One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Abira安平町
A railway junction town of camembert, melons and a resting D51
Iburi region · Volcano country — lakes, hell valleys and Ainu culture.
Abira makes cult-favorite camembert, grows sweet melons, and parks a beloved D51 steam locomotive at its roadside station.
Abira is the flat farm town that fills the gap between New Chitose Airport and the hills of eastern Iburi, formed in 2006 when the railway town of Oiwake and the dairy town of Hayakita merged. Oiwake is where the Muroran Main Line and the Sekisho Line to Obihiro split, and steam locomotives were once serviced here; Hayakita makes a camembert that Hokkaido cheese fans know by name and grows sweet melons in summer. The 2018 earthquake hit the town hard. It suits people with an hour to spare near the airport, rail enthusiasts and cheese eaters.
- Region
- Iburi (胆振)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~17 km · 18 min summer / 18 min winter
- From Sapporo
- ~66 km · 1 h summer / 1.2 h winter
- Best season in Iburi
- Year-round onsen country; summer adds Lake Toya's nightly fireworks, winter makes the hot springs sweeter.
Abira at a glance
Drive estimates: straight-line × 1.35, at 65 km/h (summer) / 55 km/h (winter). How we calculate
What to see in Abira
Michi-no-Eki Abira D51 Station
道の駅あびらD51ステーション
The roadside station on Route 234 keeps a restored D51 steam locomotive and an old diesel express car under a glass shed, with rail memorabilia and the town's cheese and vegetables for sale. It opened in 2019 and quickly became the town's front door.
Oiwake, the junction
追分駅とその周辺
A small station where the Sekisho Line branches east for Obihiro and Kushiro. Oiwake was a steam-locomotive depot until the 1970s, and the town has kept that railway identity ever since.
Shika Park
鹿公園
A large wooded park with a deer enclosure, ponds and a campground, laid out beside the old Oiwake townsite. A local favourite for a slow afternoon and the sort of place that shows how the town lives.
Hayakita's cheese and dairy
早来の酪農とチーズ
The Hayakita side is pasture and dairy, and its camembert, made here for decades, is one of the best-known cheeses in Hokkaido. Farm stands and the roadside station sell it alongside the summer melons.
Getting to Abira
Abira borders Chitose, so New Chitose Airport is about 20 minutes by car and Sapporo about an hour on the Do-o and Do-to expressways or Route 234. JR local trains on the Muroran Main Line stop at Hayakita and Oiwake, and Oiwake is also the first station on the Sekisho Line towards Obihiro.
Iburi region: On the main Sapporo–Hakodate corridor: JR stops at Noboribetsu and Toya, and Upopoy is right by Shiraoi station.
When to visit Abira
July to August for melons, when farm stands along Route 234 pile them high, and for the pastures at their greenest. September to October is harvest and clear skies over the flat fields. The D51 shed and the cheese are year-round, so a winter stop still pays.
What to eat in Abira
Camembert from Hayakita is the town's name-maker, a soft white-rind cheese that turns up in Sapporo shops too. Abira melons, grown on the flat land near the airport, are the summer treat. Rice, asparagus and dairy fill out the roadside station shelves.
Abira in context: the Iburi region
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Iburi is where Hokkaido's volcanic engine comes to the surface. Lake Toya fills a vast caldera ringed by hot-spring hotels and a still-smoking young volcano; Noboribetsu's Jigokudani 'Hell Valley' steams and bubbles above one of Japan's most celebrated onsen towns.