Outdoor Museum and Onsen

Tom befriending the locals

Today we all stayed in Sapporo for our last day.  We had saved today for the outdoor museum: Kaitaku no mura, which is a sort of a Blists Hill - lots of old buildings from around Sapporo, Otaru and Ashaikawa dating from the late 19th century to the early 20th century have been moved there in order for them to be preserved and for people to learn about history.

Having looked at the weather forecast we were hoping that for once it would be right and not rain (it didn't - yahoooo) in fact it also said it would be pretty hot, so we decided it would be a good idea to go along when it opened at 9am to get the best of the cooler weather.  Also, we needed to pack tonight, and as we have bought quite a bit, I didn't want it to be a rush and for us to end up with loads of bags for our long train trip tomorrow.

Arashi doing his thing

We got the local train to Shinrinkoen and then a bus to the museum and entered.  Think we were the only customers, the museum seemed a little eerie - yet another place where we are the only customers!  We were given a map, so we headed on our way exploring various houses as we went along.  The first part of the museum was a town and the road we walked down was full of old civic buildings, and residences of high attaining business men.  

Quite a few of them were 'Western' - i.e. from the outside they looked Western (American) but as soon as you went inside, the floors were made of wood and / or tatami mats and the walls were sliding doors, there were plenty of rooms with no windows, then rooms with a hearth with a kettle dangling over charcoal, etc etc.  The main difference (I think) between Western and Japanese houses from that period is that Western ones are always rammed full of furniture: tables, chairs, sofas, beds, pictures, decorations, wall paper, etc etc, whilst Japanese ones are nearly always empty: no tables, chairs, sofas etc, just tatami mats and the odd chest of drawers.  One other difference I noticed today was the bathrooms,  Japanese houses tended to have 2 toilets: one for weeing and one for pooing and of course Japanese houses all had bathrooms with a wooden charcoal fired bath in it. 

Meiji era policeman

It was nice to wonder around the houses, some of them were absolutely massive, as many of the rooms wouldn't have windows in them (not a problem to them - partly because of the sliding door system they have - in fact the bedroom in our flat in Sapporo doesn't have a window in it - unheard of in the UK!)  Some of the houses had mock ups of people doing stuff in them, others were completely empty and some had volunteers showing you and involving you in the history of them.  We were shown how to get silk off a silk worm and spin it, we got to use a printing press and we got invited in for tea at the fishermans' hostel in the fishing village (oh, sometimes it is such a joy not liking tea - not!!!!!)

Once we went up the back street of the town, we explored the fishing village which was idyllic to look at - but once you worked out how many men were sleeping in the hostel and the smell associated with them and the fish, it must have been overpowering and maybe not so nice.  We then went to the farm village which had some 'starter' houses which would have been built by settlers when first 'colonising' the area - they were all too thin and without proper insulation to cope with the insanely cold winters up here, then we came across some barns, a dairy farm, and a thatched cottage which were more able to deal with the cold.  It was at this point we got to know some school children.  There was an Elementary School trip taking place at the museum, they had been split into groups of 5 and a boy in one group got excited and started shouting hello at us.  Matt started talking to them, and got quite a conversation going.  They all looked small and young, but on asking them, they were the same age as Tom.  They were as interested in us as we were with them and it added fun to the day as we kept 'bumping' into them.  They went back to school after their summer holidays on Tuesday - poor things.

Logging workers' dormitory

After the farm, we headed into the woods to the mountain village and came across a locomotive shed with trains in it, a charcoal kiln,  and a loggers' hostel, which I think was nicer than the fishermans' hostel - each man got a tatami mat each and 2 shelves each - more than at the fishermans' hostel.  Also it smelt really nice in there (although there were no men living there!!!!)  The logging took place during the winter, so I'm guessing it probably wasn't much fun.  Next was an Agricultural College which was massive.  This was interesting as the boys boarded here, and they had dormitories set up as they would have been.  There were also lots of photos of the boys as they were involved in festivals, and general larking around.  They had a mock up of their meals - which included a huge bottle of beer, I wonder if that was every day?  It was an absolutely massive building and if you fitted in well, I'm sure would have been great fun to attend.

