What Wonderful Travels in Hokkaido, JAPAN!: Mashike （増毛） Half Day Walking Tour

Monday, March 19, 2012

Mashike （増毛） Half Day Walking Tour

As a tour guide, I made a model course for a half-day walking tour in Mashike.
Mashike is a small town, which had been flourished in the 18th to the mid-20th century, when a lot of herring were caught off this fishing town.

This is JR Mashike Station, a terminal station of Rumoi main line. Look at the station sign, which is vertically written, and very classical!

Although this is now a quiet station without a station master, it was packed with a lot of customers during the halcyon years.
This station was used for a famous scene in "Station", a Japanese movie, whose lead is Ken Takakura.

Just in front of the station, we will see "Inn Tomitaya （旅館富田屋）" constructed in 1919. This was chosen as a location for "The Catch （魚影の群れ）", a Japanese movie released in 1983.

Go straight the Mashike Port Street （道道増毛港線）, we will find "Sushi Matsukura （寿司のまつくら）", and enjoy

a northern shrimp bowl or

a seafood bowl! Yummy x 2!!! The seafood here is unbelievably delicious!
*Detailed information→Please click here!

After eating lunch, let's enjoy something historical, agian!
This is Itsukushima Shrine （厳島神社）, constructed about 250 years ago.

Shrine foo dogs and stone lanterns are original.

The wooden tablets, its ceiling, and drawings are very beautiful!

Go up to the same slope, and we will find "Mashike Elementally School （増毛小学校）", constructed in 1936.

This is the largest and oldest existing wooden elementally school in Hokkaido, and surprisingly it is still used!

The gym is also wooden! Wow!

Go down the same slop to the Mashike Port Street （道道増毛港線）, and we will find the residence of the Honma Family （旧商家丸本間家）.

Taizo Honma, from Niigata, established a kimono boutique in 1874, then expanded his business to a general store, the transportation industry, the herring fishery and a sake brewery. He was a super rich merchant!

The trade name was cave in each roof tile. Wonderful, isn't it?
Basically this is a Japanese-style building, but we will find Western room ornaments such as pendent lumps in a guest room.

The admission is 400 yen. Please enjoy this national important cultural asset.

How about "Restaurant Shimagwa （志満川食堂）" across from the residence?

It used to be a shipping agency, and now is a restaurant.
While the residence of the Honma Family is a Japanese-style architecture, this is half-Japanese and half-Western building structure.

When you come to Mashike, you must visit here!
"Kunimare Sake Brewery （国稀酒造株式会社）" is the northernmost sake brewery in Japan, founded in 1881by Taizo Honma.