We’ve stayed in Otaru before, but it impressed more this time for some reason. Perhaps it was because we stayed at the good value OMO5 Hotel in the thick of the action near the canal and main tourist shopping precinct, we so could explore the restaurants and shops more readily.

Otaru has become more popular with Asian tourists since we last stayed so it’s more geared up for international tourists. This didn’t detract from the cultural appeal of the little city, with the possible exception of the seafood market which was jam packed with tourists queuing up to eat at the market.

In addition to checking out some of the ski areas, we enjoyed just hanging out in the town aka city. We had an exquisite dinner at the OMO5 Hotel one night and explored other restaurants on other evenings. There were so many restaurants to choose from that have great offerings, although one exception was the Naruto Chicken Shop which we’d heard people rave about. It was certainly cheap but the chicken was rather disappointing.

Otaru is a great place to stay to explore the nearby ski areas. Hopefully you’ll get a feel for Otaru via our little video.
See our video here

After a mega powderous day at Kiroro, we stayed in Otaru for a few nights as a base to ski Tenguyama and Sapporo Teine. We stayed at the Grand Park Otaru Hotel which was a lovely deluxe hotel and our spacious room overlooked the water. The hotel was well priced considering the quality of the hotel and that it was the start of the Snow Light Path Festival. The food wasn’t inexpensive but sitting in the bar or restaurant with views across the water was rather special, and there were cheap eateries in the adjacent shopping centre for a bit of variety.

The opening of the Snow Light Path Festival was rather crazy. It was quite pretty with the town being decorated in many lights and the canal being illuminated, but there were just too many people. The festival coincided with Chinese New Year and there were throngs of tourists squashed onto paths with way too many selfie sticks, and no thoughts for crowd control. Our advice would be to visit the festival on a night other than opening night!

We really enjoyed wandering around Otaru and exploring all its nooks and crannies. We particularly enjoyed a visit to Otaru’s answer to the Sapporo ramen alley, although the Otaru Renga Alley doesn’t just have ramen but Italian cuisine and sushi too, of course. We highly recommend a stay in Otaru because it provides a real Japanese experience, accommodation provides good value for money, and the nearby ski resorts are not highly trafficked (except for Kiroro on a powder day!).
See our video here