• Otaru is in Hokkaido Island, Northern part of Japan. It takes 40 minutes from Sapporo to Otaru by train. Otaru Canal was built in 1923 by sea reclamation. It was made for efficiency of cargo in Otaru Port.

• On the Street side of the Canal, there are brightly illuminated restaurants and fancy goods shops. On the other side, canal side, scenery was kept as in old times and then it is quiet outlook. Today the canal is just for sightseeing of 1,500 m long.

• Central Otaru is small town of several kilometers and then we can easily run by bicycle. We tried rental-bicycles in the Otaru Station. They were \1,000/2 hours, \1,400/4 hours and \1,800 / one day for mountain bicycle.

• We stayed at a hotel near the Otaru station, however a hotel by the Otaru Canal is recommended, because walking around the canal is easy.

• Famous Japanese singer Yujiro Ishihara used to sing a song "My Town Otaru is a town of slope", it was experienced by walking actually.

Ate dinner in here	exposed concrete is nice	sophisticated entrance	then photos about here
gorgeous house is church	and middle of street	a restaurant	general store
canal starts	gas light in left road	canal side of upper photo	canal side of above photo
canal side is actually warehouse appearance but street side is nice-looking beer restaurant, we can enjoy the difference of both sides			it does not look like a general store visually
Take a glass of Otaru beer	nice color configuration	how about gorgeous ...	Otaru Beer restaurant
middle of the canal	beer restaurant of upper left photo	end of the canal	antique shop from abroad
wine restaurant	lights of Canal Street	souvenir shop	famous music box shop
	traditional post box beside music box shop

2002/10/01