketsuru founded it in 1934 in Yoichi, whose climate reminded him of the Scotland of his student days.
• Noboribetsu Hell Valley The crater, formed 10,000 years ago, now produces 3,000 litres of hot water a minute.
• Noboribetsu Onsen (Noboribetsu Jigoku Matsuri) According to legend, once a year hell's cauldron opens and Enma, king of the dead, comes out.
• Noren Alley 14 venues in a single building inside Nijo Market, open from 7:00 to 1:30.
• Odori Park (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) Created in 1871, the park hosts the Yuki Matsuri and the YOSAKOI festival in opposite seasons.
• Okushiri Tsunami Museum The ‘198 lights’ monument commemorates the victims of the 1993 tsunami; admission 520 yen.
• Otaru Canal The canal, completed in 1923, was meant to disappear in 1966: a civic battle saved it.
• Otaru Music Box Museum Its steam clock, from 1994, produces real steam, but the movement is electric.
• Rebun Island Known as the ‘island of flowers’: about 50 alpine species grow here at sea level.
• Rishiri Island An isolated 1,721 m volcano rising from the sea, nicknamed ‘Rishiri Fuji’.
• Rokka no Mori (the wood of the six flowers) The name comes from six wild flowers painted on a confectioner's wrapping paper.
• Sapporo Beer Museum The 1890 building started out as a sugar refinery: beer only arrived in 1903.
• Sapporo Clock Tower The Howard clock number 738, installed in 1881, is the oldest tower clock in Japan.
• Sapporo Starlight Dome (サッポロスターライトドーム) The only private planetarium in Hokkaidō: 160 seats, a 15-metre dome, on National Route 5 towards Otaru, 5–8 minutes on foot from the south…
• Sapporo Tsunagu Yokocho (札幌つなぐ横丁) Opened on 4 December 2020 under the station's tracks: 15 venues, 350 seats.
• Sapporo TV Tower It really did broadcast for NHK and STV, until 1962 and 1969 respectively; after that it remained only a symbol.
• Shirafura Cliff — Takise Coast (滝瀬海岸シラフラ) White pumice cliff: 20 m by 500 m, lifted from the sea 5 million years ago.
• Shiroi Koibito Park (白い恋人パーク) Started in 1995 as a chocolate factory; the tower from 2000 animates figurines for 10 minutes.
• Showa Shinzan The postmaster drew the birth of the mountain every day from his window (1943–45).
• Susukino One of the three great entertainment districts of Japan: about 3,500 venues today.
• Susukino 0-Banchi Born in the sixties in the basement of the Second Public Market, opened in 1922, the alley now has 31 venues (70% of them snack bars)…
• Takise White Coast The white cliffs, about 20 metres high and about 500 metres long, formed from layers of volcanic pumice laid down on the seabed about 5…
• Tanukikōji 5-chōme — Sapporo Inside the arcade, sixteen stalls of a neighbourhood market: three shops and 13 kitchens.
• The Three Churches of Motomachi The altar of the Catholic church (1923) was a gift from the Pope in Rome: the only such case in Japan.
• Upopoy — National Ainu Museum ‘Upopoy’, on Lake Poroto, means ‘singing together in a large group’ in the Ainu language.
• Usu Zenkoji One of only three official temples of Ezo (the old name of Hokkaido), designated in 1804.

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