Day 12 (Feb 8): Otaru 2 Part 1 - Snow Special

Location: Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan
Weather: -2 deg + snow shower (that means LOTS & LOTS of snow)
Author: Amy

Hi all! Time for me to stop procrastinating and actually post something.

I chose to do Otaru because of the music boxes and glass blowing pics I wanted to show everyone. Due to popular demand, we have taken heaps of pictures! And boy, do I mean heaps! Because there are so many pics, I will have to divide the Otaru trip into several parts.

Part 1 will be focused on the outdoors with particular attention to snow sculptures and the Otaru Canal.

Welcome to Otaru! Really... that's what the little plaque at the top of the heart says.

Welcome to Otaru!!!

We arrived early-ish for once cause we wanted to visit a lot of places and take a lot of pictures. The moment we got out of the train station, we sunk into snow. It snows a lot in Otaru it seems, plus the council doesn't clear the walkway a lot so half the time, we had to walk on the road or else walk on the pathway where the snow would have reached mid-calf at its lowest.

Can you see it snowing?

Chrissie taking pic/video of the snow shower

I think I really like looking at snow falling. It's very beautiful when it floats down and dances gently but when the wind starts blowing them everywhere...

Outside a coffee shop that had a cute display window

Don't remember where this was but I think Chrissie liked the trees covered with snow?

Character building. There were lots of interesting buildings in that area of Otaru. Probably to cater for tourists.

It snowed hard on and off. This was obviously during the 'on'.

Can't remember which building this was...

Chrissie trying to destroy a snowball some little kiddie made... So evil...

Beautiful night view at an intersection

Same intersection, different angle

A lot of the shops in Otaru (mainly food places like cafes) put a lot of effort into making pretty snow sculptures at the entrances. Partly to pull in customers, I suppose. Most of the snow sculptures had lit up candles which really add to the magical feeling. It's quite an effort considering how windy it is and how quickly the candles get snuffed out so I assume that there is someone diligently lighting up the candles all the time.

Snowmen, bears and other characters

Cuddly bear (just a tad cold...)

The cat bus from Totoro!!! And Totoro himself! Do you remember this, Danny?

Mr. Snowman

BIG Mr. Snowman. Probably heavier than Chrissie...

I am actually standing at the entrance to an igloo. You can see the entrance behind me (see leg area)

Another little pathway with pretty sculptures

And for Yvonne, check out the Hello Kitty shop! And Hello Kitty snow sculpture. We had a look inside but couldn't find anything suitable for a 30+ year old office lady (I meant you, Von)

Hello Kitty sculpture outside the Hello Kitty shop

Cute?



LET'S TAKE A BREAK!

I got lured by the aroma of grilled seafood and decided to try grilled scallops. Yum!!! It was really fresh and sweet!

My scallop being cooked

My personal chef!

Giant crabs!

More scallops. There were even bigger ones to the side but I like quantity more than size...


BACK TO BUSINESS

When it was dark, we went to the Otaru Canal. Every winter, Otaru has its snow festival (Yuki Matsuri) where they light up the canal with candles in specially blown glass spheres.

I think it says 'Otaru Snow Festival'

If you remember, I mentioned before that Otaru is well-known for Kitaichi glass products. The glass-blowing factories here produce the glass spheres specially for the 'lighting up of the canal'. Because candles are used to light up the glass spheres + wind factor, there is a small boat that has to continously paddle around in the canal to light up candles that were snuffed by the wind. It was mighty cold around then so I can imagine how cold the people in the boat were...

The Otaru canal beautifully lit up. Snow sculpture displays are on the left of the canal. Hardworking 'candle-lighters' in the boat on the waters (see centre of pic)

In true colour

The hardworking people diligently lighting up the candles for everyone to admire

From Amy's camera. Not as nice, is it?

There were a lot of people taking pics around there so we really had to push our way in. A lot of Hongkies that day. It was quite funny but the person who took the pic for us (above) was actually Korean but we (i.e. Chrissie) talked to them in Japanese anyway.

It was less crowded here so we took the opportunity to take more pics of us in front of the canal

I love Chrissie's camera cause it really takes night shots well!!

Some of the prettier snow sculptures on the side. I wonder if the artists had to apply to create these...

At one point, it started snowing pretty hard again. It got pretty cold. Chrissie lost her gloves and had to endure taking pics with her hands exposed...

Close to the other end of the canal with snow blowing around

Yay! We made it to the other end!

It took us a while to get to the other end cause the pathway was pretty slippery. Chrissie fell once and I fell twice that day so I was walking extra slowly... apart from the usual tortoise pace... Probably didn't help that it snowed pretty hard some of the times and I couldn't see where I was going.

It was cold, windy and snowy, but we really enjoyed ourselves that day. I'm glad we went back to Otaru.

To be continued in Part 2 - Music boxes and glass blowing!