1-Day Tour Sapporo: The port city of Otaru & Local Brewery

Discover the highlights of Otaru on a full-day guided tour from Sapporo. Visit the Otaru Canal, Kitaichi Glass Factory, Otaru Music Box Museum, and more. Enjoy a delicious lunch at a local eatery and try your hand at making your own glassware.

Meet your guide at Sapporo Station and begin your day with a walk along the Otaru Canal. Admire the brick and stone warehouses that line the canal, a reminder of Otaru's role as a trading hub for Hokkaido during the rapid industrialization of Japan in the Meiji and Taisho periods.

After leaving the canal, head towards Sakaimachi Street and have lunch at one of the many eateries. After lunch, visit the Kitaichi Glass Factory. Learn about the history of the factory and try your hand at making your own glassware product to take back home.

Next, visit the Otaru Music Box Museum and experience the heavenly music played by an Aeolian pipe organ. See rare glimpses of local antique music boxes. Make your own unique music box at the Handicraft Studio (optional).

Continue to the Otaru Steam Clock, a gift from Vancouver, Canada to Otaru in June of 1994. Watch as a boiler sends steam into the clock, and whose steam whistle blows hourly to tell the time. In addition, every 15 minutes, the clock plays the same melody as the chimes of Westminster Abbey in London.

Finally, quench your thirst at the Germain Beer Brewery/Warehouse #1. Located in a quaint-rustic warehouse, it sits right along the canal. Enjoy great beer inside a wooden beer hall type atmosphere with shiny copper tanks. Try German-style pretzels and schnitzel.