At the Hokkaido Historical Museum, there was a special exhibit on the
Ainu going on. I was really happy to find an exhibit dedicated solely to
the Sending of the Bears ceremony, as my dad has written a song about
it.
Today it
was Nicky and I one our own, as Erin doesn’t really like museums, and
Nicky and I requested a bit of time to be together. we decided to go to
Shinrikoen, a small suburb of Sapporo about twenty minutes away, since
they offer two different, and equally famous museums in their district.
The first place we went was the Hokkaido Historical Museum, situated on
top of a mountain of snow, and the Hokkaido Historical Village, which is
pretty much a museum of old buildings in the open air.
Shinrikoen is a small town, with
literally no buildings over four stories- blanketed in snow, and
exceptionally quiet, while Nicky and I walked, it was like we were the
only people in the whole world. It was gorgeous, and quite peaceful. The
walk up the slope towards the museums could be described as nothing
less than stunning, as the nude trees were buried to their branches in
snow, and the roads were so full of ice that they ceased to be asphalt
and more of a long, winding stream. The sidewalks had their fare share
of ice as well- walking across them and hearing the ice crack was
surreal, like I was about to fall into a pond of frigid water.
After about thirty minutes of walking,
we finally reached the museum, which was preceded by a gigantic spire
of a tower. The tower was apparently a commemoration statue of sorts.
After about thirty minutes of walking from the station, we finally
arrived at the Historical Museum of Hokkaido. I really liked this
museum, as there was only one pathway through it, starting at
prehistoric times, with mastodons and old trees, and ending in the
“future” of Hokkaido. There were several exhibits in particular that I
enjoyed, most notably the Jomon exhibit, where they had the actual clay
dolls, and the Ainu exhibit, which also had a special addition of about
one hundred Ainu robes this month. There are pictures in my gallery.
After the museum, we headed back down
the slope for about ten minutes to make our way to the Sapporo
Historical Village, which was mostly deserted, I think because today was
the last day of the snow festival, and also because the road conditions
were not very favorable. The village was beautiful though. Nicky and I
rented a horse carriage to be drawn through the village. It was really
romantic, even though other people were in the cart, because of all of
the snow and the lovely setting. The village pretty much looked like a
setler’s village, with an old farm, cabin, police station and train
station. There was also a suspension bridge, but it was unfortunately
closed due to the heavy snow (the snow was actually higher than the
bridge itself). We stayed until the park closed, and then ran to catch
the last bus, as it was starting to get dark and the snow had started up
again. It was probably the scariest bus ride I’ve ever been on, as the
driver was going quite fast down an icy slope, but we got to the station
safely, and then headed back to the ryokan.
When we got back, we were stopped at
the door by Keiko-san, the 84-year-old grandmother of the innkeeper, and
Nicky complimented her on looking pretty- at this point, Keiko-san
laughed, and started to strip down! Nicky and I stood frozen in the
doorway as this little old woman started pulling her pants down and her
sweater up, all while singing “Nude-o Nude-o!” It was quite hilarious,
though we were saved by Naomi-san (her daughter), who made her stop.
It was an awesome day... one of my favorites of the trip so far... but tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!