One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Esashi枝幸町
Hairy-crab port on the Okhotsk, with a summer festival to prove it
Soya region · Japan's northern tip — and the flower islands beyond it.
Esashi (the Okhotsk one) is hairy-crab country — one of Japan's top kegani ports, celebrated with a summer crab festival.
Esashi is a fishing town on the northern Okhotsk coast, about halfway between Wakkanai and Monbetsu, and not to be confused with the Esashi near Hakodate. It is one of Japan's leading ports for kegani, the hairy crab, and the whole town turns out for a crab festival each summer. Since merging with inland Utanobori it stretches from the harbour back into forested hills with a hot spring. Come for crab, salmon, a ship-shaped roadside station and empty coast roads.
- Region
- Soya (宗谷)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~314 km · 4.8 h summer / 5.7 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~287 km · 4.4 h summer / 5.2 h winter
- Best season in Soya
- June–August is the season: island flowers, uni and the midnight-blue northern sea.
Esashi 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 Esashi
Michi-no-Eki Marine Island Okajima
道の駅マリーンアイランド岡島
A Michi-no-Eki (roadside station) on Route 238 north of town, built in the shape of a ship and looking straight out over the Okhotsk. There is a campground on the beach beside it and crab and scallops inside.
Mt. Mikasa
三笠山
A low hill right behind the town centre with an observation building on top, a campground and a small ski slope in winter. The view takes in the harbour and the long line of the Okhotsk coast.
Cape Kitami-Kamui
北見神威岬
A rocky cape at the town's northern border where the coast road passes through a tunnel and the cliffs drop into the Okhotsk. A place of Ainu legend, now a park with a lookout above the road.
Okhotsk Museum Esashi
オホーツクミュージアムえさし
The town museum in the centre of Esashi, with exhibits on the Okhotsk culture that settled this coast over a thousand years ago and on the crab fishery that sustains the town now.
Getting to Esashi
Route 238 runs along the coast through town and Route 275 climbs inland through Utanobori toward Asahikawa. There is no railway; buses connect to Otoineppu and Asahikawa. Wakkanai Airport is about two hours by car, Asahikawa three and a half, and Sapporo about five.
Soya region: Fly or take the long, scenic drive/train to Wakkanai; ferries to Rishiri and Rebun sail from Wakkanai port.
When to visit Esashi
Summer for the crab festival, when the town is at its liveliest. June to September for the coast, the campgrounds and the cape. September and October bring the salmon run. Winter is icebound and windy, with the Okhotsk freezing along the shore.
What to eat in Esashi
Kegani, the hairy crab, is the reason to eat here: sweet, dense meat from cold Okhotsk water, boiled whole or in miso soup. The port also lands salmon and its roe in autumn, scallops and sea urchin, and Utanobori's pastures add milk and cheese from inland.
Esashi in context: the Soya region
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Soya is as far north as Japan goes. At Cape Soya, a monument marks the country's northernmost point; on a clear day Sakhalin floats on the horizon. Wakkanai, the last city, has the pleasant end-of-the-line atmosphere of true frontier towns.