Mashike/Teuri/Yagishiri Enjoy a range of dishes from seafood to famous meats in our gourmet towns

If you want to buy freshly caught seafood, go to the Harbor Market where seafood is taken straight from the harbor. Sweet shrimp are delivered to the market alive to preserve their freshness. You can also get your hands on octopus, scallops, whelk and flatfish at affordable prices. If it’s longer-lasting foodstuffs you’re after, we recommend “Sweet Shrimp Hamazuke” – salted sweet shrimp – and “Salmon Roe Aburazuke” – salmon roe in soy sauce, using roe gathered only on Mashike’s beach. The eggs of the sculpin fish, preserved in a soy sauce mix, go well with rice, and are a popular accompaniment to alcoholic beverages.

Founded in 1882 and in continuous operation since then, this brewery produces high-grade saké using pure water from the Shokanbetsu Mountains. The brewery moved to its current location in 1902. The venerable old building was selected as “Hokkaido Heritage” – select treasures of Hokkaido to be preserved for future generations – and is one of the oldest buildings in Mashike. You can take a tour of the brewery and try out the wares in the “saké-testing corner”. Also, in the warehouse shop there are some varieties of saké that can only be bought here.

With high mineral-content water from the Shokanbetsu Mountains, and other favorable conditions such as a climate with daily temperature differences and excellent soil, fruit cultivation thrives in Mashike. You can enjoy cherry, plum, and grape-picking from July to September, while Mashike Fruit Winery produces sparkling wine from apples and pears grown in Mashike. Made without any added flavorings, colourings or sweeteners, the wine preserves the taste of each year’s fruit. The characteristics of each year’s fruit are published on the winery’s website.

Haboro is about an hour and a half north of Mashike on the Ororon Line road, and is known for catching the most sweet shrimp in the whole of Japan! Ebina Fishery practices the basket fishing method, which minimizes damage to the shrimp. The directly-managed factory has many processed shrimp products that make ideal souvenirs, with the “Saké-steamed Shrimp” especially popular. The “Shrimp Rice Bowl” in the dining area also attracts a lot of attention, with so many shrimp piled on top that you can barely see the rice. With set meals made with seasonal fish and shellfish, you can enjoy all kinds of seafood from the Japan Sea.

Even remote islands in the Japan Sea have their own famous dish. Char-Grilled Seafood Banya is about ten minutes’ walk from Teuri Island’s ferry terminal. You can eat seafood rice bowls piled high with fresh fish caught in the sea right in front of you. It’s a special treat to eat with the smell of the sea air around you. Depending on the season, you can eat scallops, squid, flatfish and so on, cooked on a charcoal grill. From June until August you can also try char-grilled uni (sea urchin), which tastes quite different from the raw version. The restaurant is open from late April until late September.

※The operating period may change due to COVID-19. In addition, cooking with the charcoal grill will be suspended until the end of the pandemic.

Shimakko Cafe is a short walk from Yagishiri Island ferry terminal. Here you can eat uni rice bowls made with northern purple sea urchins and ezo bafun urchins. Have your fill of these rich and firm uni! Yagishiri Island is also famous as a place where Suffolk sheep graze. These sheep are raised on grass blown by the sea breeze, and their meat is sometimes called “Yagishiri Pré-Salé”, in comparison to the finest French lamb. While the amount of meat produced is small, and most of what is produced ends up on the tables of high-class Tokyo French restaurants, depending on the season it may be possible to try some in this restaurant, cooked on a charcoal grill. The meat only has a little of the characteristic smell of lamb, so it’s worth a try even for those who don’t usually like lamb. This restaurant is open in the long holiday at the beginning of May, and from the middle of June until the end of September.

※The operating period may change due to COVID-19.