One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Sarabetsu更別村
Big-field farming and a village of plums
Tokachi region · Hokkaido's breadbasket — big skies, gardens and food at the source.
Sarabetsu farms potatoes and sugar beets on heroic scales, and grows a village orchard of northern plums.
Sarabetsu is a small farming village on the southern Tokachi plain, between Obihiro and the Pacific coast, with some of the largest single fields in Japan. Potatoes, sugar beet, wheat and beans stretch flat to the horizon, and the village's surprise is an orchard park of northern plums that flowers in spring and fruits in late summer. It is an honest slice of working Tokachi, best seen from a car window or a bicycle on the way south to Taiki and Hiroo.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~168 km · 2.6 h summer / 3.1 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~214 km · 3.3 h summer / 3.9 h winter
- Best season in Tokachi
- June–September for gardens and farm country in full growth; winter brings dry blue-sky cold and hot springs.
Sarabetsu 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 Sarabetsu
Sumomo-no-Sato plum park
すももの里
A village orchard park of hundreds of northern plum trees. White blossom in May, red fruit for picking in August, and a lawn with the fields beyond.
Michi-no-Eki Sarabetsu
道の駅さらべつ
The roadside station on National Route 236, with the village's potatoes, beans and plum products, and a good spot to break the drive between Obihiro and the coast.
Sarabetsu Country Park
更別村カントリーパーク
A village campground with grassy pitches, cabins and a park golf course, wide open under the plain's sky and quiet even in August.
Getting to Sarabetsu
About 40 minutes by car south of Obihiro on National Route 236, or 25 minutes from Tokachi-Obihiro Airport. The Obihiro-Hiroo Expressway passes through with a Sarabetsu interchange. There is no railway; the nearest station is Obihiro.
Tokachi region: Fly to Tokachi-Obihiro Airport or take the JR limited express from Sapporo (about 2.5 hours). A car unlocks the garden road.
When to visit Sarabetsu
May for plum blossom over bare fields, July to September for the crops at full height and plum picking in August, September to October for harvest. Winter is flat, white and windy.
What to eat in Sarabetsu
Potatoes and sugar beet on a heroic scale, plus wheat and beans, are what the village grows. Plums become jam, juice and sweets sold at the roadside station. Dairy and beef come from farms on the village edge.
Sarabetsu in context: the Tokachi region
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Tokachi is agricultural Hokkaido at full scale: a vast inland plain where the fields run to the horizon and much of what Japan eats is grown. Obihiro, its capital, invented butadon — the caramelized pork rice bowl — and keeps the world's only banei draft-horse racing.