Otaru Things to Do

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Otaru Canal is interesting but along the way from the Otaru Statioon to the canal, there are covered shopping alley, shops selling foodstuffs, king crab, live seafood, etc.

The walk from Otaru Station to the canal covers about 8 streets away.

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This was a nice slightly off the beaten path, and much quieter compared to the Glass Shops Tourist Shops. For the architecture enthusiast, This building was constructed in 1912, designed by the reknowned architects such as Kingo Tatsuno and Uheiji Nagano, also of the Tokyo Central Station Red Brick Building fame.

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This is a major landmark building located in the tourist strip of boutique gift shops owned by Kitaichi Glass Company. The Italian style glass museum features a huge gondola in the middle of the ground floor, and on other floors there are recreations of affluent lifestyle of Renaissance-era Italy. Activities including the opportunity to dress in period costumes for memorial photograph, purchase Venice-imported glass items, and take rest in cafe. Some will find this place tourist trappy as here is also a major stop for the tour buses hence crowds. There are many public toilets located at the entrance accordingly.

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Otaru had a thriving herring fishing trade. Glass buoys were used to light up fishing boats at night to attract herrings. A glass industry flourished in Otaru to support the herring trade. When the herring fishing industry declined in the 1950s, the makers of glass buoys diverted their business to produce refined glassware, as the demand for buoys plunged. The result today are numerous glass shops, which now carter mainly to souvenir hungry tourists. If you think that blown glassware is only made in Venice, then you are wrong. There is a vast array of blown glassware in the same style as Venetian Murano glassware at the Kitaichi Venetian Art Museum in Otaru.

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Otaru Canal is the symbol of this city. The gaslights and stone warehouses along the canal produce a beautiful and romantic nightscape popular with young couples. There are many cafes, museums, restaurants & shops as well as the brewery restaurant belonging to Otaru Beer. Painters and other artists set up their easels along the canal reminiscent of the artists on the banks of the River Seine in Paris.
The canal zone boomed in the Meiji Period when Otaru was the only significant port on Hokkaido's Sea of Japan coast and after the Hokkaido Development Office was established in nearby Sapporo in 1869. From the latter part of the 19th century to the late 1920s the city boomed as a commercial center, and the major firms that played a large part in the development of Hokkaido and the rest of Japan had their branch offices around this area.

When the herring fishing industry declined in the 1950s, the makers of glass buoys diverted their business to produce refined glassware, as the demand for buoys plunged. The result today are numerous glass shops, which now carter mainly to souvenir hungry tourists.

Among the glass related attractions are the Kitaichi Glass Shops of Otaru's most famous glass maker.

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Otaru Canal (Otaru Unga) used to be a central part of the city's busy harbor in the first half of the 20th century, when large vessels had to be unloaded by smaller ships, which then transported the goods to warehouses along the canal.

The canal became obsolete, when modern dock facilities allowed for direct unloading of larger vessels. Thanks to a citizens' movement, however, a part of the canal was beautifully restored in the 1980s instead of being landfilled, while the warehouses were transformed into shops, cafes, museums and restaurants.

The canal makes for a pleasant scroll during the day, when various artists present their works to the passing tourists, and it is very romantic in the evening, when the gas lamps are lit.

It is once an important transportation channel in Otaru. However, the place was changed. The godown was now turned into restaurants. It together with the canal become a romantic place which attracts many many travellers to visit.

The best time taking picture for the canal is in the evening especially when the gas lamps besides it are lit. It is out of my experience. I did some shots in the afternoon, evening and at night.