February 13, 2025
I fell in love with Otaru on a trip in 2017. It has so much history and an incredible amount of charm, even in the snow. While I was here for the snow light path festival, I enjoyed the town during the day as well.
The Katsuni River runs into the Otaru Canal.
Kitaichi Hall
Kitaichi Glass is a long-established Otaru-based company that began producing kerosene lamps and glass floats used for fishing nets.
Glass lanterns in Kitaichi Hall
Kitaichi Glass was established in 1901 to manufacture kerosene lamps and trawler floats.
Building #3 was originally used as a warehouse built by a fishery processor in 1896 to store herring and other items and lit by kerosene lamps made by Kitaichi glass.
The only source of lighting in the hall are the 167 kerosene lamps lit every morning at 8:45 by human hands.
Notice the Glass fishing ball hanging on the left of the sweet potato stand.
The Otaru Steam clock is a replica of the famous Gastown clock in Vancouver, BC.
The Otaru Steam Clock is a British-style bronze clock that was a gift from Vancouver, Canada. It is partially powered by a steam engine and chimes with a steam whistle every 15 minutes. Installed in 1994, it was once the world’s second-largest steam clock.
I was on this trip with a cracked patella, I can truly relate to signs like this.
You will find these sandboxes throughout Hokkaido. They are bags filled with an anti-slip agent stone from a rock quarry in Sapporo. You are free to open a bag and spread as much as needed over slippery areas.
This sandbox I spotted in Sapporo