Naitai Highland Farm
licensed photographpakku / CC BY 3.0

Hokkaido · KamishihoroNo.966★★Open in map →

Naitai Highland Farm

localOff the trail — and worth it

A public grazing farm on the hills above Kamishihoro in eastern Hokkaido, with one road climbing through the pasture to a rest house and a view across the whole Tokachi plain. The gate is unlocked only for the grazing season.

  1. FromObihiro Station
  2. ~60-90 minBus to Kamishihoro, then a car
  3. Get off atKamishihoro Kotsu Terminal (Tokachi Bus / Takushoku Bus)
  4. From there
  5. Naitai Highland Farm
Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is not a tourist ranch. It is grazing land held in common by the town's farms, so what decides whether it is open is the grazing calendar rather than the visitor season: the gate is unlocked for the grass months and shut for the winter. Add an hour or more of driving from Obihiro and no bus that climbs the hill, and the place stays thin. It is not hidden — the window is simply short.

Where it is

102 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

The grazing slopespakku / CC BY 3.0
  1. The entrance gatethe gate at the foot of the hill, unlocked only through the grazing season
  2. The road through the pastureone lane climbing through open grass with stock fencing on both sides
  3. Naitai Terracethe rest house on the ridge, holding a view cafe, a shop and a gallery hall
  4. The view over the Tokachi plainfields, shelterbelts and distant ranges laid out flat below the ridge
  5. The grazing slopesherds spread across the hillsides in the warm months, with sika deer sometimes among them

How to actually get there

  1. Obihiro Station bus terminal → Kamishihoro Kotsu Terminal on the Kamishihoro line (Tokachi Bus / Takushoku Bus, about 40-50 minutes).
  2. Pick up a car in the town, or hire one in Obihiro beforehand, and head northwest out towards the farm.
  3. Pass the entrance gate at the foot of the hill, then follow the single road up through the grass to the rest house on the ridge.
  4. Come back down the same road and be through the gate before it is locked for the day.
Bus to Kamishihoro, then a car
No bus climbs to the farm, and no railway reaches Kamishihoro either, so the public leg is the Kamishihoro line from Obihiro Station bus terminal to Kamishihoro Kotsu Terminal, run jointly by Tokachi Bus and Takushoku Bus, in roughly 40 to 50 minutes. Everything above that is by car. Official guidance for driving the whole way from Obihiro ranges from about an hour to an hour and a half, so plan on the longer figure.
Down the same road to Kamishihoro
The way back is the single road down to the gate and on into town, where the Obihiro bus leaves from the same terminal. Services thin out towards evening and some runs do not operate at weekends or on holidays, so check the return before you drive up. Whatever the timetable says, the gate itself is locked at closing time.
Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Naitai Highland Farm covers the hill slopes northwest of Kamishihoro, in the Tokachi region of eastern Hokkaido. At about 1,700 hectares, both the town and the farm's own operator describe it as the largest public pasture in Japan. Around 2,000 dairy cattle are turned out here through the warm months, thinly enough that the hillsides still read as grass rather than as livestock. One road climbs from the entrance gate to a rest house near the top of the ridge, at roughly 800 metres. From up there the Tokachi plain opens out below, flat to the far ranges.

How to enjoy it

The gate opens at seven in the morning, and from June through September it stays open until seven in the evening, so the window is widest in midsummer and narrows at both ends of the season. The rest house keeps shorter hours than the gate, roughly nine to five, which makes the first stretch after opening the plateau without a queue at the counter. Because both the season and the hours are set around the grazing year and can move, check the town's own page before you set out.

Background & history

The pasture was completed in 1972, laid out as a public one — grazing land held in common by the farms of the district rather than owned by any single farm — on ground too high and too cold to crop. The name Naitai is taken from the river below the slope, which in turn goes back to an Ainu phrase for a deep ravine. The rest house near the top of the road came very much later, and it is what gives the farm its public face today.

Before you go

Cash
There is no admission charge for the farm and the car park is free. The only place you are likely to spend anything is the rest house on the ridge, and it is a small rural counter, so carry cash as well as a card.
Good to know
The gate is open only from late April to late October and is closed through the winter. Within the season the farm does not take a rest day, but the town notes that opening can change with the weather. Hours differ by month as well, running latest in midsummer, so confirm on the official page before setting out.
Another way
Coming by expressway, Otofuke-Obihiro on the Doto Expressway is the exit used from the Sapporo and Chitose direction. The Kamishihoro line bus also continues north past the town to the hot-spring village of Nukabira Onsenkyo, so the farm folds into a run up that valley.
After you get off
Kamishihoro Kotsu Terminal sits in the middle of town, and the farm is up in the hills to the northwest of it. There is no bus for that leg, so arrange a car or a taxi in Obihiro or in the town itself. The last stretch is one lane running through the pasture.

Nearby notes

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Distances are straight lines on the map, not travel times.