One of Hokkaido's 14 regions
Rumoi留萌
Plan a coastal trip through Rumoi, Mashike and Haboro.
Rumoi is both a port city and the name of a wider region on Hokkaido's Sea of Japan coast. This guide covers the region: Mashike's historic streets, Cape Ogon in Rumoi city, and Haboro, the departure port for Teuri and Yagishiri islands.
For a first visit, choose a coastal outing around Mashike and Rumoi, or allow separate time for an island trip from Haboro. The Ororon Line links these coastal stops by road. Check seafood availability, opening days and transport before building your route around a particular meal or ferry.
🧭 Use the coastal roads for a driving trip, or check bus services from Sapporo and Asahikawa. Rumoi city has no current rail service. Ferries to Teuri and Yagishiri depart from Haboro, not Rumoi city.
What to do in Rumoi: choose a coastal trip or an island stay
For a first visit, pair a walk through Mashike with Cape Ogon in Rumoi city. If you want to stay for sunset, plan dinner and the journey back around that day's sunset time. For Teuri or Yagishiri, build a separate island itinerary around reaching Haboro port and catching the ferry, rather than squeezing the islands into a coastal sightseeing day.
- Rumoi city: explore the port city and Cape Ogon
- Mashike: plan a walk through the historic town
- Haboro: plan your trip to Teuri and Yagishiri
Can you visit Rumoi without a car?
Start with bus connections from Sapporo or Asahikawa to Rumoi. Reaching the city does not automatically give you an onward connection along the coast: check the exact stop, the walk to your destination, the return service and whether reservations are required. Old itineraries that tell you to take a train to Rumoi Station are no longer usable.
Rumoi city: road access and bus operators (Japanese)
Where should you stay? Work backwards from the next departure
For the southern coast, look around Rumoi city or Mashike and check dinner options and the next day's route. For the islands, check the Haboro departure first, then decide whether to stay near the port the night before or overnight on an island. Confirm accommodation and both ferry legs together, and leave room to change plans if sailings are cancelled.
Haboro Enkai Ferry: check the timetable for your travel date
Itinerary and accommodation-area choices are NLH editorial suggestions. Official transport information checked on 11 October 2026; confirm service dates, times and booking conditions with the operators before travelling.
Rumoi highlights
Uni season
Look for seasonal sea urchin dishes, and confirm availability with the restaurant before travelling.
The sunset road
Follow the Ororon Line along the Sea of Japan, with Cape Ogon in Rumoi city as a sunset stop.
Mashike brewery town
Historic streets around one of Japan's northernmost sake breweries.
Seabird coast
Offshore Teuri Island is famous for its vast seabird colonies.
The 8 towns of Rumoi
Click a town to jump to its entry
Rumoi留萌市
Rumoi processes more herring roe than anywhere in Japan — and its Golden Cape really does turn gold when the sun drops into the Japan Sea.
Rumoi town page →Mashike増毛町
Mashike keeps Japan's northernmost sake brewery, sweet shrimp straight off the boats, and a beautifully preserved herring-boom streetscape.
Mashike town page →Obira小平町
Obira's clifftop road passes a nationally protected herring mansion — the grandest of the old fishing barons' halls on this coast.
Obira town page →Tomamae苫前町
Tomamae lines its hills with wind turbines and its tables with sweet melon — a breezy stop on the Ororon coastal drive.
Tomamae town page →Haboro羽幌町
Haboro lands more sweet shrimp than any port in Japan and ferries birders out to Teuri Island's vast seabird cliffs.
Haboro town page →Shosanbetsu初山別村
Shosanbetsu runs Japan's northernmost public observatory on a cape where the campground looks straight down the sunset sea.
Shosanbetsu town page →Enbetsu遠別町
Enbetsu is the northern limit of Japanese rice farming — paddies within sight of cliffs where the Japan Sea wind never quite stops.
Enbetsu town page →Teshio天塩町
Teshio sits at the mouth of Hokkaido's second-longest river, famous for shijimi clams and the start of the dead-straight Sarobetsu coast road.
Teshio town page →