One of Hokkaido's 14 regions
Rumoi留萌
The sunset coast — and some of Japan's finest sea urchin.
Rumoi is a coastline more than a destination — and what a coastline. The shore road north from Mashike runs for hours with the Japan Sea on one side and green hills on the other, and locals will tell you the sunsets here are the best on the island.
In early summer the region's name becomes a password among Japanese food lovers: uni season. The sweet sea urchin landed along this coast is worth planning a whole detour around. Add Mashike's preserved brewery-town streets and you have Hokkaido at its most unhurried.
🧭 A driving region: the Ororon Line coast road from the Sapporo side is the whole point. Ferries to Teuri and Yagishiri leave from Haboro.
Rumoi highlights
Uni season
Early summer brings some of Japan's sweetest sea urchin straight off the boats.
The sunset road
The Japan Sea coast road (the 'Nichigai Ororon Line') delivers hours of ocean-and-sky driving.
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.
Mashike増毛町
Mashike keeps Japan's northernmost sake brewery, sweet shrimp straight off the boats, and a beautifully preserved herring-boom streetscape.
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.
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.
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.
Shosanbetsu初山別村
Shosanbetsu runs Japan's northernmost public observatory on a cape where the campground looks straight down the sunset sea.
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.
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.