Going for gold: A 7-day Golden Kamuy-themed road trip across Hokkaido (Part 2)
Welcome back to the second half of our Golden Kamuy-themed trip, in which we went on a hunt for plot-relevant locations in central and eastern Hokkaido (北海道)! For a little background on what the story is about, be sure to check out Part 1, which covers the beginnings of the trip, as well as what we did in western Hokkaido.
Day 4 & 5: Asahikawa
After a short rest in Sapporo, we made the drive up to Asahikawa (旭川) in central Hokkaido, where we based ourselves for the next few days.
(Left) Getting in touch with animals important to the Ainu; (right) learning more about different styles of indigenous dress in Sakhalin. (Image credit: Bonnie)
Asahikawa City Museum (旭川市博物館 Asahikawa-shi hakubutsukan) was such a good stop: although none of the exhibits were explicitly Golden Kamuy-themed, we got to see life-sized replicas of what the inside of a traditional Ainu house would have looked like. My favourite display was this huge floor to ceiling case containing examples of traditional dress, accessories, and tools from various indigenous tribes from all over Sakhalin. They’re plot-relevant too—midway through the story, Kiroranke (キロランケ), himself a Tatar Ainu who had relocated to Hokkaido, introduces Asirpa to the diverse cultures of the Karafuto Ainu, Uilta, and Nivikh. Being able to see what had been depicted in the manga and anime with our own eyes was quite awe-inspiring!
(Left) Asahikawa, home to the 7th Division; (right) various uniform attachments indicating one’s rank in the military. Tsukishima stans, have fun looking for your man!! (Image credit: Bonnie)
We then took a bus to the Hokuchin Memorial Museum (北鎮記念館 Hokuchin-kinenkan), a small building dedicated to preserving the history of the Imperial Japanese Army’s 7th Division (第七師団 dai-shichi-shidan), a branch of the Japanese military that had been stationed in Hokkaido from 1896 to 1945. This 7th Division is distinct from the modern 7th Division, which is instead called dai-nana-shidan, and is part of the Japan Special Ground Defense Forces (JSGDF). This location is particularly important to Golden Kamuy due to its ties with First Lieutenant Tsurumi, one of the major players in the race for the gold. As a museum run by the JSGDF, you can definitely sense how they wanted to portray the narrative around the Imperial 7th Division’s activities during their time in Hokkaido in a certain way. It was, put lightly, quite jarring to see exhibits celebrating the army’s large-scale development of Asahikawa’s once-lush natural landscape right after we had come from the indigenous culture-centric exhibition at the city museum. But memes aside, I do think that this disjunct is part of why Golden Kamuy is so appealing as a story—beyond its adult jokes and regular muscle-man sauna scenes, it grapples unflinchingly with the rich, complex, but difficult history of how these groups came to be in Hokkaido, and how they may have impacted each other.
Asahikawa City Museum (旭川市博物館)
Address: 7-1 Kagura 3-jo, Asahikawa, Hokkaido 070-8003
Nearest station: JR Asahikawa Station (旭川駅)
Access: 15-minute walk, or 10-minute bus ride from the station
Opening hours: 9am–5pm (Last entry 4.30pm, closed on Mondays)
Admission: ¥350 (Adults), ¥230 (High school students), Free (Middle school students and under)
Tel: +81-16-669-2004
Hokuchin Memorial Museum (北鎮記念館)
Address: Shunkō-chō, Asahikawa, Hokkaido, 070-0902 (Next to the Japan Special Ground Defense Forces (JSGDF) Camp Asahikawa)
Nearest station: JR Asahikawa Station (旭川駅)
Access: 15-minute bus ride from the station to Gokoku Shrine (護国神社) bus stop
Opening hours: 9am–5pm (April–October), 9.30am–4pm (November–March)
Admission: Free
Tel: +81-16-651-6111
Day 6: Abashiri
(Left) One of the wings of the famous radial prison houses in Abashiri Prison Museum; (right) one of many life-sized dioramas depicting life as a prisoner. (Image credit: Hui Lin)
We of course could not plan this trip without making time for a day trip to Abashiri (網走), located on the east coast of Hokkaido, to visit the Abashiri Prison Museum (博物館 網走監獄 Hakubutsukan Abashiri Kangoku)! Aside from playing host to a major sequence of events in the manga, this location is well-remembered in Japanese pop culture having once been home to Shiratori Yoshie (白鳥由栄), the only person who ever successfully broke out of Abashiri Prison, and whose life served as inspiration for Golden Kamuy’s own escape king, Shiraishi. The museum complex is huge, littered with mannequins dressed up as prisoners and wardens in order to replicate what living conditions would have been like back in the day. You can even try prison food—kangoku-meshi (監獄飯)—in the building where the prisoners themselves would have eaten at the time.
