What to Do in Tokachi in Winter: Dog Sledding, Snowshoeing, the Shikaribetsu Ice Village, and Staying at Kitanomori [2027]

I checked five winter outdoor activities in Tokachi against their official pages: dog sledding, snowshoeing, the ice village on Lake Shikaribetsu, snowmobiling, and a sauna beside a frozen river. In 2027, Shikaribetsu Kotan runs from January 28 to March 14, and the admission season pass is ¥600 (checked 2026-10-07 on the official Shikaribetsu Kotan site).

Mushing Works in Shikaoi is taking bookings for dog sledding in the 2026-27 season.

If you stay at Moving Inn Tokachi Kitanomori, activities such as snowshoeing take place on the grounds. Dog sledding and the ice village are in Shikaoi, though, and a round trip by car from Kitanomori is about 241 km, which is over this site’s guideline of 200 km a day. Don’t squeeze them into one day. Later in this article I show how to split them across days, or how to stay near Obihiro Station for just the dog sledding and the ice village.

What can you do in Tokachi in winter? Five activities with organizers confirmed on official sites

Here they are in a table. In the season column, I list a period as confirmed only where the 2026-27 season schedule is published officially, and I keep anything not yet published separate from last season’s record. Prices change, so check each official site before you book.

Activity	Season	Duration	Booking	Location
Dog sledding (Mushing Works)	Bookings open for the 2026-27 season. No period stated on the official site	About 1 hour (6 km) / 2 hours (10 km or more)	Official booking form, email, or phone	Urimaku, Shikaoi
Shikaribetsu Kotan (ice village)	January 28 – March 14, 2027	Stay as long as you like. The open-air ice bath and similar activities are booked separately	Admission on the day. The official site has a form for activities	Shikaoi, on the shore of Lake Shikaribetsu
Snowshoe tour (Moving Inn)	Depends on snow conditions	Daytime, about 1 hour	Add as an option on the booking screen	On the Kitanomori grounds
Snowmobile and snow tubing (Moving Inn)	Depends on snow conditions	About 30 minutes, between 10:00 and 15:00	Official form, up to 3 days before your date of use	Near the Kitanomori facilities
Winter riverside sauna (Moving Inn)	No period stated on the official site	Daytime, about 1 hour	Add as an option on the booking screen	Kitanomori, on the bank of the Nubinai River

Moving Inn also offers “Tokachi Avanto,” where a hole is cut in the ice of a frozen river. The dates depend on how the river freezes, and the official site says “this year’s dates will be announced once confirmed” (checked 2026-10-07). Until the dates are out, leave it out of your plans.

Where can you go dog sledding? Mushing Works in Shikaoi and the night tour

For dog sledding, you drive a two-person sled yourself. The official Mushing Works site lists a course of about 6 km that takes 1 hour, and a course of 10 km or more that takes 2 hours. Each session is fully private, with just one group at a time, and prices are shown as from ¥44,000 for 1 hour and from ¥66,000 for 2 hours (checked 2026-10-07). Check the official price table for how many people each price covers.

The meeting point is 25 Urimaku Nishi 31-sen, Shikaoi-cho, Kato-gun, Hokkaido. You can book through the form on the official site, by email, or by phone. The site says bookings are open for the 2026-27 season, but it does not state the period when you can run the sled. Because it depends partly on snowfall, ask before you settle on a date (checked 2026-10-07).

Moving Inn also has a night run, the Moving Inn Moon and Stars Dog Sledding Tour. You warm up in the evening, run at night, and then stay overnight in your vehicle. It is for up to 4 people per group and takes about 3 hours. However, the season on the official page is listed as “Winter 2025-2026,” and I could not confirm a 2026-27 setting (checked 2026-10-07).

The official site also gives the weather conditions for cancellation (such as temperatures of −25°C or below) and says participation is generally from age 6 (checked 2026-10-07).

When is the Lake Shikaribetsu ice village (Shikaribetsu Kotan) open?

A village built of snow and ice appears on the frozen lake. In 2027 it runs from Thursday, January 28 to Sunday, March 14. Opening hours are 9:00–20:00 through February 28 and 9:00–18:00 in March. The ice bar opens at 10:30. The admission season pass is ¥600 for elementary school age and up (checked 2026-10-07 on the official Shikaribetsu Kotan site).

The activities listed on the official site are the ice bar, the open-air ice bath, making ice glasses, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, night watching, and the Geopark igloo.

One thing to watch on the way there. The official site says “the road between Nukabira and Lake Shikaribetsu is closed in winter,” so you approach from the Shikaoi side. It gives about 1 hour 30 minutes from Obihiro Station and about 3.5 hours from New Chitose Airport (checked 2026-10-07). I put measured distances in the table further down. For the full picture of winter road closures, see Hokkaido roads that close in winter.

A year-round route linking Lake Shikaribetsu and Tokachigawa Onsen is covered in the 3-day, 2-night route between Lake Shikaribetsu and Tokachigawa Onsen. This article sticks to winter activities.

What can you do on the grounds if you stay at Kitanomori? Snowshoeing and sauna

The location and lodging of Kitanomori are covered in the Moving Inn Tokachi Kitanomori facility guide. Here I list only what you can do on the grounds in winter.

The Moving Inn snowshoe tour takes place on the Kitanomori grounds in the daytime for about 1 hour. It costs ¥5,000 per person (tax included) for up to 3 people. Snowshoes, poles, a hot drink, and sweets are included in the price (checked 2026-10-07).

The course follows the Nubinai River, and the official site says that with luck you may see frost flowers. Cancellation is stated as “up to the day before your stay.” It does not say whether people who are not staying can book, so check when you reserve.

