One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Kunneppu訓子府町
Onions, summer melons and a soy-glazed katsudon
Okhotsk region · Drift ice in winter, wilderness gateways all year.
Kunneppu is onion-and-melon farm country with a local secret: soy-glazed katsudon that locals will argue is the region's best.
Kunneppu is a farming town in the Tokoro River valley just southwest of Kitami, flat and open, with onion fields to the horizon and melons under plastic in summer. It has no big sights and does not pretend to; the point is the produce, a public hot-spring bath and the local katsudon, a pork cutlet on rice with a soy-based sauce instead of egg that people from Kitami drive out for. Pass through on Route 242 and eat.
- Region
- Okhotsk (オホーツク)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~263 km · 4 h summer / 4.8 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~277 km · 4.3 h summer / 5 h winter
- Best season in Okhotsk
- Late January–March for drift ice; May–October for Shiretoko's lakes, falls and wildlife.
Kunneppu 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 Kunneppu
Onion fields of the Tokoro valley
常呂川沿いのたまねぎ畑
Kunneppu and neighbouring Kitami form Japan's biggest onion district. From August the harvested onions dry in long rows across the fields, and the scent hangs over the roads at harvest.
Town hot-spring centre
町の温泉保養センター
A public bathhouse on the edge of town fed by the local spring, where farmers soak after the day's work. Plain, cheap in spirit and a good look at ordinary Okhotsk life.
Tokoro River parks
常呂川の河川公園
The river that runs on to Lake Saroma passes the town with green banks, a riverside park and a campsite. Quiet in summer, and a good place to break a drive between Kitami and the Tokachi side.
Getting to Kunneppu
Memanbetsu Airport is about 50 minutes by car and Kitami station on the JR Sekihoku Main Line about 20 minutes; the town has no railway of its own. Route 242 runs through from Kitami toward Oketo and Rikubetsu, and buses from Kitami serve the centre.
Okhotsk region: Fly into Memanbetsu Airport for Abashiri and Shiretoko's west side; drift-ice season adds special trains and buses.
When to visit Kunneppu
July and August for melons, sold at farm stands and the town shops, and for the onion harvest that follows into September. The valley is green from June; winter is cold and dry with little for a visitor beyond the bath and the katsudon.
What to eat in Kunneppu
Onions and Kunneppu melons are the produce, with wheat, potatoes and beans behind them and beef cattle on the hills. The dish is katsudon: a breaded pork cutlet on rice with a sweet soy glaze and no egg, served in the town's restaurants and argued about across the region.
Kunneppu in context: the Okhotsk region
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Every winter, the Sea of Okhotsk performs one of the natural world's great spectacles on this coast: drift ice, sailing down from the north until the horizon turns white. Icebreaker cruises push through it from Abashiri and Monbetsu — an only-here experience in all of Japan.