Otaru in One Day
A day trip from Sapporo: glass and music-box shops on Sakaimachi, sushi on the street named for it, the stone canal at dusk, and back to Odori Park for the city
Last updated 2026-09-03 · 1-day self-guided plan
Otaru Canal Day Trip
Stone warehouses, sushi, and gas lamps by the water
For anyone based in Sapporo with a spare day who wants the old port town at a walking pace and to be back in the city by dinner.
- 1
Rapid train from Sapporo
Take the JR Rapid Airport train from Sapporo Station; it reaches Otaru in about 35 minutes and the last stretch runs right along the sea, so sit on the right side. Leave around 9:00 and you arrive with the shops opening. Otaru Station's waiting hall is lit by old oil lamps from the town's glass works, and the main street runs straight downhill from it to the harbour.
45 MinutesCost: ¥500–1,000 - 2
Sakaimachi street
Walk 15 minutes down to the canal and turn onto Sakaimachi, a street of stone former banks and merchants' houses that is now the glass and music-box district. Watch glass being blown in the workshops, browse the enormous music-box hall at the far end, with its steam clock outside, and pick up a rum-raisin sandwich biscuit from the confectioner in between.
1.5–2 HoursCost: Free 
3Sushi lunch
Otaru's fishing fleet supplies a street of sushi restaurants a few minutes uphill from Sakaimachi, called Sushi-dori. Around 12:30 sit at a counter for a set of local nigiri: uni, botan shrimp, scallop and herring roe, or a bowl of seafood over rice for less. Grilled scallops and crab legs are sold from stands near the canal if you want to eat standing up.
1 HourCost: ¥2,000–4,000- 4
Otaru Canal and the warehouses
Walk back to the canal by 15:00 and take the stone path along the water, past the row of brick warehouses that once unloaded the herring boats. The Asakusa bridge end is the busy one; keep walking north to the quieter Chuo bridge and the old warehouses beyond it. At dusk the gas lamps along the path come on, which is the moment everyone has been waiting for.
1 HourCost: Free 
5Back to Sapporo, Odori Park and the TV Tower
Catch a rapid train back around 17:00 and walk or take the subway one stop from Sapporo Station to Odori. The TV Tower at the eastern end of the park has an observation deck for the view down the length of the park to the mountains; the lights are on by the time you reach the top. Dinner is a few blocks south in Susukino: miso ramen, soup curry or a Genghis Khan grill.
1.5–2 HoursCost: ¥500–1,500
Day 1 Estimated Cost
- Food¥4,000–7,000
- Transport¥1,500–2,500
- Admissions¥500–1,500
Tips
The Rapid Airport train runs every 15 minutes or so and needs no reservation; the slower local train stops at Zenibako on the beach if you want to break the trip.
Otaru is small but the slope from the station to the canal is real, and in winter it is ice: flat shoes with grip in summer, boots and spikes from December to March.
Sushi lunch beats sushi dinner here, since counters fill and some close between services; keep dinner for Sapporo, where the ramen shops of Susukino stay open late.
The canal photo is taken from Asakusa bridge at dusk, when the lamps are on and there is still colour in the sky; in February the snow-light festival lines the water with candles.