Spot guide · Otaru 小樽
Photo: 663highland / CC BY 2.5About a kilometre of stone and brick merchant houses from the herring decades, now holding glassworks, music-box makers, patisseries and a great deal of soft-serve. It is unashamedly a shopping street and it is also one of the best-preserved Meiji commercial streetscapes in Hokkaido.
The glass industry is the interesting part. Kitaichi began around 1901 making floats for herring nets and oil lamps for a town with no electricity. Plastic floats and electric light destroyed both products — so the workshop turned to ornament, and an accident of obsolescence became the thing Otaru is now known for.
Twenty minutes each way. Possible, but the canal is closer.
Canal, market, then Sakaimachi end to end.
Fits either side of a Yoichi trip.
Because the industry started with fishing. Workshops here made glass floats for herring nets and oil lamps for a town without electricity. Plastic floats and electric light killed both products, so the workshops turned to decorative glass — and an accident of obsolescence became the craft the town is now known for.
About a kilometre, roughly twenty minutes on foot from the cruise berth, and it takes ninety minutes to walk properly with stops. Walk the whole length — the far end is quieter and the workshops there are better than the first two hundred metres.
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