This winter, I visited Hokkaido. I went to Otaru City, about an hour away from Sapporo. It has a classic townscape with beautiful natural scenery. Otaru is also one of Hokkaido’s tourist destinations. One of Otaru’s famous spots is the Otaru Canal, with a dam with a height of 1,140 m, which was a center for ship transportation from around the world.



When I visited Otaru, it was covered with snow, but the area around the Otaru canal was crowded with people. My visit fell during the annual Otaru Snow Light Path Festival. During this festival, snow along the canal is decorated with lights and paper lanterns are floated in the canal. These paper lanterns glow in the night scenery, making the Otaru canal look romantic.





Visitors to Otaru canal definitely never get bored. Not only is there the appeal of the canal scenery, but you can spend time looking at the souvenir shops, drinking in cafés, and trying out all the Hokkaido seafood. When I visited Otaru canal, the last meal I had was at a restaurant called Ramen Seafood, which was noodles in a soup with seaweed, boiled fish paste, shrimp, shellfish and a large crab. It was a great choice. The seafood was warming and felt like it was doing my body good. The day felt like a special day to me.