25th June 2014
So here we were in Otaru, still part of Hokkaido.
This little city of 131.000 was founded on the herring
fishing industry – not for food but for fertiliser to supply to Honshu, the
main island of Japan. The locals wouldn’t have dreamed of eating herring,
neither could they tempt their cats to eat any they say. It is the entrance way
for Sapporo, Japan’s 4th largest city. As with most of Japan –
easily reached by train.
The herring supply isn’t as plentiful today and locals do
now eat the fish. In the early 19oos the daughter of the wealthy “fish baron”
had visited a lovely villa and on her return asked “Daddy” if he would build
her one. We visited the traditional Japanese Villa which she used as a summer
house and got an idea of how their houses were constructed and had a taste of
how they lived. The grounds were beautiful – the large “dry garden” what our
front yard is supposed to be!!!! The flower garden was filled with peonies and
roses. The whole village(now a suburb) had been founded on the fishing
industry. Some of the modern houses around have sloping roves but since the
snow slides off into the neighbours’ yards, most have flat rooves. These are
heated and the melting snow turns to water and disappears harmlessly into the
sewerage drains, all in the name of good neighbourly relations.
There can be up to 7 metres of snow in this area. Needless
to say skiing is one of the main attractions in winter – November – February,
with tourism being their main industry. We went up the ropeway (cable car) to
the top of Mt. Tengu to admire the fabulous view. We could even see China. It
has been interesting to get some perspective on the geographic layout of the
various countries. I thought China was well north of Japan but it lies to the
west with Russia between and the peninsula of the Koreas also to the west. This
mountain has a particular goblin/monster with a huge nose and a very red face.
Depending on your wishes/prayers, you rub his face to have them granted. Had to
make sure Hoppy didn’t tap the nose on the end – wishing for a better match,
but stoke each side of the nose so our family would have good fortune in every
way. At the top of the ropeway there is also an enclosure with chipmunks there
to be petted and fed, if you can attract one. I think they are too well fed to
co-operate but you know Dr. Doolittle Hopkins!
An old part of the town has canals, no longer used for their
original purposes and mostly filled in but preserved after a petition by the
locals, with shops and restaurants in the old warehouses and very charming. We
had some time in the town and after a much needed snow cone wandered on and found a lovely little music
box museum. The area is apparently well known for these. Some of them and the
furniture were very old. We missed a recital on one that I thought was a small
organ, by 40 minutes! Also hard to imagine the same shops with 5 metres of snow
around but the guide had a picture to prove it. They say you can swim in the
sea and ski on the mountains on the same day in summer – hey, not for this girl!!!
Once again my photos wont transfer so will try again when close to land.
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