Driving in Hokkaido: Betsukai or Bekkai?

Bekkai is a small town located in eastern Hokkaido.

Interestingly, there are two pronunciations for the name of the town: Bekkai and Betsukai.

And both pronunciations have been accepted.

The picture above is the “country sign” for the town.  In this, it is “Betsukai”.

The population of Bekkai is about  16,000, while the number of cattle is 120,000!

Bekkai is well-know to have far more cows and bulls than people.

And the land area of this town is bigger than all of Tokyo’s 23 wards combined.

We drove through Bekkai on Sunday evening in July, but we hadn’t seen a single car

or a single person for one hour while we  were driving!

It is really fun to drive through beautiful meadows in Bekkai.

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There’s a restaurant called “Roman” in Bekkai.

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This restaurant is famous for its special pork chop.

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Its thickness is 7 cm and it weighs 700 g!

It takes time to cook, so you need reservation before you visit the restaurant.

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Another special menu is scallop hamburger with a big glass of Bakkai milk!

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This scallop hamburger won the first place in the “New Hokkaido local gourmet grand prix”

in 2010 and 2011, too!

You might wonder, “Oh? a scallop in a hamburger?”,  but it’s really delicious!

Why don’t you try when you visit Bekkai?

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