1 upcoming voyage calls at Otaru
Times shown are as scheduled and can change. Weather, sea conditions and port operations may shorten a call or prevent it — always check the latest information from NYK Cruises, and once aboard, from the ship.
About Otaru
A port that made its money in herring and banking and then stopped, which is why the stone warehouses and the bank buildings are still standing rather than replaced. The canal along the water was finished in 1923 and is not a dug channel but a strip of sea left between the shore and reclaimed land, which is why it curves. The town runs uphill from it in a few streets.
Within reach of the port
The canal
1,140 metres of it, twenty metres wide along the road and forty at the north end where it was never narrowed. Warehouses on the far bank, gas lamps along the walk, and an argument that ran more than ten years in the 1970s and 80s over whether to fill it in at all.
Otaru City (official) ↗in Japanese — your browser can translate it
The glassworks
Glass was made here for herring-net floats and for oil lamps, and the trade outlived both. A Meiji warehouse was turned into a glass shop in 1983 — the first reuse of a historic building in the town, and the model for what happened to the rest of them.
Otaru tourism (official) ↗in Japanese — your browser can translate it
The bank street
Otaru had so many branches it was called the Wall Street of the north. The buildings are still there along Nichigin-dori, several of them designated by the city, and one of them is a museum of what the money was for.
Otaru City historic buildings (official) ↗in Japanese — your browser can translate it
Shore excursions
NYK Cruises run their own guided excursions at each port, booked by guests themselves through My ASUKA PLANS — the booking window opens before departure and depends on your cabin class. They are conducted in Japanese. Going ashore independently is always an option.
Official sources
- Otaru tourism (official) ↗in Japanese — your browser can translate it