Michi-no-Eki Shikabe Kanketsusen Koen

The geyser came first. Shikabe’s hot spring shoots up from the ground about every ten minutes, and the roadside station opened beside it in 2016, the same spring the Hokkaido Shinkansen reached Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto. Entry to the geyser park costs 300 yen for adults and 200 yen for school-age children, and that includes the footbath where most people sit and wait for the next eruption.

The other draw is the steam kitchen. Buy ingredients marked for steaming at the station’s shop, register at the counter, and cook them yourself over the spring’s vapour; most take around ten minutes. Use of the steamers is free, but only for food bought here. The shop also sells Shikabe tarako (cod roe) and kombu from the local coast, and the Hama no Kaasan Shokudo counter, run by the fishing cooperative’s women’s group, cooks home-style seafood meals.

Hours change with the season. From March 20 to November 30 the park opens 9:00 to 17:00; from December 1 it opens at 10:00 and closes at 15:00 Monday to Thursday, and from January 1 to March 19 it shuts every Wednesday. The seafood counter keeps irregular hours, so call ahead if lunch is the point of the trip.