Eat & drink食べる・飲む

From the grill

Shinko-yaki新子焼き

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Half a young chicken, grilled plain until crisp.^⁠[24]

Shinko-yaki appeared after the war and is still a local favorite. Several shops serve it in the Gonana Kōji Furarito market alley.^⁠[24]

Read the story: Asahikawa ramen

Sake

Otokoyama男山

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A sake brewery that began in 1887 and now exports to more than 20 countries.^⁠[19]

It began as Yamazaki Shuzo and in 1968 took over the historic Otokoyama brand from the Itami brewers in western Japan who had made it in the Edo period. In 1977 its junmai daiginjō won a Mondo Selection gold medal, the first for a Japanese sake.^⁠[19]

The free sake museum in Nagayama gets about 200,000 visitors a year. Its spring water, known as “Water of Long Life”, is free to take, up to 20 L per person.^⁠[27]

On the second Sunday of February the brewery opens its doors, with new sake to taste.^⁠[19][27]

Read the story: Hokkai no Nada

Sake

Taisetsu no Kura大雪乃蔵

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Godo Shusei’s brewery label, one of the city’s three sake breweries.^⁠[2]

Asahikawa’s nickname, “Hokkai no Nada”, compares it to Nada, Japan’s most famous brewing district. Three brewers still work here: Otokoyama, Takasago Shuzo and Godo Shusei’s Taisetsu no Kura.^⁠[2]

Read the story: Hokkai no Nada

Beer

Taisetsu Ji Beer大雪地ビール

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Asahikawa’s craft beer, brewed with Daisetsuzan water.^⁠[2][8]

It is brewed with Daisetsuzan water and malt made from wheat grown on nearby farms.^⁠[8]

The beer hall is in Warehouse No. 11 of the Kamikawa Sōko warehouses, which are registered Tangible Cultural Properties.^⁠[4][1]

Crafts to take home

Carved wooden bears木彫り熊

Hokkaido’s classic souvenir began in Asahikawa, among the Chikabumi Ainu.^⁠[16]

In 1891, as Meiji settlement began, the Ainu living around Asahikawa were moved to Chikabumi. Ten years later the army’s 7th Division moved in next door. The Chikabumi Ainu fought another attempt to move them, protesting to the Hokkaido government and in Tokyo, and were allowed to stay, but were left with free use of only one-fifth of the land set aside for them, on flood-prone ground by the Ishikari.^⁠[16]

People turned to selling souvenirs to soldiers and their families, and the carved wooden bear was born there.^⁠[16]

Carved bears became Hokkaido’s classic souvenir in the tourist booms of the late 1950s to early 1970s. In the postwar booms, the Chikabumi kotan (Ainu village) was the center of Asahikawa tourism.^⁠[16]

Read the story: Ainu heritage