By now our tummies were rumbling, so we headed to the restaurant to see what was on offer.  Matt and I went for pork and veggie soup with some cheese and potato balls and yam mochi, whilst Tom went for a huge serving of tonkatsu curry.  He is currently eating like a child possessed!  We can't seem to give him enough food and hoovers up everything that comes his way.  His meal always seems to cost more than either of ours, but as he eats it all, we can't complain.  

The main street

We then headed to the main street of the town.  There we found a couple of 'relay stations', what we would call 'staging posts', i.e. pubs with accommodation - all as spartan as the houses.  We also found a newspaper office where we were all able to print our own post card, a soba noodle shop, a couple of general stores, a drs (with operating room - urgggghhhh), a barbers, a photographers, a sweet shop, a sleigh makers and a police post.  

The police post was quite interesting, Matt got talking with the guy dressed up in uniform.  The police post was made from bricks using the 'British' system which apparently is much better than the other 'French' way (and so it should be).  As the police post was made of brick they had to dig up the whole building and transport it in one go to the museum (all the wooden buildings they took down and rebuilt in situ).  Apparently he started to quiz Matt about what was happening re Brexit - he told Matt that England need Europe, and why were we messing about with it all.  Of course we agree with him, interesting it's the first thing people want to talk to us about, it was the same in Hamburg.

Oh, almost forgot, there was a horse drawn trolley bus in the village as well.  We managed to get a trip.  The horse, called Arashi, was doing a fab job and was also very well looked after - being taken off the bus and given a snack and water after each outing.  He gave us a pretty smooth trip too.  Considering it was pretty hot, I was impressed.

So that was pretty much the Outdoor museum, it was a huge area and our feet were aching and I hope Tom absorbed something from the day.

Now, when planning our trip last night, Matt noticed an onsen not far from the museum, so as our feet were aching we decided to go home via it.  We were sort of overheating on our arrival, but that didn't put us off and in we went.  Once again it was a 'local' place, my side (at least) was full of old ladies catching up on gossip and watching the baseball and a quiz programme on the telly in the changing room and didn't bat an eye at me.  

Post-onsen floppiness

I had a long shower (mainly because I couldn't work out how to turn the water off?????!) and then had a good dip.  There was an outdoor bath which was so black you couldn't see into it at all and inside 2 other baths (one with a jacuzzi).  I was so hot thought that I actually splashed some water from the cold bath over me in an attempt to cool down (almost unheard of as I am such a wuss with cold water!)

I met up with Matt and Tom afterwards - both looking very red and very floppy.  After a cold drink each we walked back to the station very slowly (we were all unable to move very quickly) and got the local train back to Sapporo.  When we got back to the flat I was on packing duty, whilst Matt and Tom headed with an Ingleton Primary School pebble to hide in the grounds of Hokkaido University in the hope that someone finds it who will do something with it (figure that as the game isn't known in Japan, there is no point leaving pebbles to be 'found' as they will probably get 'cleaned up' and unless the person who finds it is on Facebook and has a curious nature, it will never be seen again).  There are a lot of foreign faces at Hokkaido University and as the game is known in the US, UK and Australia, there is a better chance that it might get found by someone who knows what to do with it.

On their return, Matt said he had found an interesting looking kushikatsu (breaded fried things on sticks) restaurant opposite the university, so we all returned there and ate loads.  Some interesting ones including ice-cream wrapped in mochi and deep fried.  We also had the usual 'other' things: edamame, cold tofu, gyoza and in my case scallop sushi - which is one of my new favourite foods.  They also sold beer cheap which was a bonus.

Last meal in Sapporo - very nice too

Then back to the flat, bed for Tom, leaving me to wonder if we can fit everything in our suitcases tomorrow morning as we are off to Hirosaki on Honshu.  For various reasons, our accommodation in Hakodate got cancelled last week, so we are now doing a home stay as that is all we could find.  Should be an interesting experience.  I think we are sleeping in futons in a guest house, so much more opportunity for interaction than we've had here in Sapporo.  

Sapporo has been good though and we've done loads despite shocking weather.  Just as well the last couple of days have been good, otherwise our lasting memory would be of rain!