One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Erimoえりも町
Where the Hidaka range plunges into the Pacific
Hidaka region · Thoroughbred country, cherry-tree roads and the windswept cape.
Erimo is the wind-blasted tip of the Hidaka range — a cape of harbor seals, kombu fishermen and weather with real opinions.
Erimo is the southern tip of the Hidaka peninsula, and Cape Erimo is one of the windiest places in Japan, where the mountain range runs straight into the sea as a line of reefs. Harbor seals haul out on the rocks below the cape, kombu fishermen work the shore, and the Golden Road east of town is a coastal drive cut through cliffs. It is a long way from anywhere, and that is the point. Come for the wind, the seals and a coast that feels like the edge of the country.
- Region
- Hidaka (日高)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~200 km · 3.1 h summer / 3.6 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~255 km · 3.9 h summer / 4.6 h winter
- Best season in Hidaka
- Early May for cherry blossoms, summer for green pastures and foals, any clear day for the cape.
Erimo 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 Erimo
Cape Erimo
襟裳岬
The tip of the peninsula, where the Hidaka range sinks into the Pacific as a chain of reefs stretching out to sea. Wind is almost constant, the walkways lead to the very end, and on clear days the horizon feels endless.
Kaze-no-Yakata wind museum
襟裳岬「風の館」
The town's visitor centre built into the cape, with a room that reproduces the cape's strongest winds, and telescopes trained on the reefs where Japan's largest colony of harbor seals rests.
The Golden Road (Route 336)
黄金道路
The coastal stretch of Route 336 from Erimo toward Hiroo in Tokachi, hacked through cliffs at enormous cost, hence the name. Tunnels and rockfall shelters follow the surf for kilometres.
Erimo greening project and Hyakunin-hama
えりも岬の緑化と百人浜
The land behind the cape was once a windblown desert after the forest was cut; decades of planting since the 1950s turned it back into black pine woods. Hyakunin-hama, the long beach beside it, has a lookout and campground.
Getting to Erimo
Erimo is about four hours from Sapporo by car, down Route 235 to Urakawa then Route 336 through Samani. From the Tokachi side, Obihiro Airport is about two hours via Hiroo and the Golden Road. Buses run from Urakawa and Samani to the town and the cape. There are no trains anywhere in the region.
Hidaka region: A car region: follow Route 235 down the coast from the Sapporo side. Cape Erimo is the far, rewarding end.
When to visit Erimo
Late June to September for the most settled weather at the cape, though fog rolls in on summer mornings. Seals are on the reefs year-round and easiest to see from the museum. Autumn skies are clearest; winter brings gales that make the cape genuinely hard to stand on.
What to eat in Erimo
Erimo is the biggest producer of Hidaka kombu, and in summer the shore is covered with kelp drying on the stones. The waters also give whelks, sea urchin and autumn salmon. Inland the town raises Japanese Shorthorn cattle on the windy pastures, a rare breed in Hokkaido.
Erimo in context: the Hidaka region
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Along the Hidaka coast, the pastures do something found almost nowhere else in Japan: they raise racehorses. The majority of Japan's thoroughbreds are born on these ranches between the mountains and the sea, and driving the coast road past grazing mares and foals is an experience in itself.