Asahikawa

Asahikawa is a city on northern Japan's Hokkaido island. To the east, a cable car runs up Mount Asahi, location of the Asahiyama Zoo with its polar bears, penguins and orangutans. Closer to the center, restaurants in the Asahikawa Ramen Village offer the city's signature soy sauce–based noodle soup. Malls line the pedestrianized shopping street of Kaimono Koen, stretching north from Asahikawa train station.