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Tokachi Butadon

— Obihiro's grilled pork rice bowl

foodThe classic — done right

Pork grilled in a sweet soy glaze and laid over rice — the dish Obihiro worked out on Hokkaido's biggest farming plain. A lane of small stalls near the station is the public way in.

FromObihiro Station (JR Nemuro Main Line)
~5 minWalk from Obihiro Station
Tokachi Butadon

Directions ↗

Where it is

102 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

Obihiro Station north exitthe street-level face of an elevated station
Esta Obihirothe shopping floors built into the station itself
Ikinuki-dorithe street the stall lane opens onto
Entrance to Kita no Yataia timber sign wall under a line of paper lanterns
The stall laneabout twenty counters facing each other along one passage

How to actually get there

Sapporo → Obihiro by the Tokachi or Ozora limited express on the JR Nemuro Main Line.
Obihiro Station north exit → street level (the platforms are elevated).
North exit → Nishi 1-jo Minami 10-chome, about a five-minute walk.
Walk the lane once past the stalls before choosing a counter.

Limited express to Obihiro, then a short walk: Obihiro is on the JR Nemuro Main Line and is served by the Tokachi and Ozora limited expresses from Sapporo. The station is elevated, so come down to street level and head north. The lane of stalls is about five minutes away on foot, which is the walking time both the operator and Hokkaido's official travel site give.
Return from Obihiro Station: Limited expresses run back toward Sapporo from the same elevated platforms. The stalls keep evening hours, so if you are eating late, check the last departure before you sit down rather than after.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Tokachi is farm country, and butadon is what its kitchens made of that. Pork is grilled rather than simmered, glazed with soy and sugar, and set straight onto rice, usually with shredded white spring onion and sometimes green peas on top. The Ministry of Agriculture files it as a Hokkaido regional dish and notes it is eaten all year, at home as much as in restaurants. Obihiro sits at the centre of the plain, and its station is raised above the street with the Esta building inside it. Two blocks north, a single lane of stalls run by a local cooperative gives the region's food a front door that anyone can walk up to.

How to enjoy it

The lane is an evening place — the stalls run from about 17:00 to midnight and each sets its own rest day, so the visit belongs after dark rather than at lunch. Counters are small, which is the point: you sit beside whoever came in before you. If dates matter to you, 10 February is registered as butadon day.

Background & history

Pig farming reached the Tokachi plain at the end of the Meiji era, and by the close of the Taisho era pork had become ordinary food there. The bowl itself is credited to a diner in Obihiro in 1933. Eel over rice was the model, but eel was expensive, so the cook kept the sweet glaze and changed the animal. The dish stayed local for decades before it was taken up as one of Hokkaido's regional foods.

Before you go

Cash: Walking the lane costs nothing; you pay only at the stall you choose. Each stall is an independent business, so assume cash is welcome everywhere and card is not guaranteed, and settle at the counter where you ate.
Good to know: The stalls open in the evening, generally from 17:00 to around midnight, and each one sets its own closing day. Nothing there is a daytime stop. Winter in Tokachi is cold and dry with snow underfoot, so the walk from the station wants proper shoes.
Another way: From the south side of the station you can cross under the tracks and come up on the north side, which is the flatter approach if you are carrying luggage.
After you get off: Leave Obihiro Station by the north exit and walk north along the street grid to Nishi 1-jo Minami 10-chome. The lane announces itself with white paper lanterns strung above the entrance.