Another fun day in the cold north.  This morning we took a 45 minute train ride even farther north to the port town of Otaru.

I saw this Ferris Wheel as we were nearing Otaru.  Below is a view of the rough, windy sea.

This former fishing village is now a booming tourist destination.  It’s known for it’s canals

and for it’s Music Boxes.

We wandered up and down the streets of Otaru

and came upon a fish market with this guy cooking seafood on a grill out front.

We picked out some scallops from the tank in the foreground and a sea urchin and some crab legs, handed them to the guy and watched him crack them open and cook them right before our eyes.

Check out this amazing fish in the market here.

Back on the street we wandered into several places where they had free sake tastings.

 

And then around beer-thirty we found this “brewery” where we had a Japanese version of Dunkel, a German beer.

We were back on the train by 1535 and back to our hotel by 1620.  At 1700 we met a friend and headed off on foot to the famous Sapporo Beer Garden for dinner and a beer or two or …  The Beer Garden is in a very cool old building.

The specialty of the house is mutton which we grill ourselves at the table along with cabbage and sprouts.

 

From here a brisk walk back to the hotel with a stop in the underground walkway for a Cold Stone ice cream cone.  And the end to another wonderful day in Sapporo.