Travel Guide Abashiri

The city of Abashiri, known in Japan for its brick prison, Abashiri Kangoku, is associated with the word "prison" in the Japanese imagination, like Alcatraz in the Western world. However, for the average tourist, the main interest of this port of 35,000 inhabitants will be to visit it between the end of January and March, in order to see it caught in the ice. The drifting ice is the symbol of winter in Abashiri. This natural phenomenon has had a considerable influence on the local culture, and the motif of this type of ice is present in art, dance and music. Abashiri even holds an annual ice festival. The icebreaker Aurora takes tourists several times a day to the port for one-hour trips in the Sea of Okhotsk (check with the tourist office for schedules and availability)