Abashiri is best known as the site of the Abashiri Prison, a Meiji-era facility used for the incarceration of political prisoners. The old prison has been turned into a museum, but the city's new maximum security prison is still in use. Abashiri is located in the eastern part of Abashiri Subprefecture, about 50 kilometers east of Kitami. There are no tall mountains, but there are many hills. Abashiri River flows and there are three lakes (Lake Abashiri, Lake Notori and Lake Tōfutsu) in the city. In the winter, tourists visit the city to watch the drift ice. award4

Abashiri Prison was constructed in the 1890s to hold more than one thousand dangerous criminals. The prison gained national fame through a popular yakuza movie series by director Ishii Teruo in the 1960s. Following a major modernization of the Abashiri Prison in 1984, the prison's old buildings were moved into the Abashiri Prison Museum (Hakubutsukan Abashiri Kangoku), which opened its doors to the public in 1985 as an open air museum. Note that the modernized Abashiri Prison is still in operation at the foot of Mount Tento. The Abashiri Prison Museum illustrates the daily life of prisoners and exhibits more than a dozen buildings and structures of the old prison, including the main prison building with its five radially constructed wings, a law court, bath house and a punishment chamber. Source: www.japan-guide.com

Abashiri is best known as the site of the Abashiri Prison, a Meiji-era facility used for the incarceration of political prisoners. The old prison has been turned into a museum, but the city's new maximum security prison is still in use. Abashiri is located in the eastern part of Abashiri Subprefecture, about 50 kilometers east of Kitami. There are no tall mountains, but there are many hills. Abashiri River flows and there are three lakes (Lake Abashiri, Lake Notori and Lake Tōfutsu) in the city. In the winter, tourists visit the city to watch the drift ice.