Prison Life in Abashiri

What?
The Abashiri Prison Museum (博物館網走監獄) is the only museum of its kind in Japan. The prison was constructed late 19th century to accommodate prisoners who were to build the road connecting remote northern Hokkaido with the bigger cities south. In 1984 a new prison was constructed and most of the old buildings were moved and made accessible to the public to become the Abashiri Prison Museum. The site houses several national important cultural properties and also a penological museum opened in 2010.
Where?
Abashiri (網走) is located in north-east Hokkaido (北海道) and is therefore quite hard to get to. The easiest way is to fly on Memanbetsu Airport (女満別空港) and take the bus from there. I however flew on Kushiro Aiport (釧路空港) and took the scenic Senmo train (釧網線) to Abashiri. The train runs very infrequent and takes 2 and a half hours, but along the way you can enjoy the beautiful views on Hokkaido’s nature, which include Japanese cranes and Hokkaido deer. Infrequent buses run between Abashiri Station and the museum, so taking a taxi is a valid alternative.
URL
Japan Guide Outline Abashiri Prison Museum

My visit to the Abashiri Prison Museum was actually part of a three day tour through north-east Hokkaido. As my companion is a train adept, we mainly spent time on the sporadic one-wagon trains railing from one city to another. While definitely enjoying the companionship and the beautifully snowed under landscape, the irregularity of the trains and distance between cities made that there wasn’t much time left for actual sightseeing.
Many times I wanted to get off the train, for example at Kayanuma Station where Japanese cranes were gathered in plain sight. But our eventual goal was Abashiri where we did the only real sightseeing.

The Abashiri Prison Museum is an impressive tourist attractions at a place you wouldn’t really expect it. In the far north, Abashiri is only a small town in remote Hokkaido. There is an actual prison that is still in use, but the original old one has been preserved and opened to the public. The prison was actually built to house inmates who needed to construct a road connecting the far north with the more populated centers in the south and center of Hokkaido. This was important as a signal to Russian expansion to the south. The road needed to be built fast and the inmates were the victims. Literally in many cases. Afterwards the Abashiri prison was also famed for its self-sufficiency in farming.

The train needs to chase away these Ezo deer constantly.

Even Japanese cranes can be viewed from the train!

The old gate of the museum. I thought that was a real guard.

The living quarters of the guards.

The buildings at the open air museum are almost all original ones. They include real prison blocks and cells, living quarters of the guards and a district court house. The whole place is also scattered with original guard posts. Visiting this place in winter, feeling the cold biting away at your toes and fingers, you really can start to imagine the harsh conditions of the prisoners, especially if you see the temporary quarters the prisoners lived in when they were building on the road. All buildings are beautifully preserved and breathe authenticity.

But the most interesting part of the site is the penological museum that focuses more on the history of the museum and some personal stories of prisoners. The virtual movie is a nice extra touch, though only in Japanese. Otherwise English signage is everywhere and apart from one or two very reliable.

In general this whole trip to Hokkaido was again very satisfying, just like my previous trips. The scenery of this country is just so amazingly beautiful. But this time the Abashiri Prison Museum was also a major reason for my appreciation.