As stated I went here for a day trip during my stay in Sapporo.
The town was really nice with many people visiting it in the central areas. A lot of nice shops with local goods, sweets, things to shop for etc.
The main things are:
- The canal across the main streets
- Sakaimachi street
- Nikka whisky distillery
I checked out one of the onsens (hot spring) in the area, it was a big onsen with many facilities, different pools with various degrees of heat and outside pools as well! Overall a really great experience at the end of the day after walking around so much.
The onsen is called "Yunohana Otaru" onsen, highly recommended. After a nice relaxation such as this I finished my short Otaru trip with a nice bowl of hot ramen, went to one of the highly rated ramen - called "Ramen Tokaiya" which was fantastic, great portion with cooked/fried pork meat and you can also get some tasty gyoza dumplings as a side. Took a train back to Sapporo after all was said and done.
Fascinating and helpful reading about these towns and destinations in Japan, places I would not have known about reading where to go.