One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Nakasatsunai中札内村
Edamame fields and an art village in the birches
Tokachi region · Obihiro food, Tokachigawa Onsen and seasonal gardens on the Tokachi Plain.
Nakasatsunai is edamame country with an art twist — a confectioner's sculpture garden village blooms among the birch groves.
Nakasatsunai is a farming village south of Obihiro, on the fan of the Satsunai River where it leaves the Hidaka mountains. It grows edamame at a scale few places in Japan match, and it is known for an art village and flower garden set in birch woods, created by a Tokachi confectioner. The Satsunai valley leads up to a waterfall and forested campgrounds at the edge of the mountains, and the region's airport is just across the village boundary. Good for a slow half day of gardens, galleries and farm produce.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~143 km · 2.2 h summer / 2.6 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~190 km · 2.9 h summer / 3.4 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.
Nakasatsunai 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 Nakasatsunai
Nakasatsunai Art Village
中札内美術村
Galleries scattered through a birch forest, showing Hokkaido painters and sculptors in low wooden buildings, with a sister flower garden nearby that blooms with alpine plants and lupins.
Pyoutan Falls
ピョウタンの滝
A broad cascade on the Satsunai River in the Hidaka foothills, formed when a small dam was buried by a flood. A park with lawns and a campground surrounds it.
Michi-no-Eki Nakasatsunai
道の駅なかさつない
The roadside station on National Route 236 sells the village's edamame, beans, eggs and chicken products and has a small museum of settlement history and a bean hall next door.
Satsunai River gorge
札内川の渓谷
Upstream from the falls the river cuts into the mountains toward a dam and campgrounds, with clear water, gravel bars and autumn colour on the slopes.
Getting to Nakasatsunai
Tokachi-Obihiro Airport is next door, about 10 minutes by car, and Obihiro is about 30 minutes north on National Route 236. The Obihiro-Hiroo Expressway has a Nakasatsunai interchange. There is no railway; the nearest station is Obihiro. Sapporo is about 3.5 hours by car.
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 Nakasatsunai
June to September, with the flower garden at its best in early summer and edamame harvest from August. October for colour in the birches and the Satsunai valley. The art village closes for winter.
What to eat in Nakasatsunai
Edamame, sold fresh in late summer and frozen year-round, is the village's calling card. Local chicken and eggs are the other names, along with dairy. Beans, potatoes and wheat cover the rest of the farmland.
Nakasatsunai 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.