Spots in Otaru Area

Area

Hokkaido
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Otaru

Category

New Sanko Main Shop

4.0

35 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Inaho 1-3-6 Sun Mall 1 - In town

Just a five-minute walk from Otaru Station, this restaurant stands in Otaru’s central, long-standing shopping district, Otaru Sun Mall Ichibangai Shopping Street. The first floor restaurant, Beer Hall SANKO, has a lively, open atmosphere while on the second floor you can enjoy some Japanese delights in the relaxed surroundings of the local cuisine restaurant, Kyodo-ryori Sanko. There is also a banquet hall on the third and fourth floors that can accommodate up to 200 people. This well-established restaurant in Otaru can be used for all kinds of occasions from everyday eating to special events.

Stumbled into this place. Having read other reviews that say this is on 4 floors I’m not sure if it’s the same place as others have reviewed here. But it’s certainly in the same area and is within a...
Unga Park

Leisure / Hobbies

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai

Otaru Canal was completed in 1923 and bore the responsibility of being the gateway to the development of Hokkaido. About half of the canal has been land filled since it was last used as a canal, but the northern part called North Canal leaves us a reminder of what it used to be like. The canal park extends along the North Canal. Stone warehouses of the Taisho period have been restored into rest houses and play buildings making it a great place for families. In the center of the park is a water fountain which is modeled after the former Otaru branch dock of the NYK Line (Japan Mail Shipping Line).
Otaru Roman Kan

3.5

27 Reviews

Style / Fashion

Hokkaido Otarushi Sakaimachi 1-25

This shop sells accessories and other items from the building which was built in 1908 and used as a bank. The atmosphere inside the shop has a retro feel to it with antique furniture about the place and the shop is packed full of natural stone accessories and other pretty little items made of glass. The shop sells Christmas items all year round such as little snowmen styled goods, and there are a lot of items which would make nice souvenirs from Otaru. There is also a nice little cafe perfect for taking a break from your sightseeing. The nearest station is Otaru Station.

This is a popular accessory shop in a former bank. The building built in 1906 housed the Otaru branch of the 113th National Bank, the first bank based in Hokkaido headquartered in Hakodate. The 113th...
North Canal

Travel / Tourism

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 3

Otaru Canal played an important role in Hokkaido’s development as the “Gateway to Hokkaido.” Small working boats can still be seen moored along the northern section of the Canal (known as the North Canal), which is lined with warehouses. With scenes that recall the past, this area of Otaru is very evocative.
Wall Street of the North

Travel / Tourism

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai

From the latter part of the Meiji period through into the early years of the Showa era, Otaru was Hokkaido’s main economic and financial center. The streets were lined with trading company offices and banks, and the city center had an air of prosperity about it that led to it being nicknamed the “Wall Street of the North.” Today, many of these fine old offices have been repurposed; for example, the former Otaru Branch of the Bank of Japan now houses the Bank of Japan Otaru Museum (a banking museum), and other buildings such as the former headquarters of Hokkaido Bank have also been put to new uses, housing museums, restaurants, etc., but there are still many traces of the past remaining.
Cape Kenashi Observatory

Travel / Tourism

Hokkaido Otarushi Tenjin 4

Cape Kenashi Observatory is situated on the slopes of Mt. Kenashi, adjacent to National Route 393 which links Otaru with Akaigawamura. It offers superb views of Otaru City, right across to Ishikari Bay. The Lookout is also a very popular spot for enjoying the Otaru nightscape. Please note that the parking area is closed in the winter months.
Otaru Denuki Alley

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 1-1

At the food park in Otaru City, Hokkaido, you must see the retro street in the center of the square that is imaged on the Meiji and Taisho periods. Inside there are a variety of seafood restaurants directly operated by fishery companies, tempura shops, Genghis Khan lamb BBQ restaurants that all use local Otaru produce. There are many shops offering gourmet street food, and is not only popular as a place for lunch and a break for tourists, but also popular as a place for locals to relax. It is possible to overlook the Otaru Canal and the Sea of Otaru by climbing the symbol tower designed in the image of a fire lookout.
Otaru Municipal Literature Museum / Otaru Municipal Art Museum

Leisure / Hobbies

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 1-9-5

A great number of excellent writers gathered in Otaru which has been an established port town for a long time. This facility was opened in November 1978 in order to preserve valuable cultural assets such as literary magazines, manuscripts and letters by authors Takiji Kobayashi, and Sei Ito and so on. The collection materials can be seen in the viewing room. It is approximately ten minutes on foot from JR Otaru Station.
Niikuraya Hanazono Main Shop

