Day 12 (Feb 8): Otaru 2 Part 3 - Glass Blowing

Location: Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan
Weather: -2 degrees + snow shower
Author: Amy

And we continue with more on the Otaru specialty... Kitaichi glass!

We went to the glass blowing factory and watched the specialists at work.

At the entrance of the glass blowing factory

Artist at work

Artist at work (camera without flash so as not to disturb the artist)

Artist at work. I think she was making snowmen

Another artist. This one specialises in glass trinkets like pendants, earrings, etc. You can see the coloured glass rods on her right and several finished products lined up on the table. See below...


Here's what Chrissie and I bought. Glass earrings and a pendant. We thought they were soooo sweet!

There were also some explanations in English on how glass products are made. Thought I would share them with everyone...

How to make line patterns by using glass parts.

How to make flower patterns

How to make glass animals

How to make glass animals



SPECIAL FEATURE!

Took us quite a bit of effort to take pictures of these GORGEOUS masks so I MUST show them. This was at a museum showcasing Venetian arts and crafts. The museum even had a real gondola in it, sitting on water. The second floor had an even grander gondola for royalty but we would have needed to pay an entrance fee, so we passed.

Beautiful Venetian ball masks

Beautiful Venetian ball masks. There were even more outstanding ones but we didn't take any pics.

What was interesting about this place is they take touristy potraits for you in Victorian era gowns. So it was quite amusing to see pics of Asian people in puffy ballgowns and men in tights...

At that brings us to the end of our Otaru visit!

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves in Otaru, eventhough it was pretty cold. When we got back to Sapporo, we went to Coco Ichiban Curry House and had dinner. Want to see?

Chrissie's chicken katsu curry rice

Amy's pork curry rice