Otaru - a hidden gem

Otaru is a town/city which is about 30 or so minutes away by train from Sapporo where we had gone to experience the (crazily cold) delights of the Snow Festival or the yuki-matsuri as it is called in Japanese.

Otaru is known for its Canal - ever so pretty that I ended up buying a portrait of the Canal which looks pretty too!

The town knows how to make money of tourism too. They had a Snowmen street - where there all different kinds of snowmen and people of course took photos with them :D

They are both wearing matching blue scarfs!

Outside a glass shop (which Otaru is well known for)

But I forgot to mention the most wonderful thing about Otaru - its near the coast so this mean the train was like about 10 feet away from the Sea of Japan :D Do you know how cool it is to go on a train ride where the sea is just inches away with the line between the sea and snow merging even!

All the same innit?

We had reached early afternoon after a failed attempt to get to the number 1 attraction in Sapporo, the Historical Village but that is a story when you are drinking some whisky with some good company.

Anyways, Otaru I knew looked wonderful in the evening according to the photos we saw so we kept faffing until a point where we knew we would be able to experience it. We saw 'live' crab sitting inside a tank waiting to be eaten, wee snowmen like below...

Interesting candlework and lights like these

A whole family of wee snowmen :D

and bought delicious chocolate too :D As evening beckoned,

The lamps got lowered into the water

End result

The Canal all lit up at twilight

At the end all you can really say is this Go Otaru :)

If only Otaru was accessible from Tokyo that easily :)