Niseko
This is Japan's only train station minshuku (family-run guesthouse) and it is wonderfully eccentric. It's literally part of tiny JR Hirafu Station: to reach the bathhouse you need to walk out onto the platform. While it's convenient to arrive by train, the station is not convenient for Hirafu proper; however, the guesthouse offers ski field transfers for ¥200.
In summer, the station 'master' hosts barbecues on the train platform; there's a small kitchen, too, well set up for self-catering.
28.04 MILES
Historic Otaru canal is lined with warehouses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when this port city served as the financial centre of Hokkaidō…
22.49 MILES
Here is a rare chance to bear witness to modern mountain-making: Shōwa Shin-zan (昭和新山; 398m) – whose name means 'the new mountain of the Shōwa period' –…
20.22 MILES
The eruptions at Uzu-san were among the first to be recorded by modern means (and work here significantly advanced science in early detection). Here you…
26.15 MILES
Unlike other museums, where artefacts are kept behind glass, exhibitions here consist of replicas, handmade by members of Sapporo's Ainu community using…
28.07 MILES
This annexe of the Otaru Museum, known as the Ungakan (運河館), is housed in a restored warehouse dating from 1893 near the canal. It does a good job of…
23.69 MILES
This small temple fronts a 120m-long cave that has 33 statues of Kannon, the Buddhist deity of compassion, and is dedicated to road workers who lost their…
27.87 MILES
The former Otaru branch of the venerable Bank of Japan (日本銀行), completed in 1912 and designed by the same architect who did Tokyo Station, has been so…
27.66 MILES
This museum has clearly, uh, struck a chord: there are now five of them in town, with over 25,000 music boxes on display. Actually everything is for sale…
20.22 MILES
The eruptions at Uzu-san were among the first to be recorded by modern means (and work here significantly advanced science in early detection). Here you…
22.49 MILES
Here is a rare chance to bear witness to modern mountain-making: Shōwa Shin-zan (昭和新山; 398m) – whose name means 'the new mountain of the Shōwa period' –…
23.69 MILES
This small temple fronts a 120m-long cave that has 33 statues of Kannon, the Buddhist deity of compassion, and is dedicated to road workers who lost their…
4. Ainu Culture Promotion Centre
26.15 MILES
Unlike other museums, where artefacts are kept behind glass, exhibitions here consist of replicas, handmade by members of Sapporo's Ainu community using…
27.66 MILES
This museum has clearly, uh, struck a chord: there are now five of them in town, with over 25,000 music boxes on display. Actually everything is for sale…
27.83 MILES
Once known as the 'Wall Street of the North', Nichigin-dōri is lined with elegant buildings that speak to Otaru's past life as a prominent financial…
27.87 MILES
The former Otaru branch of the venerable Bank of Japan (日本銀行), completed in 1912 and designed by the same architect who did Tokyo Station, has been so…
28.04 MILES
Historic Otaru canal is lined with warehouses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when this port city served as the financial centre of Hokkaidō…