Wakkanai Park climbs the grassy hills west of town and gives the city its best easy view: the harbour below, the Soya Strait beyond, and on clear days the outline of Rishiri or even Sakhalin.
The park is also where Wakkanai's frontier history becomes visible. Memorials here look toward Karafuto, the Japanese name for southern Sakhalin, and the Motoe Hiraku Centennial Memorial Tower doubles as a lookout and local history museum.