One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Shimizu清水町
Where the plain runs into the Hidaka wall
Tokachi region · Hokkaido's breadbasket — big skies, gardens and food at the source.
Shimizu sits where the Tokachi plain meets the Hidaka wall — gateway to the Millennium Forest gardens and big-sky dairy country.
Shimizu occupies the southwestern corner of the Tokachi plain, where the flat fields stop abruptly at the foot of the Hidaka range. The Nissho Pass climbs out of town toward Hidaka and central Hokkaido, and the Tokachi Millennium Forest, the largest of the garden road's landscaped gardens, lies on the mountain slope. It is dairy and beef country, home to a steak-and-egg rice bowl the town promotes as its local dish. It suits garden lovers and drivers arriving from the west who want a first stop with a view.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~134 km · 2.1 h summer / 2.4 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~169 km · 2.6 h summer / 3.1 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.
Shimizu 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 Shimizu
Tokachi Millennium Forest
十勝千年の森
A vast landscaped garden on the Hidaka foothills, part of the garden road, mixing meadow gardens, a sculpted earth garden and forest trails with the feel of a working farm.
Nissho Pass
日勝峠
National Route 274's high crossing of the Hidaka range, with a lookout on the Tokachi side over the whole plain. Snow and fog make it a serious road in winter.
Maruyama Observatory
円山展望台
A small hilltop lookout above the town with a wide view of Tokachi's checkerboard fields, the town below and the Hidaka mountains behind, best in the late light of summer.
Shimizu Park
清水公園
The town park on a wooded rise, with cherry trees in May, a pond, playgrounds and a campground, the easy green spot for a break between the expressway and the pass.
Getting to Shimizu
Tokachi-Shimizu station on the JR Nemuro Main Line is a limited express stop, about 30 minutes from Obihiro. The Doto Expressway's Tokachi-Shimizu interchange is here, about 2.5 hours from Sapporo by car, and National Route 274 climbs over the Nissho Pass. Tokachi-Obihiro Airport is about 50 minutes away.
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 Shimizu
May to October for the gardens, with June flowers, midsummer meadows and autumn colour on the foothills. Winter closes the Millennium Forest and turns the pass into a snow road, so plan around the expressway. Early May brings cherry blossom to Shimizu Park.
What to eat in Shimizu
Beef and dairy are the town's strength: locally raised young beef, milk and cheese from the foothills. The town's own dish is the steak rice bowl topped with a soft egg, served in restaurants around the centre. Fields add potatoes, wheat and beans.
Shimizu 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.