Otaru Japan

#otaru #japan #sushimile #musicboxshop #otarucitymuseumofart

When looking at what to see in Otaru, the Sushi street and canal were the ones most listed. Leaving the boat, and crossing the canal, to explore, we soon realised that this was quite a compact town. Here we saw our first sighting of the coming Autumn colours, as we made our way to the music box shop and museum. We could honestly say we have never seen so many items as this on one idea. It was a fascinating place and we even considered one for a reminder of our visit, but realised it would just be put in a cupboard on our return home.

 Walking back, we soon reached the museums and art galleries and decided to visit one of these, eventually settling on the one containing modern art. In Japan we soon realised that you couldn't take photographs in these exhibitions., which didn't bode well for remembering what we had seen when writing this blog. 
One room contained work from artists who had studied the impressionist's style and had used this to paint their own versions. The other exhibition featured several paintings by traditional Japanese artists.

---

Walking back through the town, we were impressed with the colourful shops but less so with some of the fish stalls selling a range of fresh produce,  as well as large tanks crammed full of king crabs.

With having some time left before boarding we decided to go on the advertised canal trip that looked stunning in publicity photographs although when we watched the small boat set  out, we realised that the tour was quite short and didn't look very interesting, so we decided to have a drink and a snack in a local cafe. Here we were introduced to a sweet cake called Panju.
Fortunately, I did manage to collect an image of a local shop to draw later on my iPad though.

Our second port was a lovely slice of Japan and we enjoyed our visit.

---