Otoineppu. What do you think it means? Actually, it’s the name of a village. It’s written “音威子府”in kanji. When I found the name for the first time, I couldn’t read correctly because it’s a complicated way of reading. Today I’ll introduce this village to you.
Access
Otoineppu village is located in the north of Hokkaido. It takes 4 hours by car from Sapporo and 6 hours from Otaru. What a long way to get there!
The origin of the name
This name comes from the Ainu language o-toyne-p and means A muddy river at the mouth of the river. Because the point where the Otoineppu River joined the Teshio River was muddy, and so it must’ve been named this.
History
Since the railway opened at the Otoineppu station in 1912, the village rapidly developed as a base for railway construction. At the most popular time, railroad officials and their families accounted for 30% of the population. However, because of the reduction of station operations and employees moving to the metropolitan area, the population has drastically decreased.
Surprisingly, the population is only 683 in 2022. But, the village became famous as the smallest town in Hokkaido now. If you visit the official website of Otoineppu village, you can see the title The smallest village in Hokkaido, Otoineppu village, they are selling it.
Recommended food
What a black one! It is the most famous food in the village. The soba is so black because it uses buckwheat shells that are usually thrown away. A lot of people visit just to eat this. I really want to try to eat it! However the most famous restaurant was closed this year so there is only one restaurant left where you can eat it. The restaurant’s name is Tenbokuryu. I’ll put the information below, if you try to eat it, let’s go there as soon as possible!
★https://m.facebook.com/100057173272073/
Thank you for reading!!
[Writer: Asao]
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