One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Moseushi妹背牛町
A rice village with a hard-to-say name
Sorachi region · Inland central Hokkaido: coal heritage, wineries and seasonal fields.
Moseushi — one of Hokkaido's great tongue-twister names — is a pocket-sized rice town with a riverside park built for lazy summer days.
Moseushi is a small rice town on the Uryu River west of Fukagawa, and its Ainu-derived name is one of the tongue-twisters of Hokkaido place names. Almost every field is paddy, and the town is proud of it. For visitors it offers a riverside park with a pond and park golf, a town hot spring, and the fact that this tiny place is one of Japan's curling towns, with a dedicated hall and players who have gone national. A quiet stop between Fukagawa and the Rumoi coast.
- Region
- Sorachi (空知)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~143 km · 2.2 h summer / 2.6 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~116 km · 1.8 h summer / 2.1 h winter
- Best season in Sorachi
- Canola usually in mid to late May, the coal museum from spring to autumn (closed in winter); winery visits depend on each winery.
Moseushi 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 Moseushi
Moseushi Flood-plain Park (Urara)
妹背牛遊水公園うらら
A park on the Uryu River flood plain with a large pond for boats and fishing, park golf, a campground and lawns. Built as flood control, used as the town's summer living room.
Moseushi Onsen Peperu
妹背牛温泉ペペル
The town hot spring beside the park, with indoor and open-air baths and a lodging wing. The natural stop after an evening walk along the river.
Curling hall
カーリングホール
A year-round curling rink in a town of a few thousand people, one of the earliest dedicated halls in Japan. Visitors can watch practice, and the town's teams have competed at the national level for years.
Rice paddies of the Uryu plain
雨竜川の田んぼ
The town's real landscape: a grid of paddies to the horizon, flooded silver in May and gold in September, with the Shokanbetsu range on the western skyline.
Getting to Moseushi
Moseushi has no railway; Fukagawa station on the JR Hakodate Main Line is about 15 minutes away by car or bus. Route 233 from Fukagawa toward Rumoi passes the town, and the Fukagawa–Rumoi Expressway runs nearby. Sapporo is about 2 hours by car, Asahikawa Airport about an hour.
Sorachi region: Between Sapporo and Asahikawa by JR or car. Sights are spread out, so check the last leg from the station; anyone tasting wine should not drive.
When to visit Moseushi
May for the flooded paddies and September for the harvest, the two months the plain is worth a detour on its own. July and August for the park, pond and campground. Curling runs through the winter, and the hot spring works in any month.
What to eat in Moseushi
Rice, and rice again: Moseushi is almost entirely paddy, and its rice is sold under the town's name and made into rice crackers and sweets. Vegetables in season and summer melons from the river plain appear at the local stands.
Moseushi in context: the Sorachi region
Click a town to open its page
Coal mining shaped many Sorachi towns, and places such as Yubari and Mikasa still keep that history in museums, rail relics and quiet main streets.
Towns near Moseushi
Read next
More towns in Sorachi
Other regions: Ishikari · Shiribeshi · Iburi · Hidaka · Oshima · Hiyama · Kamikawa · Rumoi · Soya · Okhotsk · Tokachi · Kushiro · Nemuro