{"id":31421,"date":"2019-12-20T22:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=31421"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:07:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:07:33","slug":"15-days-in-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-09-otaru-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2019\/12\/20\/15-days-in-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-09-otaru-canal\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido – Day 09 – Otaru Canal and Sakaimachi Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

We left the Otaru Aquarium after the penguin walk in time to catch the 11:45AM-ish bus ride back into Otaru Central, stopping by the Victoria Station<\/a> steakhouse for lunch. After that, it was a leisurely walk – in snowfall but the wind had stopped – towards Otaru Canal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Like the two canals I visited in September in the cities of Kurashiki<\/a> and Yanagawa<\/a>, the Otaru Canal had its heyday in yesteryears, though apparently this was as recently as this century – the large warehouses that remain present to this day presented majestic backdrops to the evening photos below. The warehouses have since been repurposed for tourism, and house souvenir shops, museums and dining establishments. The canal is fairly long, but the best place for pictures seems to be Nichigin Street. Just to be sure, the retail street isn’t just along the canal, but also along Sakaimachihondori Street. Both sides of the street are lined with dining establishments, souvenir shops, seafood and fresh produce, small eats and confectioneries, and glass-crafted wares.<\/p>\n

Some of the day’s highlights as we explored this street for several hours:<\/p>\n

The much talked about Rainbow Tower ice-cream<\/strong> is so-called because of its seven layers. The ice-cream costs \u00a5650, and isn’t anything to shout about, but the experience is novel. Beware: the ice-cream is large, so you’ll want to think twice before going nuts and getting one for every person in your party! There are also other snack items sold in the little shop, and there’s also an indoor dining area.<\/p>\n

The street is filled with glassware shops<\/strong>, and the intricate designs are fascinating. We also found a little spot where craftsmen were in the process of making glassware – but clearly posted signs noted no photography.<\/p>\n

The Otaru Music Box Museum<\/strong> doesn’t disappoint, though be prepared for fierce crowds. There are three levels of the museum, and most items on display – particularly on the first floor and some on the other floors – can be purchased. The Museum is really pretty, with its light-ups, and the seasonal Christmas decorations provided some photo opportunities.<\/p>\n

The famed cheesecakes from LeTao<\/strong> are pricey: \u00a5410 for a rather small slice – but the wife says it’s good. I’m not a fan of cheesecakes, so I’ll take her word for it – alongside also the evidence presented by the crowds and long queues!<\/p>\n

Pictures:<\/p>\n

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Sight-seeing boat rides ply the canal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The coldest it reached today in Otaru was -5 degrees Celsius.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Glassware is Otaru’s speciality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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These items aren’t cheap though: they routinely cost from \u00a52,000 and upwards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Flavors of the rainbow ice-cream.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I think we’re missing one of the flavors though, as it was sold out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Marchen Intersection and the Music Box Museum just across the road from it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Otaru Steam Clock at the entrance of the Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Museum is really pretty inside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Seasonal decorations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The museum as seen from the second floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Quite a bit of crowd, so you have to maneuver your way gingerly through the tables of fragile glass and porcelain ware, and also music boxes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A look at Marchen Intersection from the LeTAO tower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Truly a winter wonderland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sampling LeTAO’s cheesecake!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sunset sets at 4PM in Hokkaido, so the evening lights started coming on at about 4:15PM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Otaru Canal in early evening.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Can’t tell from the pictures, but the weather was cold!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A final post on Otaru<\/a> next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left the Otaru Aquarium after the penguin walk in time to catch the 11:45AM-ish bus ride back into Otaru Central, stopping by the Victoria Station steakhouse for lunch. After that, it was a leisurely walk – in snowfall but<\/p>\n

Read More 15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido – Day 09 – Otaru Canal and Sakaimachi Street<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[662,608,667],"class_list":["post-31421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-kanagawa-hokkaido-japan-2019","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-tamron-28-75mm-f2-8-di-iii-rxd","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/blog-2019-japan-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-09-A7_05341-otaru-day-trip-otaru-canal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38431,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31421\/revisions\/38431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}