One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Shinshinotsu新篠津村
A rice village with a lake of smelt-fishing tents
Ishikari region · Sapporo's city life, plus Lake Shikotsu, Jozankei Onsen and the Ishikari City coast.
Shinshinotsu is a rice village on the old Ishikari marshland — in winter its lake fills with smelt-fishing tents and a hot spring waits ashore.
Shinshinotsu is the only village in the Ishikari region, a flat expanse of rice paddies on the old marshland where the Ishikari River used to wander. Its centre is Lake Shinotsu, an oxbow left behind when the river was straightened, and the village has built its whole visitor life around it: a roadside station with a public hot spring, a campground, boats in summer and, from January, a field of tents on the ice for smelt fishing. Come for a slow day of rice country, a bath and a look at how the plain was made.
- Region
- Ishikari (石狩)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~68 km · 1 h summer / 1.2 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~37 km · 36 min summer / 42 min winter
- Best season in Ishikari
- City food in every season, beer gardens in summer and the Snow Festival in winter. Check event dates before planning.
Shinshinotsu 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 Shinshinotsu
Lake Shinotsu
しのつ湖
A crescent-shaped oxbow lake that was once a bend of the Ishikari River. Rowing boats and fishing in summer, and from January to March the frozen surface fills with heated tents for wakasagi smelt fishing.
Michi-no-Eki Shinshinotsu
道の駅しんしのつ
The roadside station (Michi-no-Eki) on the lakeshore combines a farm market of village rice and vegetables with a village-run hot spring. The place to warm up after a day on the ice.
Lakeside campground
しのつ公園キャンプ場
A flat, grassy campground beside the lake next to the hot spring, with the rice plain all around and big skies at sunset. One of the closest proper campsites to Sapporo.
The rice plain
田んぼの平野
Straight roads run between paddies to the horizon, flooded like mirrors in May, green in July and gold in September. This is what the drained Ishikari marsh became, and the village is the best place to see it whole.
Getting to Shinshinotsu
There is no railway; the village is about 50 minutes from central Sapporo by car via Route 275 and the local road across the plain, and local buses connect from JR stations in the neighbouring towns. New Chitose Airport is roughly an hour and a half. A car makes the lake and hot spring easy.
Ishikari region: New Chitose Airport and JR Sapporo Station are the main gateways. Lake Shikotsu, Jozankei and the Ishikari City coast each need their own onward bus or car journey.
When to visit Shinshinotsu
January to March for smelt fishing on the ice, the village's signature experience. May for flooded paddies at planting time, and September to October for the golden harvest and new rice at the market. Summer is quiet, with camping, boating and the hot spring at the lake.
What to eat in Shinshinotsu
Rice is the village, and the new-crop rice each autumn is the thing to carry home. Freshly caught wakasagi smelt are fried as tempura at the lake in winter. Vegetables from the paddy margins and local-rice sweets round out the roadside station's shelves.
Shinshinotsu in context: the Ishikari region
Click a town to open its page
This guide covers the wider Ishikari region, which includes Sapporo and Chitose, home to New Chitose Airport. Ishikari City, on the northern coast, is one of its eight municipalities; if that is where you are heading, use the Ishikari City page.