Days 10 & 11 on the Northern Sea Circuit - Otaru and departing for warmer climes

Passing by Kanazawa

Our last full day on Hokkaidō 北海道 kicked off with a very Japanese-style breakfast at the Nakamuraya Ryokan 中村屋旅館. I couldn't (and wouldn't) want to eat like this every morning, but when staying at a Japanese-style inn it couldn't have been more suitable:

Outside the ryokan:

Otaru 小樽 (30 minutes from Sapporo 札幌 by rapid train, 45 minutes on a local) was the financial center of Hokkaido in the early 20th century, its wealth the product of a then-lucrative herring industry. The result was a city of impressive, stone-and-brick Western-style buildings. Sapporo has long since stolen Otaru's thunder, but the latter is now a popular daytrip from Hokkaido's capital. I had done just that way, way back in 1995, but I thought my wife would like the atmosphere, so we joined the tourist hordes on a cold Monday morning in admiring Otaru's historic canal district 小樽運河:

The city had seen some recent heavy snowfall (the benches and figures below were nearly covered), but in a sign of the good timing we enjoyed weather-wise throughout the majority of our trip, that Monday the skies would be mostly clear:

You could see how much snow needed to be cleared from rooftops, a dangerous-looking task:

Shu-E admires the local crabs on offer at a souvenir shop...:

...while my gaze was directed toward the craft beers on offer:

Fish being dried in the crisp winter air. Compared to Beijing's 北京 dry climate, my skin appreciated the moisture in Hokkaido's air:

We decided to have lunch early at the Otaru Beer Warehouse No. 1 小樽ビール brewpub, arriving soon after it opened:

I had the AB5.4% Weiss Fruity ヴァイスフルーティwith a flavor reminiscent of banana to go along with the pizza I'd ordered:

Passersby on the opposite bank of the canal would frequently stop to take photos of the icicles clinging to the eaves:

After lunch we crossed over the canal and plunged with the other visitors into the main tourist area:

The Former Kimura Warehouse (1891) 旧木村倉庫. Originally a transit warehouse for the herring industries, it's now a glass outlet, selling one of Otaru's most popular souvenir crafts: 

Outside the Music Box Museum 小樽オルゴール堂 (constructed in 1915 as the local office of a rice merchant) stands the Otaru Steam Clock 小樽蒸気からくり時計. Installed in 1994 it looks very similar to the famous steam whistle clock in Vancouver's Gastown district:

Taking a snack break. In recent years I've taken note of the presence of Wagyū 和牛 in restaurants and food stalls catering to the tourist trade, as the expensive beef has boomed in popularity around the globe. Here I am enjoying a Wagyu beef steamed bun called a "kokuburo" こぶ黒牛まん: 

The Former Hokkai Millet Company  旧北海道雑穀(株) building dates from 1907. According to the multilingual signboard nearby, it's "one of the most historically important Meiji-period 明治時代 buildings that line Sakaimachi-dōri Street 堺町通り" (the kanji and macron are my additions), but didn't go into detail as to why, though this website provides the likely answer. 

The Former Otaru Branch of Hyakujūsan Bank 旧北海道百十三銀行支店 (1893). I've included the signboard as well - note the five languages (Japanese, English, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Korean. A recent Japan Times article pointed out that while the Trump administration appears to be pushing linguistic homogeneity (referring to the recent Executive Order proclaiming English as the official language of the United States), Japan has moved in the opposite direction by becoming increasingly multilingual, most likely due to the influx of foreign tourists into the country.

The one museum in Otaru that is definitely worth a peek is the Bank of Japan Otaru Museum 日本銀行旧小樽支店金融資料館, a stone and brick edifice that opened in 1912, and continued operations until 2002, meaning it was still in business when I was last in town in 1995. The museum gives an overview of the history of banking in Japan: 

The impressive interior of the main banking hall: 

The bank was designed by Tatsuno Kingo 辰野金吾, the architect of the original Tōkyō Station 東京駅 building. Other examples of Tatsuno's works were on display, including branches of the Bank of Japan 日本銀行 in addition to the one in Otaru...: 

...as well as other buildings (including the aforementioned Tokyo Station building seen immediately below)

The Bank of Japan recently introduced new banknotes featuring a new set of famous personages. From left to right on the ¥10,000 note is the "father of Japanese capitalism" Shibusawa Eiichi 渋沢栄一; the ¥5000 bill features educator Tsuda Umeko 津田梅子; and the ¥1000 note sports an image of Kitasato Shibasaburō, a physician and bacteriologist. The notes are so new that many ticket vending machines at train and subway stations in Sapporo were not accepting them yet:

