One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Oshamambe長万部町
The junction town of crab rice and a radium spring
Oshima region · Hakodate's night view, castle towns and the shinkansen gateway.
Oshamambe means crab rice — the kanimeshi bento sold at its junction station since steam-train days — plus a storied radium hot spring in the hills.
Oshamambe sits at the northern corner of Uchiura Bay where Hokkaido's southern peninsula narrows to its thinnest point, and where the railway to Sapporo splits: the Muroran Main Line along the Pacific and the Hakodate Main Line inland. That junction made the town, and its kanimeshi, crab-meat rice bento sold at the station since the 1950s, is what most people know it for. Beyond the platform are a hot-spring quarter by the station, a radium spring with a limestone dome in the hills, a coastal wetland and an easy hill with a view of the whole bay. A practical stop rather than a destination, and better for it.
- Region
- Oshima (渡島)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~157 km · 2.4 h summer / 2.9 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~141 km · 2.2 h summer / 2.6 h winter
- Best season in Oshima
- Late April–early May for Matsumae and Goryokaku cherry blossoms; the night view and markets shine year-round.
Oshamambe 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 Oshamambe
Futamata Onsen
二股温泉
Deep in the Futamata valley, a spring whose mineral water has built a huge dome of limestone deposit over centuries, protected as a natural monument of Hokkaido. The radium-bearing water has long drawn people for therapeutic stays.
Oshamambe Onsen
長万部温泉
A small hot-spring quarter a few minutes' walk across the tracks from the station, discovered in the 1950s during drilling for natural gas. Plain, hot, salty water in simple inns, convenient for a night between trains.
Shizukari Wetland
静狩湿原
A coastal peat bog at the eastern edge of town, the southernmost lowland wetland of its kind in Hokkaido, with skunk cabbage in spring and cotton grass in early summer. Reached on foot from the Shizukari district.
Mt. Shamambe
写万部山
A rounded hill on the bay side of town with a trail of a couple of hours to the top, where the whole curve of Uchiura Bay opens out, Komagatake at one end and the Iburi coast at the other. The easiest summit in the area.
Getting to Oshamambe
Oshamambe station is where the JR Hakodate Main Line and Muroran Main Line meet; every limited express between Hakodate and Sapporo stops here, about an hour and a half from Hakodate and two and a half from Sapporo. By car, National Route 5 comes from Hakodate and Route 37 heads along the Pacific toward Toya and Muroran, with an expressway interchange in town. Hakodate Airport and New Chitose are both about two hours away.
Oshima region: The Hokkaido Shinkansen arrives at Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto; Hakodate also has its own airport with Tokyo flights.
When to visit Oshamambe
May to October, when the wetland flowers, the hill trail is dry and the bay is at its calmest. Kanimeshi is sold in every season. Winter is long and the two hot springs are at their best, with the radium spring's dome steaming against the snow.
What to eat in Oshamambe
Kanimeshi, rice topped with shredded crab, is the station bento most people know the town for, sold since steam-train days. Scallops and hairy crab come from the bay, and the Shizukari coast is one of the region's kelp shores. Vegetables and dairy come from the farms inland.
Oshamambe in context: the Oshima region
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Oshima is Hokkaido's historic south — the first part of the island to open to the outside world. Hakodate wears that history beautifully: Motomachi's churches and slopes, red-brick warehouses on the bay, a morning market that justifies the trip alone, and the celebrated night view from Mt. Hakodate.