1 / 4Glass, from fishing floatsPhoto: Wpcpey / CC BY 4.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 4 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
The glassworks began making floats for herring nets and oil lamps for a town without electricity. When plastic and power arrived they had a workshop, a skill and no product — so they made ornaments instead, and the industry survived.
- Short enough to be certain of: 2 hr door to door, so even a tender day works.
- Reachable on foot from the berth, so no timetable can strand you.
- Free to walk to visit.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "The core" — canal, market, then sakaimachi end to end.
- Shops ~9:00–18:00 — some close earlier in winter.
- 2 hr door to door needs a 4-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Why Glass, from fishing floats is famous
An industry that survived by losing both of its products
Otaru's glassworks were founded to make two things: floats to hold up herring nets, and oil lamps for a town without electricity. Plastic killed the first and the grid killed the second, so the workshops turned to ornament. An accident of obsolescence became the craft the town is now known for.
Otaru’s glassworks were founded to make two things: floats to hold up herring nets, and oil lamps for a town with no electricity. Plastic killed the first and the power grid killed the second. The workshops survived by making things nobody needed at all.
About a kilometre of stone and brick merchant houses from the herring decades, now holding glassworks, music-box makers, patisseries and a great deal of soft-serve. It is unashamedly a shopping street and it is also one of the best-preserved Meiji commercial streetscapes in Hokkaido.
The glass industry is the interesting part. Kitaichi began around 1901 making floats for herring nets and oil lamps for a town with no electricity. Plastic floats and electric light destroyed both products — so the workshop turned to ornament, and an accident of obsolescence became the thing Otaru is now known for.
Net floats and kerosene lamps, in volume
The workshops keep the furnaces
Skill without a market finds a new one
The second one Raymond Saunders built; it sounds every fifteen minutes
Order coffee at Kitaichi Glass No.3 and sit under the oil lamps. Twenty minutes, and the best value on the street.
Things worth knowing
- Kitaichi Glass No.3 is in an 1891 warehouse; its hall is lit by 167 oil lamps, which staff light by hand from 9:00 to 9:30 — you can watch. Order coffee and sit down.
- The Music Box Museum (Orgel-do main building) is in a 1915 brick building with a steam clock outside that sounds every fifteen minutes.
- Walk the whole street rather than the first two hundred metres — the far end is quieter and the shops are better.
- Buy glass at a workshop, not a souvenir counter. The price difference is small and the object is different.
- Ukidama浮き玉 — A glass net float. The original product.
- Kitaichi北一硝子 — The oldest works, from 1901. No.3 is the lamp-lit warehouse.
Glass, from fishing floats and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 2 hr goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway, about 30 minutes after the ship arrives. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
20 minutes each way is the measured figure for 20 min walk, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 20 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Questions people send us
Why is Otaru known for glass?
Because the industry started with fishing. Workshops here made glass floats for herring nets and oil lamps for a town without electricity. Plastic floats and electric light killed both products, so the workshops turned to decorative glass — and an accident of obsolescence became the craft the town is now known for.
How long is Sakaimachi street?
About a kilometre, roughly twenty minutes on foot from the cruise berth, and it takes ninety minutes to walk properly with stops. Walk the whole length — the far end is quieter and the workshops there are better than the first two hundred metres.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
3 hr for bothThe canal, on foot from the ship
Finished in 1923 on reclaimed land so barges could unload straight into the warehouses.
See the detail
3 hr 30 min for bothBuild your own bowl at Sankaku Market
Sixteen shops, six of them small eateries, under one roof on a triangular plot beside the station.
See the detail
3 hr 30 min for bothThe Wall Street of the North
When the herring were running, Otaru was the financial centre of Hokkaido and Nichigin-dori held branch after branch in cut stone.
See the detail