Shopping

Hokkaido Otarushi Hanazono 1-3-1

This is the head office of a long-established Japanese confectionary maker “Otaru Niikuraya”, founded in 1895 in Otaru City, Hokkaido, that has been continuously loved by the locals. “Hanazono Dango”, the well-known Otaru specialty is a long seller from the early Showa era. There are five varieties including black sweet bean paste, white sweet bean paste, green tea flavored bean paste, sesame, and soy sauce, and are characterized by the special way the bean paste is spread which is called, Yamagata-ittou style. In the café space inside the store you can enjoy the sweets you have purchased with a coffee or green tea.
Bistro Koizumi

4.5

12 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Inaho 1-7-10

This is a well-established western style restaurant located in Inaho, Otaru City in Hokkaido which has also appeared a lot in magazines and guidebooks. The signature dish is a specially made hashed meat with rice which is cooked together taking time over three days. This is a well- known dish which has the food texture of the rich demi-glace sauce, the tender beef and mushrooms which are perfectly matched together. The unchanged Napolitan pasta dish and red salmon spaghetti which is typical of Hokkaido cuisine is also popular. The restaurant’s interior is retro yet has a relaxing atmosphere and even customers coming alone feel at ease entering the restaurant.

小樽市の中央通りや運河沿いから離れているからか、休日のランチタイムでも比較的空いており、利用しやすいレストランです。外観は勿論表札も地味で、周囲の個人宅に溶け込んでいるような佇まいであるため、もしかしたら気づかずに通り過ぎてしまうかもしれません。 1階にも客席はありますが、基本的には2階の客席に案内されます（もし2階の客席が満席の際に、1階の客席に案内されるようです）。2階への昇降は階段のみで、レ...
VERY VERY STRAWBERRY

3.0

15 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Irifune 1-2-29

This Italian restaurant is located on the main intersection of Otaru City, Hokkaido. It is a brick house with a lovely atmosphere. The owner travels to Italy each year for research purposes, determined to bring Italian authenticity to both his cooking and the interior decoration of the restaurant. The restaurant uses local ingredients, such as fresh seafood, found only in Otaru, and meat and vegetables from Hokkaido. The restaurant’s dynamic seafood pasta is very popular. and its specialty sweets are, as the name of the restaurant states, “Very Very Strawberry,” large-sized Italian sweets.

I have visited this restaurant several times now and really enjoy each visit. The food is surprisingly authentic regarding flavor and ingredients. The pizza is very good being cooked in a wood fired...
Manjiro

4.0

16 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Sakaimachi 2-15

This restaurant which has set meals ready to order is located in Otaru City in Hokkaido. “Delicious and cheap” is the motto of this restaurant which is loved by local people. The volume is perfect even at such reasonable prices, and besides the standard “katsu don” (a rice bowl topped with a pork cutlet) and the sashimi (sliced raw fish) set meal, they also offer a special limited lunch menu. The most popular dish served is the luxurious “Sake Oyakodon”, a bowl of rice topped with salmon and salmon roe marinated in soy sauce. Large portions of rice are also available at no charge. A lot of tourists visit the restaurant in addition to regular customers, and it is also popular among students on school excursions.

This restaurant appears on Google Map with the kanji words 万次郎 (in case you want to find it on GMap). Its a very small restaurant, and you would order via the vending machine. They only have a...
North Ryoba Otaru Unga Branch

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Sakaimachi 53-1

This is a seafood restaurant in the sightseeing area of “Otaru Canal Street” in Otaru City, Hokkaido. It is a shop directly managed by a fish trader and is located in Sapporo’s central wholesale market which is an over the counter market. You can enjoy a rice bowl topped with plenty of sashimi, hand rolled sushi and flame broiled fish made with seasonal seafood from Hokkaido at reasonable prices. A popular dish is the “rice bowl topped with seafood selected by the chef” which boasts of being served topped with 10 types of seafood. There is a food court where you can taste freshly cooked seafood and there is also a sales corner for local specialties, so it prospers as a place for tourist lunches and souvenirs.
Rinyu Morning Market

4.0

48 Reviews

Shopping

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 3-10-15

This is a market which opens early in the morning from four o’clock and has seafood lined up in a row for sale. It is a popular morning market for locals and tourists. There is also a restaurant that will cook the ingredients you bring which have been purchased in the morning market, so you can have the luxury of tasting fresh seafood.

