25 September 2026
We had a whole day in Obihiro, and since there were no horse races today, we decided to spend it exploring the city.
Obihiro is perhaps not the easiest place for a conventional city walk. There isn’t a huge shopping scene or a long list of major attractions packed into the centre, especially compared with somewhere like Sapporo or Otaru. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to do. Sometimes it simply means slowing down and seeing what the city itself has to offer.
We started our morning by walking to JR Obihiro Station to collect our manhole card. Japan’s manhole cards have become a fun little part of travelling for us because they give us another reason to visit places that we might otherwise simply pass through. Each city or municipality can have its own design, usually connected in some way to local landmarks, culture, wildlife or history.
From the station, we continued walking through the shopping area, hoping eventually to reach Obihiro Shrine.
Normally, this is exactly the sort of thing I enjoy doing. Walking through a city rather than simply driving from one attraction to another gives us a chance to notice the ordinary streets, shops and buildings along the way.
But after walking for a while, we realised that Obihiro was not giving us quite enough to keep going.
The shrine was still around 30 minutes away on foot, and with relatively little happening along the streets we were walking through, we decided to turn back and use our car instead.
Sometimes there is no point forcing ourselves to walk simply because we planned to walk.
So we saved our feet and went back for the car.
A Very Generous French Lunch
Since we already had the car, we decided to go for lunch at a French restaurant.
It was another one-chef restaurant, with the chef essentially handling the cooking himself and offering a set lunch rather than a large menu to choose from.
The portions were really big.
Between the two set lunches, we had a salad, a charcuterie plate, lamb and roast rump beef to share. The charcuterie was particularly substantial, with quite a lot of the richer and more traditional cuts and innards.
For people who enjoy eating innards and this kind of hearty meat preparation, I can imagine the meal being particularly satisfying.
For us, it was a little too much.
That said, the food was good and there was no denying that everything had been prepared with care. It was also an interesting reminder of the kind of food culture that exists around Tokachi. Obihiro sits in the middle of one of Hokkaido’s major agricultural regions, so local meat and farm produce naturally play an important part in the area’s food culture.
We weren’t looking for a particularly elaborate lunch, but it turned out to be one of those meals that left us very full before continuing with the rest of the day.
A Peaceful Afternoon at Obihiro Shrine
After lunch, we finally drove to Obihiro Shrine.
And this was where the day became much more enjoyable.
We really liked the shrine.
Unlike the fairly quiet city streets we had just been walking through, the shrine had a completely different atmosphere. It was peaceful, surrounded by small forested areas and greenery that made it feel much more secluded than we expected.
And there were squirrels jumping around.
That was probably one of my favourite parts of the visit.
We spent some time simply wandering around the shrine grounds rather than rushing through them. There wasn’t a need to do much. The combination of the traditional shrine setting, the trees and the little bits of wildlife made it a pleasant place to spend part of the afternoon.
Obihiro itself developed as a modern city during Hokkaido’s period of agricultural settlement, and its location in the Tokachi Plain has long shaped the character of the area. The region is one of Hokkaido’s major agricultural centres, with its broad plains particularly suited to farming and livestock.
The shrine provided a much quieter way of experiencing that landscape.
Instead of looking at Obihiro as a collection of tourist attractions, we were simply spending some time in one of its quieter corners.
Stationery, MUJI and the Strawberry Butter Sand Hunt
After leaving the shrine, we drove around Obihiro and visited some local stationery stores and MUJI shops.
This was another reason having the car worked better for us. Rather than spending another half hour walking between places, we could simply drive around and stop wherever we wanted.
And then we finally found something my sister had specifically asked us to look for.
The strawberry butter sand cookies.
We found them at 7-Eleven.
After seeing them and not finding them elsewhere, finally coming across them felt like a small achievement. It is funny how a very ordinary convenience-store purchase can become one of the memorable moments of a travel day when someone back home specifically asked you to find it.
With that mission successfully completed, we drove back to the hotel.
Dinner at Tarafuku
We rested for a while before heading out again for dinner at Tarafuku, a local izakaya.
We had booked earlier, and it turned out to be a very good decision.
The restaurant was fully reserved that night. There was no question of simply walking in and getting a table, so if we had not made the booking beforehand, we would not have been able to eat there.
Once we arrived, we ordered sashimi, yakitori and a few other dishes.
Knowing that we were foreigners, the staff guided us towards the English menu and did their best to make sure we were comfortable ordering. It was a small thing, but these little gestures make a difference when travelling, especially in a restaurant that is clearly popular with local diners.
The atmosphere was lively, the food was good, and after a fairly quiet day around the city, it was nice to finish the evening somewhere with a little more energy.
Ending the Day with an Onsen
After dinner, we returned to our hotel.
The onsen soak at the hotel helped a lot as well.
After a day that started with walking around the city, changed into a driving day, took us to a peaceful shrine, involved some stationery shopping and a successful 7-Eleven snack hunt, and ended with sashimi and yakitori, soaking in the onsen was a very satisfying way to finish.
Obihiro may not have the concentrated sightseeing or shopping scene that makes some Japanese cities immediately exciting.
We didn’t spend the day rushing from one famous attraction to another. We walked a little, drove a little, ate a lot, found the things we were looking for, spent some quiet time at the shrine, and ended the evening with good food and an onsen.
Transport & practical notes
For Obihiro, a car can be useful if you want to combine the city centre with places that are more spread out. We initially tried walking from JR Obihiro Station towards Obihiro Shrine, but eventually decided to return for the car rather than spend another 30 minutes walking when there wasn’t much along the route that particularly interested us.
If you are eating at a popular local izakaya such as Tarafuku, booking ahead is worth considering. In our case, the restaurant was fully reserved that evening, so walking in would not have worked.
Most importantly, I would not plan Obihiro as though it were another Sapporo or Otaru. The experience is more spread out, and having a car gives you much more flexibility to decide during the day whether somewhere is worth walking to or whether it makes more sense to drive.
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