Experience the best of Otaru

Otaru grew rich in the late nineteenth century as a herring and shipping port, and the stone warehouses along its canal, now cafés, galleries and shops, date from that time. Gas lamps line the canal at dusk, and Sakaimachi Street, with its Meiji-era banks and glass shops, runs inland. Outside the Otaru Music Box Museum stands a steam clock that vents steam and sounds a whistle.

On the hillside, the herring mansions, large houses built by fishing families, show the wealth of that trade. Sapporo, the Hokkaido capital, is a short train ride away, and the Shakotan Peninsula to the west has sea cliffs and a headland, Cape Kamui, above clear blue water.

Sushi is the reason many people come: the city has a street of restaurants serving local crab, sea urchin, salmon roe and shrimp from the Sea of Japan. Winters are heavy with snow, and in February the canal and a lane nearby are lit with candles in snow lanterns, while summer is cool and fresh.