Otaru Canal

Otaru

It was another round of excellent breakfasting on Hokkaido produce. It will be another day of long journey as we head towards as we head back to central Hokkaido.We stopped at a horse ranch for lunch. The souvenir shop was selling products derived from horses.I bought a bottle of cream that would help keep your skin from getting dry in the harsh winter air. It seems the Japs like to eat horse meat sashimi.

By the time we reached the port city of Otaru it was a bout 4pm and getting dark. There were lots of European style buildings here as it was opened to foriegn trade. It use to produce lots of floating glass balls tied to fishing nets when the Herring trade was good in the old days. But when the fish stocks collapsed the factories turned to making intricate glasswares for tourists.

For dinner we would head back to Sapporo. It was 8pm after dinner when we went to see the Odori park where the hold the yearly ice sculpting competition. It was really cold but there were lots of people around taking photos of the X'mas lightings.The underground mall was closed by 8pm and we checked into our hotel for the nite.