The Moving Inn winter riverside sauna takes about 1 hour in the daytime and costs ¥10,000 per person (tax included). You snowshoe to a sauna tent on the riverbank and use the river water as your cold plunge (checked 2026-10-07). The Moving Inn snowmobile and snow tubing costs ¥5,500 for adults and takes about 30 minutes, and you apply through the official form up to 3 days before your date of use. It may be cancelled because of snow or weather (checked 2026-10-07).

The “Todo fir distillation experience” on the same set of official pages is stated by the official site to be for people staying overnight. I have not found any such restriction stated for snowshoeing and the others. Whether you book lodging and activities together or separately, confirm on the booking screen.

How many km and minutes from Tokachi-Obihiro Airport and Obihiro Station to each activity?

I calculated driving distances and times with OSRM (open-source routing). The conditions are no snow and no breaks, and the start and end points are approximate coordinates derived from addresses. On winter roads it will take longer. The official figure of about 1 hour 30 minutes from Obihiro Station to the ice village is longer than the 48 minutes in this calculation, and the official figure is the better guide in practice.

From	Kitanomori (Kochien, Taiki)	Dog sledding (Urimaku, Shikaoi)	Lakeshore (ice village)
Tokachi-Obihiro Airport	42.9 km / 53 min	64.4 km / 57 min	83.6 km / 72 min
Obihiro Station	58.7 km / 58 min	41.7 km / 37 min	59.7 km / 48 min
Kitanomori	—	104.8 km / 88 min	117.6 km / 104 min
Dog sledding (Urimaku, Shikaoi)	—	—	18.5 km / 18 min

The facility guide gives about 50 minutes from Kitanomori to Tokachi-Obihiro Airport as an official figure (checked 2026-08-31). That is almost the same as the 53 minutes above. For places in Obihiro and Tokachi where you can stay overnight in winter and their distances from the airport, see 5 RV parks in Obihiro and Tokachi and how to use them in winter.

How many can you fit in one day? Splitting by sunset and 200 km

This site uses a guideline of 200 km of driving a day and up to 9 hours at the wheel. It is not an official standard but a line we set for safety, and we do not loosen it. Sunset also comes early in winter. According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s calendar computation office (it has no figure for Obihiro, so this is Nemuro), sunset on January 1, 2027 is at 15:52, on January 28 at 16:23, and on February 28 at 17:04 (checked 2026-10-07 on NAOJ sunrise and sunset (Nemuro, January)). Obihiro differs slightly, so treat these as a guide.

The loop from Kitanomori to the dog sledding, the ice village, and back to Kitanomori adds up to about 241 km and about 3 hours 30 minutes of driving, going by the table above. That is over 200 km, so I plan it so you don’t do it in one day. These three patterns are realistic.

Day	Plan	Driving distance (no snow)	Notes
Day 1	Tokachi-Obihiro Airport to Kitanomori. Snowshoe while it’s still light after you arrive	42.9 km	If your flight lands late, move it to the next day
Day 2	Spend the day at Kitanomori. Choose from snowshoeing, sauna, and snowmobiling	0 km (on the grounds)	A day without driving also works as a spare day
Day 3	Kitanomori to dog sledding to the ice village to the Obihiro Station area	104.8+18.5+59.7=183 km	The Kotan runs only from January 28 to March 14. Leave the ice village before sunset

For dog sledding alone, it is 41.7 km and 37 minutes from Obihiro Station. If you fit dog sledding in outside the ice village’s season (through January 27, and from March 15), you can make use of that short distance. For a way to stretch the same winter trip to 10 days, see a 10-day winter Hokkaido model itinerary.

What’s the difference between touring by campervan and staying at Kitanomori?

With a campervan, the question is whether you can find a place to sleep near the dog sledding in Shikaoi or on the shore of Lake Shikaribetsu. Only some overnight parking places are open in winter. 13 places in Hokkaido where you can park overnight in winter shows the results of official checks. Heating and snow-road preparation are covered in Worries about winter campervan trips.

You can also rent a campervan at the airport and stay at Kitanomori. Moving Inn keeps two vehicle types at its Tokachi-Obihiro Airport branch (checked 2026-10-07). The official site also notes that the booking screen for Kitanomori’s Grand Suite has a “no trailer house” option for people using their own campervan or a rental (checked 2026-10-07). You can choose on the booking screen whether to sleep in the lodging room or in your vehicle.

If you stay in a lodging room without renting a car, it is about 50 minutes by car from Tokachi-Obihiro Airport to Kitanomori. The facility guide says that reaching it by public transport is not realistic. You can compare the companies you can rent from in Obihiro in 3 companies where you can rent a campervan in Obihiro and Tokachi.

What should you check before you leave?

• Dog sledding: Tell Mushing Works your date and group size, and confirm the booking and cancellation conditions
• Ice village: Is your day within January 28 – March 14, 2027? Choose the road that approaches from the Shikaoi side
• Kitanomori activities: How to apply for snowshoeing, sauna, and snowmobiling, and whether they are for overnight guests only
• Snowmobile: Send the official form up to 3 days before your date of use
• Tokachi Avanto: Are the dates out? If not, don’t put it in your plans
• Keep a day’s driving within 200 km. Work backward from the time you need to reach your lodging before sunset
• Clothing: Warm clothes and winter boots. The official site says gloves, a hat, and sunglasses help

If you want to see jewelry ice on the same trip, open When and where to see jewelry ice. For the dates of winter events overall, open Dates for 14 Hokkaido winter events.

Pages to read next

• Moving Inn Tokachi Kitanomori facility guide
• 3-day, 2-night route between Lake Shikaribetsu and Tokachigawa Onsen
• 5 RV parks in Obihiro and Tokachi and how to use them in winter
• How to see jewelry ice, and overnight parking
• 10-day winter Hokkaido model itinerary