(Left) Manically swinging damp towels in the drift ice room as though our lives depended on it; (right) an entire wall of Golden Kamuy fanart by previous visitors! (Image credit: Yijia, Hui Lin)
After finishing up at the prison, we hopped into the car for a quick drive up to Mount Tento (天都山 Tentozan), which is home to an observatory and, to my absolute delight, a small drift ice museum! We wanted to come here because Team Kiroranke and Team Sugimoto both cross a big patch of drift ice in season 3 of the anime; there is also a hilarious chapter in which Shiraishi tries (and fails) to eat a sea angel (クリオネ kurione) while out on the ice. Abashiri, being located next to the Sea of Okhotsk (オホーツク海 Ohōtsuku-kai), experiences a huge volume of drift ice (流氷 ryūhyō) in winter—although the ice does form in Northern Hokkaido as well, it is actually thickest here. The museum has a -15°C drift ice room, in which you are provided a damp towel and told to spin it 30 times so that it can freeze solid. I am pleased to inform you that (1) the room was exactly as cold as advertised, and (2) the towel did actually freeze into a solid plank! I can’t imagine how cold it must’ve been for Asirpa and the gang...
Abashiri Prison Museum (網走監獄博物館)
Address: 1-1 Yobito, Abashiri, Hokkaido, 099-2421
Nearest station: JR Abashiri Station (網走駅)
Access: 10-minute bus ride from the station to Abashiri Prison Museum bus stop
Opening hours: 9am–5pm(Only in the summer)
Admission: ¥1,100 (Adults), ¥770 (Middle and high schoolers), ¥550 (Elementary schoolers)
Tel: +81-15-245-2411
Okhotsk Drift Ice Museum (オホーツク流氷館)
Address: 244-3 Tentozan, Abashiri, Hokkaido, 093-0044
Nearest station: JR Abashiri Station (網走駅)
Access: 15-minute bus ride from the station to Tentozan (天都山) bus stop
Opening hours: 8.30am–6pm
Tel: +81-15-243-5951
Day 7: Noboribetsu
Round one of dinner—I’m not drooling, you are… (Image credit: Yijia)
Our final stop on the trip was back down in Noboribetsu (登別), famous for its abundant hot springs. Manga readers may recall a certain chapter featuring members of the 7th Division in this very onsen (温泉) town! We booked a one-night stay at Noboribetsu Manseikaku (登別万世閣), a hot spring hotel with its own sulfur onsen, as well as an incredible lunch and dinner buffet. We didn’t know until we got there, but they make it a point to offer indigenous dishes as well!! So we managed to try Ainu dishes like ohaw (オハウ), a light, traditional fish-based soup with yuk (ユク venison) meatballs, as well as ciporo-imo (チポロイモ), a type of potato salad mixed with salmon roe, alongside regular Japanese dishes. They were all delicious and well worth the food coma at the end of the night!!
Noboribetsu Manseikaku (登別万世閣)
Address: 21 Noboribetsuonsen-chō, Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, 059-0551
Nearest station: JR Noboribetsu Station (登別駅)
Access: 20-minute bus ride from the station to Noboribetsu Onsen Terminal (登別温泉ターミナル)
Tel: +81-57-008-3500
Final thoughts
And that brings us to the end of our Golden Kamuy summer adventure! Honestly speaking, it’s kind of unbelievable how we managed to cram all of this and more into 7 days of travel—Hokkaido is a huge area, and there is absolutely more to see beyond what I covered here. (We actually took a couple days out of our trip to be respectable tourists at the stunning flower fields in Furano and Biei!) While chatting with Bonnie about writing this article, we talked briefly about this Ainu proverb, which is printed on the inner cover of every volume of the manga:
天から役目なしに降ろされた物はひとつもない
(ten kara yakume nashi ni orosareta mono wa hitotsu mo nai)
Kanto oro wa yaku sak no a=ranke p sinep ka isam
There is nothing on this earth that has been sent down without a purpose.
I’d like to think that this trip, which was so rich in both overexcited fangirling as well as moments of learning and reflection, is also one of these very things—sent down from the heavens with purpose.
Header image credit: Hui Lin
Related Articles
Hui Lin
Latest Topics
