Otaru

Sunday's there are no classes and no school activities, and so it is the day of the week that I do some travel on my own. Today I did a day trip to Otaru.

Otaru is a touristy city about 40 minutes by train from Sapporo, on the coast of the Japan Sea. Behind it are mountains on which you see the cut areas for skiing in winter.

 In the late 1800's it was an important port, and many of the buildings and a pictoresque canal from that time have been preserved.

There is a main shopping street with souvenirs, and crafts such as glasswork. There are artists drawing and selling their work along the canal, etc. An interesting thing that seems important here is the selling of music boxes. Maybe music boxes arrived when the city was a port in the 1800's, but there are huge stores selling music boxes of all shapes and sizes: Everything from the classic style to music boxes in the shape of sushi.

There is also an interesting museum with large music boxes from around one hundred years ago, and the metal plates that they played to create music:

After looking around the center part of town, I took a short tour by boat along the canal.

It was very hot and sunny in the morning, but by late afternoon heavy dark rain clouds were moving in, and I caught a train back to Sapporo.