One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Urahoro浦幌町
Grain fields that end at a Pacific cliff
Tokachi region · Obihiro food, Tokachigawa Onsen and seasonal gardens on the Tokachi Plain.
Urahoro rolls from Tokachi grain fields down to a wild Pacific shore — quiet farm country with clifftop ocean lookouts.
Urahoro is the eastern edge of Tokachi, where the grain fields roll over low hills and drop to a wild stretch of Pacific coast on the way to Kushiro. Its best-known spot is a clifftop lookout at Konbukariishi with nothing between you and the curve of the horizon. Inland there are a hot spring in the hills, a town museum on the Ainu and settler past, and a roadside station on the main road. It is an unhurried stop for drivers between Obihiro and Kushiro.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~220 km · 3.4 h summer / 4 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~257 km · 3.9 h summer / 4.7 h winter
- Best season in Tokachi
- Late spring to autumn for gardens and green farmland; seasonal gardens such as Manabe Garden close in winter, when food, onsen and snowy scenery shape the trip.
Urahoro 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 Urahoro
Konbukariishi Observatory
昆布刈石展望台
A lookout on the sea cliffs east of the Tokachi River mouth, reached by a gravel road, with a clear view along the coast and out to a horizon that visibly curves. Fog can hide it all in summer.
Urahoro Museum
浦幌町立博物館
The town museum covers the Ainu people of the coast, the settlers who broke the fields and the natural history of the river mouth, with a good collection of everyday objects.
Ruma Onsen
留真温泉
A town-run hot spring in the hills north of the centre, known for its alkaline water and a quiet valley setting under forest, a different face of a town otherwise known for its fields and coast.
Michi-no-Eki Urahoro
道の駅うらほろ
The roadside station on National Route 38 near the centre, with the town's beans, wheat products and seafood from the coast, a convenient break between Obihiro and Kushiro.
Getting to Urahoro
Urahoro station on the JR Nemuro Main Line is about an hour from Obihiro by local train; limited expresses toward Kushiro also stop. National Route 38 runs through the town and Route 336 follows the coast. By car it is a little over an hour from Obihiro and an hour from Kushiro, and Tokachi-Obihiro Airport is about 1.5 hours.
Tokachi region: Tokachi-Obihiro Airport and JR Obihiro Station are the main gateways. Plan the last stretch separately: the airport bus into the city, a local bus or taxi to the racecourse or onsen, and a car or taxi for gardens outside the centre.
When to visit Urahoro
August to September, when the wheat has been cut and the beans ripen and the coast is at its least foggy. October to November for salmon at the river mouths. Winter is sharp and bright inland, and the cliff lookout is at its clearest on cold days.
What to eat in Urahoro
Wheat, beans and potatoes from the hills, beef and dairy from pastures inland, and salmon, kelp and shishamo from the short coastline. Konbukariishi itself is named for the kelp once harvested below the cliffs.
Urahoro in context: the Tokachi region
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Tokachi is an eastern Hokkaido region of 19 municipalities spread across the Tokachi Plain, a wide farming area that reaches far beyond Obihiro city. Obihiro is the usual base, with butadon pork rice bowls, sweets and banei racing, in which heavy draft horses pull sleds along a course.