One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Niikappu新冠町
Thoroughbred Ginza and a hall full of vinyl
Hidaka region · Thoroughbred country, cherry-tree roads and the windswept cape.
Niikappu's hills raise thoroughbred royalty; its Record Hall spins 1970s vinyl in a town that chose music as its calling card.
Niikappu is a coastal town on Route 235 that has built its whole identity around two things: racehorses and records. The pastures inland from the highway are stud-farm country, and the straight road through them is nicknamed Thoroughbred Ginza. Down by the roadside station, the town's Record Hall keeps a vast collection of donated vinyl and plays it on a giant sound system. Stop here for foals in spring, an hour of old music, and a coast that most people drive straight past.
- Region
- Hidaka (日高)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~94 km · 1.4 h summer / 1.7 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~147 km · 2.3 h summer / 2.7 h winter
- Best season in Hidaka
- Early May for cherry blossoms, summer for green pastures and foals, any clear day for the cape.
Niikappu 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 Niikappu
Thoroughbred Ginza
サラブレッド銀座
A dead-straight road lined with stud farms on both sides, with mares and foals grazing right up to the fences. Stay on the road and shoot from the car; the farms are working businesses, not parks.
Record Hall (Re-Kodo-kan)
レ・コード館
The town's music hall and museum, home to hundreds of thousands of donated records from across Japan. You can request songs and hear them on a large custom speaker system in a listening room.
Michi-no-Eki Thoroughbred Road Niikappu
道の駅 サラブレッドロード新冠
The roadside station beside the Record Hall, with statues of famous horses raised in the town and a good stock of local produce and horse-themed goods. The natural place to plan a farm drive.
Hangankan forest park
判官館森林公園
A wooded headland on the coast at the mouth of the Niikappu River, with walking trails, a campground and views along the Pacific shore. Named for a legend of the warrior Yoshitsune fleeing north.
Getting to Niikappu
New Chitose Airport is about 1.5 hours away by car. From Sapporo take the Hidaka Expressway to its end at Atsuga and continue on Route 235 along the coast, about two hours in total. Buses from Tomakomai and Sapporo stop in town. There is no rail service; plan on driving.
Hidaka region: A car region: follow Route 235 down the coast from the Sapporo side. Cape Erimo is the far, rewarding end.
When to visit Niikappu
April to June is foal season, when the pastures are at their most photogenic. Summer brings green peppers, the town's main crop, and the coastal campground. Autumn is quieter and the light on the pastures is best. Winter roads along Route 235 are open but the farms are bare.
What to eat in Niikappu
Niikappu is one of Hokkaido's leading green pepper producers, and the crop shows up in everything from pickles to sweets at the roadside station. Hidaka kombu comes from the town's beaches, and the coast also lands salmon in autumn. Local beef and vegetables fill out the farm stands.
Niikappu in context: the Hidaka region
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Along the Hidaka coast, the pastures do something found almost nowhere else in Japan: they raise racehorses. The majority of Japan's thoroughbreds are born on these ranches between the mountains and the sea, and driving the coast road past grazing mares and foals is an experience in itself.