My trip to Otaru was the longest trip ever.
Otaru is a small harbor city located just around 1 hour train ride from Sapporo. The train ride is only around 640JPY one trip. However, if you come to Hokkaido during the winter the train might be delayed (or eve stopped) due to the bad weather. I was so unlucky because the train stopped at the middle of te journey to Otaru.
We had to queue up for the bus to Otaru and because a lot of people was also waiting for the bus, we had to wait for such a long time and ended up use half day just to reach Otaru.
We arrived there around 1 PM ish (FYI we left Sapporo at 9 in the morning). Me and my friend decided we should grab something to ate at Sakaimachi. If you go there through the main road, you’ll see that unused railway and it IS a really good spot to take photos.
Sakaimachi is like a road full of shops selling food, glass souvenir, and you can even find the glass museum in Sakaimachi. And this is the best part of our trip, I’m telling you. We’re looking for food!!!
Otaru is located near the sea, and their seafood was super good!! You can find a lot of shops in Sakaimachi are selling seafood. Mostly sashimi, but if you can’t eat raw food, I’m sure they also have something grilled.
nomnom time
meet this kawaii girl, Pamela. Sorry she’s taken LOL
After lunch, we headed to the Canal. We wanted to see the Canal during the day and the illuminated one at night. It was around 2:30PM ish that’s why we rushed back to the Canal because the sun set around 4ish in Hokkaido during winter.
In this Canal, usually on February, there’s a snow lantern festival. It’s usually around the same with the Sapporo ice festival so you can plan those two together. Plan it ahead since the plane ticket will be skyrocketed and it will be hard to find affordable hotel.
The canal itself is quite long. You can walk from the edge to the other edge, but probably you don’t want to do it during winter.
But don’t worry, if you’re tired of walking, there’s a rickshaw that can take you anywhere around the canal.
We had a plenty time until the sunset, so we decided to go back to Sakaimachi to eat (again) or buy some souvenir.
If you go to Otaru, there’s a cafe famous for it’s 7-level-ice cream. I did not remember the name of the cafe, but we went there and got that ice cream. There’s only one cafe that sell this one, so probably you can ask people around Sakaimachi.
The ice cream is even more bigger than my face. LOL
We walked around a bit more after ice cream.
Otaru is also famous for it glasses and music box. You cn find a lot of shops in Sakaimachi sell those stuffs.
this cute little squirrel is like around 500ish probably. Can’t remember much.
Depends on the store, sometimes they also have DIY corner. You can make a charm bracelet or keychain.
Actually I don’t have a lot to write because I went there amost 6 months ago and it was actually my second time go to Otaru. I’ll just share some pictures.
Weird thing I love to do: staring at a tree.
And sitting in the snow when it was -10 degrees outside.
Lastly, we went back to the Canal to see the illumination. Personally, the canal during the day is prettier. I forgot to bring my tripod (as usual) and I could not take a proper picture
It’s a bit blurry, so forgive meeeeeee TT____________TT
Lastly, we grabbed a seafood soup before we headed back to Sapporo. Most shops in Sakaimachi closed when it’s getting dark, so you might want to find someting around the station (or you can ask the shop during the day about the business hours).
Dinner is seafood hotpot!!! LOL
That’s all my post for Otaru, I hope you enjoy it!
If you like my post and photos, don’t forget to leave me a comment or a feedback. It means so much for me.
Thank you so much and see you soon at the next post!
I have postcard with Otaru’s canal and is really similar to your photo at night.
Best regards from Germany,
Kinga