Journal
Writing from Mori no Auberge Mitsu
How to enjoy an auberge, how to choose an inn in Hokkaido, and the ingredients of Atsuma.
Pieces we hope you will read before you travel, written a little at a time.
Edo-Era Theme Park
Noboribetsu's Edo-Period Theme Park and What It Costs
Noboribetsu Date Jidaimura is a theme park that recreates an Edo-period town. It has an indoor theatre, so it works even on a rainy day. Here is this stop near Mori no Auberge Mitsu.
Crafts in Biratori
Ainu Crafts and the Museum in Nibutani
A guide to the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum in Biratori, Hokkaido, where folk tools and crafts are on show. See Nibutani-ita and Nibutani-attus, the first crafts in Hokkaido named traditional crafts, up close.
Lake Utonai
When Swans Come to Lake Utonai
Lake Utonai is a water-bird lake where swans and geese arrive. Here are its Ramsar figures, the birds by season, and how to reach it in about 30 minutes from Mitsu.
Chitose Salmon Aquarium
Fees, opening hours and the autumn salmon run
A window looks straight into the Chitose River, and in autumn you can watch salmon climb it to spawn. The Indian water wheel stands in the river too, about 50 minutes by car from Auberge Mitsu.
Journal — Noboribetsu
Noboribetsu Jigokudani in autumn, and its free-to-walk spots
Noboribetsu Jigokudani is a crater about 450 metres across. See its autumn spots, the parking and the small geyser Tessen-ike, then drive back to the forest at Auberge Mitsu for a quiet night.
Autumn Foliage Guide
Autumn colour spots an hour from New Chitose Airport
A guide to the autumn colour you can reach within an hour of New Chitose Airport, with the peak dates. Lake Shikotsu, Eniwa Gorge and Aoba Park are all usually at their best from mid to late October, with Mitsu about 30 minutes away as your base.
Atsuma Day Plan
Ordering a day from Lake Shikotsu to Atsuma
After you land at New Chitose Airport, where should you stop before check-in? This plan orders Lake Shikotsu, Lake Utonai and more by drive time from the inn, so you reach the 15:00 check-in in good time.
A Day Toward Hidaka
A base for Mukawa's dinosaurs
About 30 minutes from New Chitose Airport, a quiet stop on the way to Hidaka and Mukawa's Hobetsu Museum.
By ferry to Mitsu
18 minutes from the port, a stay before or after the ferry
About 18 minutes by car from the Tomakomai ferry terminal. Whether you have just landed or sail the next day, the timing fits. Three rooms a night, with a Hokkaido kaiseki dinner.
Weekend from Sapporo
75 minutes from Sapporo, a forest inn for the weekend
About 75 minutes by car from central Sapporo, in the town of Atsuma: a small auberge with three rooms and three groups a night. For a weekend, trade the city for a quiet forest and a night with no television, and a Hokkaido kaiseki dinner.
Shishamo of Mukawa
A rare Hokkaido fish, and a fishery now suspended
Shishamo lives only on Hokkaido's Pacific coast, and is the town fish of nearby Mukawa. The season ran about 40 days, but the fishery has been suspended since 2023. Here is what makes this fish rare, drawn from public records.
The bath at Mitsu
A private bath, not a hot spring: what to know
If you are searching for a hot spring, read this first. Every room has its own goemon-style soaking tub, heated, and there is no shared bathhouse.
Yuni Garden in Autumn
Kochia turning deep red in an English-style garden
Yuni Garden is an English-style flower garden in Yuni, Hokkaido. Its Kochia Hills, with 32,000 plants, turn deep red in October. It is about 45 minutes by car from Mitsu, an easy stop before check-in.
Hokki in Tomakomai
Tomakomai's Hokki and Hokki Curry, No.1 in Japan
Tomakomai landed about 750 tonnes of hokki clams in 2024, the most of any municipality in Japan. Try the local hokki curry by day, then drive about 40 minutes to Mitsu. A plan for autumn into winter.
Getting to Mitsu
From the airport to the inn by rental car
There is no shuttle, so you rent a car at New Chitose Airport and drive about 30 minutes. Here is the exit at the Atsuma interchange, the address for the sat-nav, the parking, and when to arrive.
