Things to Do in Hokkaido, Japan

Goryokaku Fort

Hakodate’s star-shaped fortress marks Japan’s encounter with Western military design at the end o...

Kushiro Shitsugen National Park

Japan's Largest Wetland, Seen from the Hosooka Lookout at Sunset

About 22,000 hectares of reed and sedge marsh north of Kushiro, Japan's largest wetland and a nat...

Matsumae Castle

Hokkaido’s northern frontier history comes into focus at Matsumae Castle, where an original gate ...

Michi-no-Eki Nanairo Nanae

Apple sweets in the town where Japan first grew Western apples

A 2018 roadside station on Route 5 just north of Hakodate, about ten minutes by car from Shin-Hak...

Michi-no-Eki Biei Shirogane Birke

Birch woods and burgers near the Blue Pond

A small station in the birch woods of Shirogane, a couple of minutes' drive from the Blue Pond. O...

Kamuiwakka Hot Falls

Kamuiwakka Hot Falls: Wading Up a Warm, Acidic River in Shiretoko

A river in Shiretoko National Park that runs warm because hot spring water from Mount Io feeds it...

Michi-no-Eki Boyo Nakayama

Fried potatoes at the top of Nakayama Pass

The summit stop on Route 230 between Sapporo and Lake Toya or Niseko, named for its view of Mt. Y...

Michi-no-Eki Obira Nishin Banya

A herring fishermen's lodge on the Sea of Japan coast

A stop on Route 232, the Oronro Line, roughly halfway between Sapporo and Wakkanai. Next door sta...

Hakodate Orthodox Church

The White Church Where Orthodoxy in Japan Began, on the Motomachi Slopes

A white-walled, green-roofed Russian Byzantine church on the site of the Russian consulate chapel...