I have a suggestion as to a permanent figure to be placed on the highest banknote, one worthy of esteem by locals and foreigners alike:

There's also a ¥2000 note in Japan. Like the American $2 bill, it's rarely seen:

Being Taiwanese, my wife was overjoyed to see what ¥1 billion ($6.7 million) would look like in real life:

Leaving the museum and heading back toward Otaru Station 小樽駅...:

...passing through a covered shopping arcade:

Just before the station there was a narrow seafood market 小樽三角市場 which Shu-E had to check out:

Many other foreign visitors were also taking in the sights and smells, and the small restaurants inside were doing a roaring trade:

My wife wished she could've brought this back with us:

Shu-E took these photos on the train back to Sapporo. We rode the local in both directions:

Looking back now, I probably should've arranged the itinerary so that we could've spent our final night in Otaru, especially as the canal area looks very beautiful when lit up in the evenings. However, the Nakamuraya Ryokan's accommodation package included breakfast and dinner, so we returned to the inn in time for the evening meal, which was quite good:

After dinner I went for a long walk, going first to the Sapporo TV Tower さっぽろテレビ塔...:

...then to Sapporo Station 札幌駅 via one of the city's underground passageways, before returning to the ryokan:

Our final breakfast the next morning in Sapporo:

Did I write earlier that I regretted us not spending the final night in Otaru? It turned out that it was a good thing we didn't. After checking out and taking our suitcases to Sapporo Station we were stunned to discover that virtually every train had either been canceled or significantly delayed due to weather conditions in other parts of Hokkaido (Sapporo itself was clear and sunny). Shu-E wanted to wait it out at the station, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I convinced her should take a taxi to New Chitose Airport 新千歳空港. The ride ended up costing over ¥16,000 (almost $110), and the trains appeared to be running normally again from what could be seen at the airport railway station, but I'm still convinced we made the right choice to catch a cab:

Beijing Taiwanese, my wife naturally had to buy souvenirs to bring to her family and friends in Taiwan. It's moments like these that I understand my purpose in life:

We had time for a snack before boarding the EVA Airways flight to Taoyuan International Airport 臺灣桃園國際機場. And this time I remembered to include the rice with the soup curry 札幌スープカレー:

Leaving the Sapporo area:

Though there was a lot of snow on the ground everywhere we went in Hokkaido, we only experienced a few snowfalls, and our trip was only mildly affected by the weather (like the canceled trains going to the airport, and a few days prior when we arrived in Kushiro 釧路. In the latter, there was an announcement that trains continuing eastward from Kushiro were halted due to heavy snow, but that didn't affect us as we rented a car and drove north to Akanko Onsen 阿寒湖温泉).

However, while we were enjoying Japan's northernmost island, areas along the Sea of Japan 日本海 on the main island of Honshū 本州 were experiencing record heavy snowfalls. Looking out the window and tracking our flight on the monitor screen, I'm pretty certain we were flying over Ishikawa Prefecture 石川県, one of the heaviest-hit areas:

Kanazawa 金沢, the capital of Ishikawa-ken. One of Japan's nicest cities (I took our daughter there a couple of summers ago), I don't know if I would like to live there during the winter months:

The Ōnaruto Bridge 大鳴門橋 connecting Awaji Island 淡路島 on the left and Tokushima Prefecture 徳島県 on the island of Shikoku 四国 on the right. If all goes as planned I hope to cross that bridge myself in June:

And with that, our eleven-day, ten-night stay on Hokkaido came to an end. Shu-E had always talked about going there in winter (a dream shared by many Taiwanese), so I'm happy that I was able to make that wish a reality for her. If you've been reading the other posts on this trip, you'll know that this was my third visit to Hokkaido, though my first since 1995, and the first ever in winter (I'd previously been in spring and summer). 

With every trip I make to Japan, the less foreign it seems, to the point now that I feel almost as much at home there as I do in the U.S. (even though I haven't resided in the country since September 2005). I'm not arrogant or deluded enough to claim I understand the country and its culture and therefore fit in like a native - I still struggle with the language, and after decades of inner conflicts have finally accepted the reality that I'll always be a gaijin 外人 no matter what. But there is a certain familiarity to Japan that for me has removed much of the supposed "exoticness" or "uniqueness" that you hear so many travelers, influencers and the like blather on about. It may have been a year since the most recent prior visit, but once off the plane and past Immigration and Customs, it didn't feel like I was in a "foreign" country.

Another place that feels less foreign all the time is Taiwan, and that was where we were headed next on this final R&R trip. And that, of course, will be the subject of the next blog post. Until then...