One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Numata沼田町
Lantern floats crash in the August night
Sorachi region · Inland central Hokkaido: coal heritage, wineries and seasonal fields.
Numata lights up one August night with the Yotaka lantern festival — giant illuminated floats clashing in the streets — and fireflies in June.
Numata is a rice town at the northern edge of Sorachi where Route 275 turns toward Horokanai, with the Rumoi hills to the west. It is known across Hokkaido for one night in late August, when giant illuminated lantern floats, built by the town's districts, are rammed into each other in the streets at the Yotaka Andon Festival. The quieter attractions are fireflies at a hot-spring hamlet in the hills, a fossil museum built around a small whale found here, and rice stored in snow through the winter.
- Region
- Sorachi (空知)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~169 km · 2.6 h summer / 3.1 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~140 km · 2.1 h summer / 2.5 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.
Numata 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 Numata
Yotaka Andon Festival
夜高あんどん祭り
A late-August night festival in which huge lantern floats, several metres tall and lit from inside, are pushed at full speed into one another by crews from each district. Loud, physical and unique to Numata in Hokkaido.
Horoshin Onsen and the firefly village
ほろしん温泉とほたるの里
A hot spring in the hills north of the centre, with a firefly habitat beside it where Genji and Heike fireflies fly over the stream on July nights. The quiet counterpart to the lantern festival.
Numata Fossil Museum
沼田町化石館
A small town museum built around the Numata porpoise and other marine fossils dug from the hills, with a shell-fossil bank nearby where visitors can look for themselves.
Getting to Numata
Numata has no active railway; Fukagawa station on the JR Hakodate Main Line is about 25 minutes away by car or bus. Route 275 runs through the town, and the Fukagawa–Rumoi Expressway has a Numata interchange. Sapporo is about 2 hours by car; Asahikawa Airport is about an hour and a quarter.
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 Numata
Late August for the lantern festival, one night that fills every bed in the district. July for fireflies at Horoshin. September for the rice harvest across the plain. In winter the town stores its rice in snow, and the hot spring is a good reason to come north on Route 275.
What to eat in Numata
Snow-stored rice is Numata's idea: harvested rice kept through winter in a snow-cooled warehouse, which keeps it fresh into summer. Tomatoes and other vegetables from the plain, and buckwheat from the hill farms toward Horokanai, are the other things worth carrying home.
Numata in context: the Sorachi region
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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 Numata
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More towns in Sorachi
Other regions: Ishikari · Shiribeshi · Iburi · Hidaka · Oshima · Hiyama · Kamikawa · Rumoi · Soya · Okhotsk · Tokachi · Kushiro · Nemuro