One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Makubetsu幕別町
Park golf's hometown and an elephant in the ground
Tokachi region · Obihiro food, Tokachigawa Onsen and seasonal gardens on the Tokachi Plain.
Makubetsu invented park golf — now played all over Japan — and its Churui district yielded a near-complete Naumann elephant skeleton.
Makubetsu lies just east of Obihiro across the Satsunai River, a long town that runs from suburban Satsunai down to the Churui district near the south coast. It invented park golf in 1983, the easy one-club game now played all over Japan, and it dug up one of the most complete Naumann's elephant skeletons ever found, displayed in a Churui museum. Between them are farms, hot springs and riverside parks. It suits travelers who want Obihiro's convenience with fields at the door.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~179 km · 2.8 h summer / 3.3 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~222 km · 3.4 h summer / 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.
Makubetsu 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 Makubetsu
Churui Naumann Elephant Museum
忠類ナウマン象記念館
The town museum in Churui built around the elephant skeleton found in 1969 during road works, with a reconstructed model, the excavation story and the region's ice-age past.
Michi-no-Eki Churui
道の駅忠類
A roadside station on National Route 236 beside the museum, with a hot spring, a campground and a park golf course close by, all in one stop on the road to the coast.
Akenogaoka Park
明野ヶ丘公園
A hilltop park above the Satsunai district with an observation tower, playgrounds and a view across the rivers to Obihiro and the mountains beyond.
Park golf courses
パークゴルフ場
The town where the game was invented keeps public courses along the rivers and in its parks, and visitors can borrow a club and play a round within minutes of arriving.
Getting to Makubetsu
Makubetsu and Satsunai stations on the JR Nemuro Main Line are 10 to 20 minutes from Obihiro. National Route 38 crosses the northern part of the town and Route 236 runs south through Churui. Tokachi-Obihiro Airport is about 30 minutes by car, and the Obihiro-Hiroo Expressway serves the southern districts.
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 Makubetsu
May to October for park golf, riverside parks and the drive south, with the fields at their greenest in July. Autumn brings salmon runs up the Tokachi River and harvest colour. Winter is for the hot springs at Churui and the dry, sunny cold of the plain.
What to eat in Makubetsu
Potatoes, beans, wheat and sugar beet from the plain, the everyday crops of Tokachi at their best. Churui raises beef cattle, and the rivers give autumn salmon. Park golf clubhouses and the roadside station serve simple local meals.
Makubetsu 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.