Otaru (小樽市, Otaru-shi) is a city and port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo.

The name "Otaru" is recognized as being of Ainu origin, possibly meaning "River running through the sandy beach".

Mount Akaiwa (Northwest part of Otaru) is memorialized in the Ainu tradition in the story of Sitonai, village chief's teenage daughter who had slain a white snake from the mountain's cave that demanded sacrifices of girls every year.

"White Dragon Gongen Cave") and the reason why a shrine was built on the mountain (to protect the village from being haunted by the snake).

[3] The city flourished well as the financial and business center in Hokkaido as well as the trade port with Japanese ruled southern Sakhalin until the 1920s.

On December 27, 1924, a freight train loaded with 600 cases of dynamite, unloaded from the freighter Shoho Maru,[4] exploded in Temiya Station, killing 94 people and injuring 200 more, in addition to damaging the warehouse, the harbour facilities, and the surrounding area.

Some of the rivers in Otaru are: Hoshioki, Kiraichi, Zenibako, Hariusu, Asari, Katsunai, Shioya, Myoken, Irifune.

In the summer the weather, like all of western Hokkaido, is very warm and balmy, with a maximum temperature of around 25 °C (77 °F) and high humidity – not as hot as southern Japan.

Visitors can clearly see the difference between the squalid conditions of the first-floor sleeping quarters of 120 workers and the ground-floor luxury of the magnate's rooms.