Esashi | Travel

Old Nakamura House

旧中村家

2min walk from Nakauta-cho bus stop

Dating from the late-Edo period, this former wholesaler’s house offers insight into Esashi’s heyday history of trading and herring fishing. The house was right on the waterfront, and a barge of cargo ships landed here.

Old Hiyama-Nishi-gun Government Office (Esashi Town Museum)

旧檜山爾志郡役所・江差町郷土資料館

4min walk from Nakauta-cho bus stop

Once the region’s government office with a police station, Esashi’s historical museum occupies a Western-style beautiful timbered building constructed in 1887. You can tour the restored interior, local-history artifacts and annual events month by month. From the verandah there are views over the town.

Old Sekikawa Summer House

旧関川家別荘

15min walk from Nakauta-cho bus stop

Completed in the late-Edo period, this wooden summer house contains relics of the Sekikawa family, once the richest merchant of the Matsumae clan. The kura (warehouse) is crammed with displays of furnishings. In the grounds there is a Japanese garden (Ezodate Park). It is about a 10-minute walk northeast of the town center.

Esashi Oiwake Hall

江差追分会館

1min walk from Nakauta-cho bus stop

One of Japan’s representative folk songs, Esashi Oiwake has been singing from the Edo period. This is a usual venue for performances the Esashi Oiwake and Hokkaido’s major folk songs by local singers three times a day from late April to late October. You can expect to hear the master’s songs from the Meiji period at the reference room. Two gorgeous floats for the local shinto festival also displayed here.

Kaiyo-maru

開陽丸

5min walk from Ubagami-cho-Ferry-mae bus stop

The Edo shogunate’s battle ship Kaiyo-maru was built in the Netherlands in 1866, but it sank off the coast of Esashi during the Boshin civil war of 1868. This re-created museum ship, berthed outside Kamome-jima, is made up of 3000 historical relics retrieved from the Kaiyo-maru, including the German cannons, pistols and swords.

Kamome-jima

かもめ島

5min walk from Kaiyo-maru

This seagull-shaped tied island is easily reached on foot from the town center, with small beaches, footpaths, historic sites, a free campsite (mid Apr-mid Oct) and a lighthouse overlooking the town. Joined by a sacred rope, Heishi-iwa (瓶子岩) rock lies just offshore from the sandy beach.

Photo: じゃらんnet

Ryotei Kuki ♨︎

旅庭 群来

5min walk from Ubagami-cho-Ferry-mae bus stop

Located at the gateway of Kamome-jima near Kaiyo-maru, Ryotei Kuki is Esashi’s most luxury and eco-friendly ryokan. All the spacious suites have its own private baths. Dinner is a creative kaiseki affair featuring delicacies from local farms and fishing ports.

Website

じゃらんnet

Photo: じゃらんnet

Hotel New Esashi

ホテルニューえさし

2min walk from Shinchi-cho bus stop

About 1km south of Esashi ferry terminal, this Showa-style hotel right in the nightlife district has simple Japanese- and Western-style rooms.

Website

じゃらんnet

Photo: じゃらんnet

Gamushi Onsen Ryokan ♨︎

俄虫温泉旅館

2.5km from Assabu bus stop

About 2.5km northeast of Central Assabu is this quiet ryokan in the countryside, spacious tatami-mat rooms, with indoor and open-air onsen. The staffs will pick you up from Assabu bus stop if you call ahead.

Website

じゃらんnet