Southwest Hokkaido · OkushiriNo.905★★Open in map →
Okushiri Island
An island in the Japan Sea off south-west Hokkaido, reached by ferry from Esashi, where unusually clear water and a landmark arch of rock at the harbour mouth sit alongside vineyards raised from the island's own wild grapes.
- FromEsashi Port
- ~2 hr 10 minHeartland Ferry from Esashi
- Get off atOkushiri Port ferry terminal
- From there
- Okushiri Island
The sweet spot
Okushiri is not a secret. Hokkaido's official travel site features it, the ferry runs the year round and there is an airport. It is quiet because every arrival is a crossing — a couple of hours from Esashi, which is itself a long bus ride from the nearest railway — and because the sailings are few enough that a day trip barely holds together.
Where it is
103 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Nabetsuru rockthe arched rock off the harbour mouth, the island's emblem, floodlit after dark
- Unimaru Parka giant sea-urchin monument on the rise above the port, lit at night like the rock below
- Mount Kyujimaa hill in the middle of the island with a road running almost to the summit
- Okushiri Island Tsunami Hallseven rooms in Aonae on the wave and the recovery, plus a room of excavated finds
How to actually get there
- Hakodate → Esashi (Hakodate Bus), then on to Esashi Port for the Okushiri sailing.
- Esashi Port → Okushiri Port (Heartland Ferry, about two hours and ten minutes).
- From the terminal, walk south along the shore to Nabetsuru rock, then up to the monument park above it.
- Take the town bus south to Aonae for the tsunami hall, and return in time for the sailing out.
- Heartland Ferry from Esashi Port
- Esashi Port to Okushiri Port, about two hours and ten minutes across open water. Sailings are few, and fewer again in winter, so the timetable rather than your plan decides the shape of the day. Esashi itself is reached by Hakodate Bus from Hakodate, the railway to the town having closed.
- The same crossing back to Esashi
- Return sailings run on the same thin timetable, and in the cold months there may be only one a day, so the way out is worth fixing before you land. The alternative is to fly from Okushiri airport instead of sailing.
About the place
Okushiri is a small island in the Japan Sea off the south-west shoulder of Hokkaido, close enough for a morning crossing and far enough out that the water changes colour. Islanders call that colour Okushiri blue, and the clarity of it is why divers and sea-kayakers come. The ferry rounds Nabetsuru rock on the way in, a low arch of stone with a hole punched through it, the shape printed on everything about the place. What the island lives on comes out of that water: sea urchin above all, and abalone. On land, vineyards planted from grapes that grow wild here have given it a second thing to sell.
How to enjoy it
The tsunami hall opens 9:00 to 17:00 in season, and the film in it runs about ten minutes with an English-subtitled version — ask at the desk rather than assume. The island winery takes visitors once a day at 15:00 for roughly half an hour, and only with a booking made the day before. Fit those two fixed points around the ferry and the rest of the day arranges itself.
Background & history
The island's name comes from Ainu, and people have been here a long time: the archaeological room inside the tsunami hall runs from the early Jomon period through the Okhotsk and Satsumon cultures, with a carved comma-shaped bead as its centrepiece. The history the island is best known for is far more recent. In 1993 an earthquake off south-west Hokkaido drove a wave into the Aonae district at the southern tip, and the hall was built in that same district, around what happened there.
Before you go
- Cash
- The town bus is a flat 200 yen for any distance on either route, paid in cash as you board; contactless payment is not accepted on board. The tsunami hall charged 660 yen for adults and 220 yen for school students at the time of checking. Nabetsuru rock and the park above the port cost nothing.
- Before you go
- The tsunami hall opens for a season rather than a year, roughly from the second half of April to the end of October, and closes on Mondays outside July, August and public holidays. The winery takes visitors only with a booking made the day before. Check both before you commit to a crossing.
- Another way
- Japan Airlines flies to Okushiri from Hakodate in about thirty minutes, and from Sapporo at weekends. The Setana ferry route has been suspended, so Esashi is the only crossing.
- After you get off
- The ferry terminal stands at the north end of Okushiri town. Nabetsuru rock is under a kilometre south along the shore road, with the sea on your right the whole way, and the town bus routes also start from the terminal.