We caught the train from Sapporo to Otaru, which runs along the coast.
Walked through a shopping arcade
Past some snow pillars
Some sort of Bank
A photo spot that everyone was queueing up to take shots at
We went to an art gallery.
There was an exhibit of stained glass art
including some "how it was made" bits
it was the only exhibit where photos were allowed
There were four other floors of art, including traditional Japanese art, more modern oil paintings, some weirdo modern art sculpture, and then a whole bunch of pottery and statues. Some of it was quite good, but you get to see none of it.
We stayed in a house rather than a hotel. It was called "Cool Residence Otaru" as the sign out the front attests.
It was quite a nice little place
Living room and computer desk
A side room with one of those tables with a heater on the underside
A shower with a very deep bath
Death stairs
A bedroom for Japanese style futon beds
A small area with couch and TV between the bedrooms
Western Beds
My Nemesis, the Kerosene Heater.
Getting this thing to start seems to involve pressing the right sequence of buttons and then waiting 5 minutes. I found the pdf of the manual, but it's entirely in Japanese and has no informative pictures, so best of luck with that.
A nearby house getting in on the illuminations
The next morning after having my feet stick out of the end of the bed that is about 4 inches shorter than me, I decided I wasn't losing a toe to frostbite.
I made a single bed out of all the available futon materials
(I think there was probably enough stuff to make 7 futons)
We walked to a Shrine
The actual temple is on the left of the picture, you can just see the peak of the roof.
This statue was fairly accessible
Not so the Temple itself. These are the steps leading up to the front door.
So we walked over to Otaru park
It was also covered in snow
There's several sports fields
Including this one
and this one
A canal we walked past on the way to the steam clock
This bell tower is just across from the Steam Clock
The steam clock building
and the clock itself
There is a hello kitty cafe next door
The Steam Clock building is an enormous music box store
It houses 3 floors of music boxes
in all shapes and sizes
Another sake brewery
With sake making equipment
and a sochu still
Rice polished to varying degrees
Workers makin' that Sake
Brewing vats
Storage tanks
A different view of the vats
After that we visited the Bank from earlier
It contains the Hokkaido Bank Finance Museum
Which in addition to dioramas of the various branches of the bank
contains historical bank notes
Examples of how the notes are manufactured
Displays of the anti-counterfeiting measures
And this camera you can move around
to view a magnified area of the note
This branch is no longer active so you can go in the old bank vault and check out an exhibit about really old currency,
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