One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Honbetsu本別町
Tokachi's bean town on the Toshibetsu River
Tokachi region · Obihiro food, Tokachigawa Onsen and seasonal gardens on the Tokachi Plain.
Honbetsu is Tokachi's bean town — azuki and kidney beans by the silo-load, celebrated in everything from sweets to shochu.
Honbetsu lies in north-eastern Tokachi along the Toshibetsu River, where the plain narrows into hills on the way to Ashoro and Kitami. It calls itself the bean town, and with reason: adzuki, kidney beans and black soybeans fill its fields and its shops, turned into sweets, pastes and even shochu. A park named for the legend that the warrior Yoshitsune passed this way, a roadside station in the centre and campgrounds in the hills make it an easy stop on the expressway east.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~213 km · 3.3 h summer / 3.9 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~242 km · 3.7 h summer / 4.4 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.
Honbetsu 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 Honbetsu
Honbetsu Park
本別公園
A river-and-hill park in the centre known as Yoshitsune-no-Sato after the legend that the medieval warrior fled here. Cherry trees in May, a pond, camping and trails up the wooded slopes.
Michi-no-Eki Stella Honbetsu
道の駅ステラ★ほんべつ
The roadside station in the town centre, with the town's beans in every form, bean sweets and a small waiting room that doubles as a bus hub for the region.
Seizan Campground
静山キャンプ村
A quiet town campground in the hills south of the centre, wooded and cool in summer, with cabins and a stream, the kind of place families come back to every year.
Getting to Honbetsu
About an hour by car north-east of Obihiro on National Route 242 or the Doto Expressway, which has a Honbetsu interchange and a junction for Ashoro and Kitami. There is no railway; the nearest station is Ikeda on the Nemuro Main Line, about 30 minutes away. Tokachi-Obihiro Airport is about 1.5 hours.
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 Honbetsu
September to October for bean harvest, when the fields turn gold and new-crop adzuki appears in the shops. May for cherry blossom at Honbetsu Park, July to August for camping in the hills. Winter is cold and clear.
What to eat in Honbetsu
Beans are everything here: adzuki for sweet paste and red-bean sweets, kidney beans and black soybeans for simmered dishes, bean flour and a bean shochu. Wheat, potatoes and dairy fill out the rest of the farm table.
Honbetsu 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.