Thursday Doors – Otaru (part 3)

So I know I’ve already gone back to Tokyo in my post earlier this week, but I’ve got unfinished business in Otaru, so we’re heading back to Japan’s north island for this instalment of Thursday Doors. Actually just a quick post this time because, between my never-ending struggle to improve my sleeping habits (i.e. to sleep earlier) and my other writing commitments, I’m gonna have to pare down my blogging time a little. Just a little.

If you’ve been following my Japan posts, or even just my TD posts about doors in Japan, you’ll probably know that I really like snow. With that in mind, here are some doors + snow: 

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Thursday Doors – Otaru (part 2)

As my friends and I walked through what I assume is the main shopping mall/arcade in Otaru, I kept glancing down the little side streets and alleyways, in hopes of finding hidden gems (doors or otherwise). It was down one such alleyway that I spotted this rather peculiar building in the distance:

Otaru pt 2 – Snow Light Path Festival

As much as I enjoyed our day trip to Otaru, I never thought that I’d get so many blog posts out of this humble little town. I’ve already posted an abridged summary of our daytime wanderings, and posted some of the lovely doors I found. There will be a second Thursday Doors post for Otaru coming up in the near future, whenever I find time to put it together, but, in the meanwhile, I wanted to share some photos from one of the highlights of that day: Otaru’s Snow Light Path.

I kind of don’t want to write a lot here; I have so many photos from that night to share instead. (I will try to restrict myself a little, though) 

Thursday Doors – Otaru (part 1!)

Otaru is one of the loveliest little towns I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. It’s a coastal town on the western side Hokkaido (Japan’s northernmost island), and it used to be the island’s financial centre because of its role in shipping and trade with other countries. Maybe it was just because it was winter, but it seemed like a sleepy little town when we visited (I mean that in the nicest, most affectionate way).

Since the main purpose of our trip to Otaru was to see the Snow Light Path, I hadn’t really researched much about the town, and about other things to see and do there (also I didn’t have that much time for extensive research before the trip). But I generally don’t have trouble finding interesting things, and keeping myself entertained when I’m in a new town/city, so I figured it’d be fine. Besides, one of the friends I was going with had already done some research into it. As it turned out, we were sufficiently preoccupied during the day.

Otaru pt 1 – daytime wanderings (mostly food)

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I have a bit of a soft spot for small towns. Not sure how I’d go living in one for a long time, but they sure are lovely places to visit. One of my most favourite places in Japan was a small rural town: Otaru is located somewhere west of Sapporo, in Hokkaido, and we visited on February 8th.

Otaru is only about half an hour from Sapporo by train. Things like this amaze me because sometimes it takes over half an hour to get from one part of Brisbane to another by train – on one train line, travelling through the same city!

Thursday Doors – Asahikawa

Just a short one this time.

Asahikawa is a small town in Hokkaido, Japan. My friend and I did a day trip there when we were in Japan earlier this year. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to properly explore the town, so I didn’t get many door photos. Still, I’m quite pleased with the ones I did find.