Abashiri Prison Museum
licensed photograph663highland / CC BY 2.5

Hokkaido · AbashiriNo.695★★★Open in map →

Abashiri Prison Museum

historyThe classic — done right

An open-air museum on Hokkaido's Okhotsk coast, holding the wooden buildings of the old Abashiri prison. Several are national Important Cultural Properties, and they are entered on foot rather than viewed from outside.

  1. FromAbashiri Station
  2. ~7 minAbashiri Bus, 4 runs a day
  3. Get off atAbashiri Prison Museum stop (Abashiri Bus, sightseeing loop)
  4. On foot
  5. Abashiri Prison Museum
Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Kyokaido Lecture Hall京浜にけ / CC BY-SA 3.0
  1. Administration Buildingthe wooden office block at the entrance, an Important Cultural Property
  2. Kyokaido Lecture Hallthe hall where inmates were given moral instruction
  3. Prison houses and central guard housefive wings radiating from one watch point, so a single guard could see down every corridor
  4. Futamigaoka Branch Prisonthe branch prison buildings, relocated to the far end of the grounds

How to actually get there

  1. Abashiri Station → Abashiri Prison Museum (Abashiri Bus sightseeing loop, 7 min, 280 yen).
  2. Walk in past the administration building to the Kyokaido lecture hall.
  3. Enter the five-wing cell block and follow one corridor back to the central guard house.
  4. Carry on to the Futamigaoka branch prison, then return for the 12:17 or 13:59 bus.
Abashiri Bus sightseeing loop from Abashiri Station
From stop 2 in front of JR Abashiri Station take the Abashiri Bus city sightseeing loop toward Mount Tento. The operator's timetable gives departures at 9:09, 10:59, 12:44 and 15:44, and the museum stop comes seven minutes later. The fare is 280 yen.
Return to Abashiri Station
Buses back leave the museum at 10:27, 12:17, 13:59 and 16:57 and reach stop 1 at Abashiri Station about nine minutes later. With four runs a day, missing the 16:57 leaves you with a taxi, so note your departure before you go in.
Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Abashiri Prison Museum stands in the Yobito district of Abashiri, on Hokkaido's Okhotsk coast. It is an open-air museum: 38 buildings from the working prison were dismantled, moved here and rebuilt across grounds of 169,264 square metres. The administration building, the lecture hall, the prison houses with their central guard house and the Futamigaoka branch prison are all designated Important Cultural Properties of Japan. Because the buildings are open, you walk down the corridors and into the cells rather than past them. The prison that replaced them is still in use, on a separate site nearer the town.

How to enjoy it

The museum opens at 9:00 and closes at 17:00, with last entry at 16:00, and the first sightseeing bus of the day sets you down at 9:16. Buses back leave at 10:27, 12:17, 13:59 and 16:57, so arriving on the first run and leaving on the 12:17 gives about three hours on site. The restaurant serves a version of the prison meal, which makes lunch possible without leaving the grounds.

Background & history

The five-wing cell block at the centre of the site was built in 1912, in the last months of the Meiji era, and housed the prison's inmates. When the working prison rebuilt in concrete, this block was taken apart and re-erected on the museum grounds in 1985. The museum itself had opened two years earlier, on 6 July 1983, to keep Hokkaido's prison architecture standing rather than let it be cleared. Several of the buildings now hold national protection as Important Cultural Properties.

Before you go

Cash
Admission is charged at the gate; at the time of writing the museum lists 1,500 yen for adults, 1,000 yen for high school students and 750 yen for elementary and junior high school students. The bus does not accept transport IC cards, taking cash or a QR payment app instead, and a one-day pass covering the loop is sold at 1,800 yen.
Before you go
Opening hours shift with the season and the museum plans to close on 31 December and 1 January. Most of the route through the site is outdoors, so the wind off the Okhotsk coast makes a winter visit a cold one.
Another way
The same sightseeing loop starts four minutes earlier at Abashiri Bus Terminal, so you can board there instead if you are staying on that side of town.
After you get off
The stop is at the museum entrance. The ticket gate and the administration building are a short walk in from the road.