A 15-minute stroll from Nord Otaru Hotel to this small local market displaying variety of sea creatures you could possibly select for a taste. The ‘Otaru-don’ is a specialized dish of the day (depend...
LeTAO Cheese Cake Lab

4.5

62 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Sakaimachi 6-13

This is Hokkaido’s famous western confectionery shop “LeTAO” which specializes in cheesecake, and is built across the street from LeTAO’s main store in Otaru City, Hokkaido. Various cheesecakes are for sale such as the “Double fromage” for starters which is the most popular in the store, and the limited stock “Deux fromage roll”. There is also a studio attached, and one of the things you can enjoy is being able to see the process of making confections. There is also a corner area in the store where you can taste freshly made desserts.

Dani LeTao specialises in Danish Fromage which is not available anywhere else (even at the airport) so if you are in Otaru try this dessert out. So awesomely terrific, very filling but light and...
Otaru Taishou Glass Palace Tonbodamakan

Style / Fashion

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 1-1-6

One of the galleries located in the Otaru Taishou Glass Palace, a historic renovated warehouse. The gallery displays and sells tonbodama glass beads hand-crafted by glasswork artisans. In the second floor studio, you can try making your own glass beads and other glasswork crafts. Tonbodamakan offers a variety of glass crafting experiences, including glass blowing; glass hotworking, in which glass is heated to near-melting and shaped; and glass coldworking, in which cold glass is cut and shaved away to create a design.
Ameya Rokubei Hompo

Shopping

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 2-4-23

A long-standing Japanese candy shop from Hokkaido. The original Ameya Rokubei opened in Toyama, with the third generation owner taking the establishment to Hokkaido later. Ever since that time Rokubei has continued to make delicious Japanese-style candies in Otaru. The shop is also Rokubei's candy workshop; the street stall out front is covered with colorful candies. Rokubei sells nostalgic, old-fashioned hard candies in flavors like apple, Japanese peppermint, butter, kinako toasted soybean flour, and amazake sweet sake. The shop's candies are sold in small sizes convenient for bringing home and giving to friends as souvenirs, and many customers come here for just this purpose.
Former Japan National Railways Temiya Line

Travel / Tourism

Hokkaido Otarushi Temiya - Inside color

A railway line which once connected south Otaru to Temiya Station. The line was originally built as part of the Horonai Railway, the first railway in Hokkaido, during the days of the former Japan National Railways. The railway was primarily used for coal, marine products, and other cargo. Due to the declining number of riders, passenger service was closed in 1962 and cargo transportation on the railway was ended in 1985. Almost the entirety of the railroad tracks is still intact and visitors to the area are free to walk them. The end of the line, the former Temiya Station, has been turned into the Otaru City General Museum where you can view the old railway turntable and examples of real trains once used here.
Otaru Tatsumi Sushi

4.0

32 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Sakaimachi 3-15

A sushi restaurant operating in the city of Otaru. There's seating on the first and second floor and both floors have counter seating where you can watch sushi chefs crafting your sushi. Dedicated to the concept of serving fresh Otaru sushi at reasonable prices, the restaurant offers a selection of reasonably-priced set meals. Particularly popular is the Otaru Set, which comes with five pieces of sushi, tempura, chawanmushi savory egg custard, soup, and a mini donburi rice bowl. Tatsumi also has a children's set for families with children.

Like most place along this tourist strip, you will be paying more, for less. While the sushi and kids meals were fine, it was not at all remarkable. We find the Clam Mso soup was a bit odd and...
Masazushi Zenan

4.0

110 Reviews

Gourmet / Alcohol

Hokkaido Otarushi Ironai 1-2-1

One of the branches of a long-standing sushi restaurant. Zenan is notable for its open and modern interior. The restaurant's huge windows offer a view of Otaru Canal. Zenan stocks its seafood from the company's own fish dealer, including whole tuna. Particularly recommended is the 11 piece sushi set. The restaurant also has a full menu of side dishes like tempura. There's a seven piece set of sushi selected by the head chef for those with smaller appetites. Zenan also stocks 80 varieties of awamori liquor from Okinawa which go great with sushi.

First visit was in winter 2013, we had a booking, no queue & wait list. And this is our 2nd visit in summer 2018, we waited 20 minutes because we had no booking. Staff are very friendly and helpful...

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Hokkaido Areas

Not just a prefecture but an island of its own, Hokkaido is the most northerly prefecture and island of the Japanese archipelago. Arriving in Hokkaido, which is rural and bursting with breathtaking nature, means entering a world where vast national parks, towering mountains, and natural hot springs can be found at every turn. Come December, these natural splendors freeze over and morph into a winter wonderland.