One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Hiroo広尾町
Santa's Japanese home and the Golden Road south
Tokachi region · Obihiro food, Tokachigawa Onsen and seasonal gardens on the Tokachi Plain.
Hiroo is Santa's official Japanese hometown (licensed by Norway, no less) and a serious fishing port for shishamo and salmon.
Hiroo is the fishing port at the southern end of Tokachi, where the plain ends and the Hidaka mountains drop straight into the Pacific. In 1984 Oslo licensed it as Santa Claus's official Japanese home, and a Santa Land sits in the forest park above town. South of the harbour the Golden Road, a cliff-hugging coastal highway built at enormous cost, runs toward Cape Erimo. The port lands shishamo, salmon and kelp. Come for the road, the fish and a winter of Christmas lights in an unlikely place.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~181 km · 2.8 h summer / 3.3 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~233 km · 3.6 h summer / 4.2 h winter
- Best season in Tokachi
- Late spring to autumn for gardens and green farmland; seasonal gardens such as Manabe Garden close in winter, when food, onsen and snowy scenery shape the trip.
Hiroo 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 Hiroo
Hiroo Santa Land
広尾サンタランド
In Omaruyama Forest Park above the town, a Santa house and post office authorized by Oslo, with a bell, chapel-style buildings and Christmas lights from autumn into winter.
The Golden Road
黄金道路
National Route 336 south of Hiroo, cut into sea cliffs between the Hidaka mountains and the Pacific and said to have cost its weight in gold. Tunnels, rockfall sheds and surf below.
Funbe Falls
フンベの滝
A waterfall that pours over a cliff directly onto the roadside just south of town, fed by groundwater and beautiful when frozen into icicles in winter.
Hiroo port
広尾港
One of Hokkaido's main shishamo ports, busiest in October and November when the smelt run, with a fish market and a lookout over the breakwaters and the ranges behind.
Getting to Hiroo
About 1.5 hours by car south of Obihiro via National Route 236 and the Obihiro-Hiroo Expressway, and about 1.5 hours from Tokachi-Obihiro Airport. There is no railway; Obihiro is the nearest station. Route 336 continues south along the coast to Cape Erimo, about an hour away.
Tokachi region: Tokachi-Obihiro Airport and JR Obihiro Station are the main gateways. Plan the last stretch separately: the airport bus into the city, a local bus or taxi to the racecourse or onsen, and a car or taxi for gardens outside the centre.
When to visit Hiroo
October and November for shishamo, when the port and the drying racks are at their busiest. June to September for the coast road and the mountains, though fog is common on the shore. November to December for Santa Land's lights and the run-up to Christmas.
What to eat in Hiroo
Shishamo, the small smelt grilled whole, is the town's fish, landed and dried here each autumn. Autumn salmon and their roe, kelp from the rocky shore and hairy crab follow. Inland dairy farms supply milk and cheese.
Hiroo in context: the Tokachi region
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Tokachi is an eastern Hokkaido region of 19 municipalities spread across the Tokachi Plain, a wide farming area that reaches far beyond Obihiro city. Obihiro is the usual base, with butadon pork rice bowls, sweets and banei racing, in which heavy draft horses pull sleds along a course.