Sapporo to Otaru

There are 2 trains to Otaru from Sapporo station, local or express train. Local takes longer to reach, about an hour, express takes half an hour. 

The ride is beautiful as the track runs right by the side of the sea for almost half of the distance. Getting off at the station, you can get a map and help on what to do from the counter on the right.  I would have stayed a night in Otaru if I hadn't booked my stay at Richmond hotel. 

Once we got to Otaru, we took a train to Nikka Whisky Yoichi    7-6 Kurokawa-cho, Yoichi-cho, Yoichi-gun, Hokkaido 046-0003 , Japan  +81 135-23-3131 which I highly recommend. 

The Nikka Whisky Distillery is located just a few steps west of Yoichi Station on the JR Hakodate Line. Yoichi Station can be reached in about 25 minutes by local trains from Otaru (350 yen, hourly departures) or in about one hour from Sapporo (1040 yen, requires a transfer at Otaru).

The Nikka distillery is a great place to visit for tasting whisky. They have about 8 positions throughout the distillery with English (and other languages) videos explaining the process. It is a free tour, and you get to taste whisky of different age. And I love the great tasting and fragrant apple juice too!

  

At Yoichi , there are a number of local shops where you can get fresh and dried seafood as well as local products.

After the whisky tasting at Nikka Whisky distillery, we went back to Otaru and stroll along Sakaimachi Street. It was a really lovely street to just stroll and enjoy the work of the many artists here plus the lovely music from the Otaru Orgel Museum Main Building  

This place feels almost magical. The music box tune was playing in the background and you see all sorts of sparkly boxes and musical ornaments. Its located nearer to Minami Otaru station. 

A tip: Don't bother to buy all the Japanese confectioneries that tourists buy while in Japan e.g. Kitakaro, rokkatei, le tao etc. Instead, you can buy the more unique art pieces that are sold by the local artists there.

Lunch at Sakaimachi Street, Otaru. We had simple and inexpensive lunch here.

And the best melon ice cream I have ever tasted was in Otaru

Otaru Canal during late afternoon and at dusk. I strongly recommend that you at least stay till sun down at Otaru to experience the immensely beautiful night scenery especially along the Otaru River and the musical street. But please bear in mind that many eateries and shops closes at 6-7pm. Department stores eg Diamaru and Takashimaya closes at 8pm. Therefore do have an early dinner before roaming ard Otaru after sundown.