Animal/Interaction
We introduce spots where you can interact with animals around the surrounding areas.
Of course, watching rare animals is fun, but there are also spots where you can interact with animals directly such as horseback riding, and feeding animals. Let's find living creatures unique to Hokkaido!
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Let the themed gardens and ranch full of animals soothe you. Popular for its cute alpaca soft-serve, and its lunches of pizzas and hamburger patties.
Ecorin Village is a small community made with the goal of "lessening environmental burden and contributing to the shaping of a more sustainable society". This roughly 40 hectare area contains the "green ranch" where alpaca and sheep graze, the "galaxy garden" filled with themed gardens, and various hands-on farming experiences and nature activities. "Forest Restaurant Tenman" looks like a little hideaway built from warm stone and wood, where you can enjoy a slow lunch. "Camel House" has a recommended seasonal menu as well as a wide selection of pizzas, pastas, hamburger patties etc. The famous alpaca soft-serve is a local speciality, with a marshmellow on the head, and chocolate and bolo made to look like the alpaca’s head.
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30 minutes by car from the centre of Sapporo. With nature at your back, playful animals come to greet your family
Earthdream Kakuyama Farm is your best way to meet so many different animals. First is the petting mansion, the highlight of the petting zoo area. Alpacas, a particularly unique animal, are all waiting there and eager to see you. Horses, lambs, goats, mini-pigs, rabbits, dogs, cats, and other more familiar animals are also there. Feeding, as well as walking, riding, or sledding with horses are also an option here. If it suddenly starts to rain, try the Dreamland Children’s Kingdom. From treehouses to net climbing, it offers a range of indoor exercises. The store has Tonden Farm’s original sausage on the bone, Ishikari River bacon, beef hamburgers and more, all available at the outlet price.
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Enjoy dolphin shows and exhibits of big northern fish,
then go to the marine animal park to meet seals and sea lions!A historic aquarium situated on the higher parts of Shukutsu. The exhibition of enormous northern creatures shows off the Sakhalin Taimen (the biggest freshwater fish native to Japan), and the 1.2m halibut, a relative of flounders that can reach 2.5m in size! You can also meet the giant pacific octopus, which reaches as much as 20kg in weight. There’s also a pool kept at 3℃ where you can touch various marine animals, making it a very Hokkaido-like aquarium. One of the biggest traits here is the marine animal park, which makes use of the natural sea. Imposing sea lions and a full 50 seals live here. Additionally, there are multiple harbour porpoises, which are hardly ever seen in the country. Sea lion diving and dolphin shows are frequently held events here, so try to plan an efficient timeframe to match those. For souvenirs, we recommend the plushes of marine animals that can be bought in the gift shop near the exit.
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Enjoy the nature, which is typical of Hokkaido, and Ishikari Lighthouse, a symbol of Ishikari City.
180 kinds of beach plants grow naturally on the coastal topography called sand spit, which was formed over a long period of time by the intersection of the Sea of Japan and Ishikari River. A part of the site is also designated as a protected area of Ishikari City for beach plants. Ishikari Lighthouse, which stands at the entrance of the park and features red and white stripes, is a proof that a vast sand spit was gradually formed over 100 years by the flow of the river and the waves of the sea. In the park of about 46 hectares, you can enjoy a variety of flowers in each season such as ramanas rose, which is the origin of the park's name, viola grayi, beach pea, bindweed, lilium pensylvanicum, and solidago virgaurea. The best time to see ramanas rose is from late June to early July. You can feel the expression of the seasons that change from season to season as well as early summer. Many locals frequently visit this park that is also popular as a bird watching spot and a wide variety of wild birds come to all the year round such as larks, Japanese bush warbler, and eagles. ''Hamanasunooka Park Visitor Center'', which has a resting space, sells Ishikari's special products and ramanas rose related products. What we particularly recommend is the Original Hamanasu Soft Serve, which is pale pink, and has an elegant scent of ramanas rose. Please enjoy the popular taste while feeling the booming of the sea and the pleasant sea breeze of Ishikari Beach.
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You can interact with many animals, and experience activities in the guest ranch.
Heidi Farm is where you can enjoy interacting with animals and a variety of activities. There are full of animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and rabbits in the animal zone where you get to see first when you enter the park. At the right time, you can see baby animals, or even a birth scene! The experiences that you can feed a baby goat or sheep with milk in a baby bottle, or milk a cow and feel the warmth of them are distinctive of a ranch. You can also experience horseback riding around the course in about 10 minutes on the shaking back of a horse at the horseback riding section. The staff will pull the horse, so inexperienced people can also enjoy it safely. I want to have fun by moving my body to the fullest! For you, there are a variety of activities such as archery, park golf, and fishing ponds where you can catch carp! If you like cooking, we recommend the experiences of making raw caramel, butter, and ice cream using special recipes. You can also experience digging potatoes in autumn. Of course, you can also bring back potatoes that you harvest home! Take a break with a light meal or a special soft serve ice cream at the "Café Train･Clara" after having fun to the fullest. The exterior / interior of the café is train-shaped. Let's also enjoy Genghis Khan, which is a speciality of Naganuma town, at "Genghis Khan Higashiya" to your heart's content on weekends.
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15 minutes by car from the airport.Delicious! Fun! You can enjoy your time with peace of mind in the comfortable space suitable for families
The first thing that surprises you is the richness of the food court. Gourmet foods that represent Hokkaido such as “Soup curry” and “Pork rice bowl” are certainly lined up. Even locals are enthusiastically into popular shops and restaurants such as "Milky Bell" that uses raw milk from “Hosozawa Farm” in the suburb of Chitose, and “Firewood kiln pizza studio Pizza Do” that uses local ingredients of Chitose thoroughly such as wheat, cheese, vegetables and meat for all of its menu. The ramen restaurant “Ezomen shinogonoiwazu”which was opened in 2019 is particularly recommended. The commitment and quality of its menu is beyond what we would expect from a roadside station food court. You can select from 3 types of soup, chicken, shrimps and oysters, and the side menu is also abundant. Going there just for this ramen is well worthy. Besides gourmet foods, there are also an interactive mapping where the image changes in response to motions, and a playground produced by the popular playground equipment brand, Bornelund. There are plenty of playground equipment outside to fully enjoy playing, so you won't get bored even if you stay for a long time. The souvenir section is also substantial. From summer to autumn, colorful, fresh vegetables are gathered at the farmers market from local farmers. “Salmon Hometown Chitose Aquarium”, which is located near Salmon Park Chitose is also recommended to visit. An artificial hatching and release project for salmon is being carried out in Chitose River which runs through the site. Salmon that have swum upstream are landed on "Indian Water Wheel” every autumn. It can reach 30,000 salmon a day when it's a lot.