Reservations at Mitsu
Why a meal-focused inn closes cancellations early
Mori no Auberge Mitsu takes three groups a night, by reservation only. Because ingredients are bought in for each booking, cancelling is free until four days ahead, then rises step by step. Dinner is at 18:00 and the last check-in is 19:00.
Staying with Children
What to know before booking with children
A small auberge in the forest of Atsuma, Hokkaido, taking three groups a night. For those thinking of a stay with children, we set out honestly what suits and what does not, and the size of the rooms, before you book. There is no television in the rooms.
Haskap Picking
Haskap Picking in Atsuma Starts in Late June
Atsuma grows the largest area of haskap in Japan. Picking usually runs late June to mid-July, and each farm opens on different days. The farms are about 15 minutes away by car, easy to fit into your stay.
Breakfast at Mitsu
Pot rice and dashi-broth rice: why the breakfast is loved
The word guests use most about the food is the rice cooked in an earthenware pot. Breakfast brings that pot rice, a free-range egg omelette, and dashi-broth rice you finish yourself, treated here on its own.
Autumn Around Mitsu
From Lake Shikotsu foliage to Atsuma's golden paddies, by car
Lake Shikotsu, an hour by car from Auberge Mitsu, turns colour in autumn. This guide gathers three Hokkaido autumns—the foliage, Atsuma's golden paddies and the salmon run up the Chitose River—with drive times.
Rice of Atsuma
Atsuma's Sakura-mai Rice and the Golden Autumn Paddies
Atsuma is rice country, and its Sakura-mai brand is really Nanatsuboshi rice. In autumn the paddies turn gold. Mori no Auberge Mitsu cooks this rice in an earthenware pot for breakfast.
Lunch around Mitsu
Atsuma Gourmet Guide: Lunch Stops, Travel Times and Dinner at the Inn
Check-in at Mori no Auberge Mitsu is from 15:00, so your arrival day has an open midday. Here is where to eat around Atsuma, from Kobushi-no-yu Atsuma to hokki curry in Tomakomai, with drive times from Mitsu.
Budget at Mitsu
What a two-meal rate includes, and what it does not
An auberge rate brings your room and your meals together in one figure. Here is how to read a two-meal price: what the rate covers, the lodging tax and cancellation terms, and the option to come only for dinner.
What is an Auberge
What is an auberge? The meaning, and the difference from a hotel or a ryokan
An auberge is a house where the cooking comes first. What the word means, and how it differs from a hotel or a ryokan, explained simply.
How to Choose
How to choose an auberge in Hokkaido
The cooking, the location, the rooms, the price, the size. Five things to look at so you do not regret the choice, and how to choose by purpose.
Ingredients of Atsuma
Ingredients of Atsuma: pork, rice, hokki clams and haskap
Mailabuta pork, Nanatsuboshi rice, the seafood of the Iburi coast, and haskap berries grown here on the largest planted area in Japan. The gifts of Atsuma that fill our course.
Digital Detox
A digital detox, at an inn with no television
There is no television in the rooms. Turn the screen off and the sound of the forest comes through. A night away from screens, at a hideaway that takes three groups a night.
Forest Bathing
Forest bathing: a night in a Japanese oak wood
Open the window and the forest is right there. Herbs from that forest go into the bath. Forest bathing that lasts the whole night, in the way only Mitsu can offer it.
Quiet Stay
For those looking for a quiet inn
Three groups a night, no television in the rooms, a Japanese oak forest all around. What is inside a hideaway that has quiet built into its design.
Solo Trip
An inn for solo travel in Hokkaido
We welcome guests travelling on their own. A full Japanese creative course and a goemon-style tub in your own room, for time entirely to yourself.
Guide
Guides to staying and exploring
Pages that show how to spend your time at Mitsu, according to what brings you here.
Staying in a 120-year-old farmhouse / The forest herb bath and the goemon-style tub / An inn for anniversaries / 30 minutes from New Chitose Airport / Staying in Atsuma / What guests say