Kiyosato, Hokkaido

Potato fields stretch toward the base of Sharidake, the mountain that anchors every view in this part of Hokkaido's Okhotsk coast. Kiyosato-cho sits quietly in that shadow — a farming town of buckwheat, beet, onion, and wheat, where the soil's productivity is taken seriously rather than celebrated for show. The name itself was assembled from the characters of neighboring places, meaning something close to "pure village," and the landscape earns that plainness honestly.

What distinguishes the town in a more tangible way is its焼酎 — Kiyosato Shochu, distilled from locally grown potatoes. The brewery began selling the spirit in the late 1970s, and the tradition of making shochu from potato here is considered the origin of that particular style in Japan. The smell of the distillery process, faint and starchy, belongs to the air of the place the way wheat dust does to a mill town.

Away from the fields, Kamiko-ike sits in forest: a small, clear pool whose floor glows an unusual blue-green, fed by underground water. The circuit around it takes only minutes, but the stillness holds. Higher up, Sharidake itself draws those who want the mountain rather than the view of it — a proper climb to a summit with a mountain hut near the top. Kiyosato Onsen facilities scattered at the mountain's foot offer a return to warmth after either walk.