Current Time in Asahikawa, Japan

Asahikawa is the second largest city on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, and the administrative and commercial centre of the island's interior. It lies in the Kamikawa Basin at the meeting point of the Ishikari, Chubetsu and Biei rivers, surrounded by mountains that shelter it from the sea. This inland position gives Asahikawa a famously severe climate, with deep snow in winter and warm, humid summers, and it holds the record for the lowest temperature ever officially measured in Japan, minus 41 degrees Celsius, recorded in 1902.

Around 320,000 people live in the city, which functions as the hub for a large agricultural region producing rice, wheat, vegetables and dairy products. Asahikawa is nationally known for its craft furniture industry, its sake breweries and its distinctive style of ramen, a soy-flavoured soup with a thin layer of lard on the surface that keeps the broth hot in freezing weather. These specialities have made the city a familiar name to Japanese travellers long before international visitors began to arrive.

The area was originally the land of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, and place names such as Kamuy Kotan, the village of the gods, recall their presence in the river gorges nearby. Modern Asahikawa dates from the late nineteenth century, when the Meiji government encouraged settlers to develop Hokkaido and established a military garrison here. The town grew rapidly around the railway, becoming a city in 1922 and rebuilding itself after the Second World War as the region's centre of trade, administration and light industry.

The most popular attraction by far is Asahiyama Zoo, which transformed its fortunes by designing enclosures that let visitors watch animals behave naturally, including a glass tunnel through the penguin pool and a spectacular winter penguin walk. In the city centre, Heiwa-dori Buyer's Walk is one of Japan's earliest permanent pedestrian shopping streets, lined with sculptures. The Ainu Memorial Museum, the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples' collections and the Asahikawa Museum of Art explain the region's culture, while the Otokoyama sake brewery museum offers tastings.

Asahikawa is above all a gateway to nature. Daisetsuzan National Park, the largest in Japan, begins just east of the city and offers hiking, hot springs and some of the earliest autumn colours in the country. The rolling flower fields of Biei and Furano lie a short drive to the south, and several ski resorts operate within easy reach. The Winter Festival in February fills the riverbank with enormous snow sculptures.

Transport is well developed. Asahikawa Airport connects to Tokyo and other Japanese cities and increasingly to destinations in East Asia, while limited express trains reach Sapporo in about ninety minutes. City buses, an expressway and a compact, walkable centre make the city easy to navigate. Higher education includes Asahikawa Medical University and Hokkaido University of Education, giving the city a role in training doctors and teachers for the whole north.

With its northern cuisine, its inventive zoo and its position at the doorstep of Hokkaido's finest mountain scenery, Asahikawa offers a rewarding and authentic side of Japan that many visitors overlook.