Sapporo - Snow, Doves and a Village from the Past

I woke up and was surprisingly refreshed ^^ The morning itself wasn't special, just a bit working on my computer to make new space on the memory card of my camera and packing my stuff up. But the day will get more interesting than imagined :)

My bed at the International Youth Hostel
I don't know if it's common, but everyone could use a curtain to get more privacy ^^

After I checked out and leaved the big luggage in a coin locker of the main station, I went to the Clock Tower. I wanted to see it earlier, but things go never according to a plan ;)
Actually, I imagined the Clock Tower to be bigger, because I just saw it on photos before. It looks like a small church :) Inside is a museum, but I wasn't interested to go inside. There were much more things waiting and time ran slowly out oO

The Clock Tower

My next destination was the Odori Park. The last day I already saw parts of it when I got to the Christmas Market. But the park itself is actually very long. So I had plenty to see ^^ And it finally started to snow! :)

Statue at the Odori Park
unfortunately, I don't know its meaning :(

I can imagine that the park will be very beautiful in spring and summer, so I know I will come to Sapporo again ^^ But anyway, I wanted to see winter in Sapporo and here it finally was :)
Because of the weather, the park was nearly empty. So I had a very peaceful walk through the park, watching doves and the snow. Sometimes it seemed like the doves were following me, because at some places I stopped, a bigger group of them landed a few times near me. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that nobody is following you :D

The "Four-Way Test" Statue

The "Maibaum"

I saw throughout my travels in Japan that the country has strong connections with Germany since the past and also today, but I would have never thought I would see a "Maibaum" in Japan :D

Okay, maybe the origin of it doesn't lie in Germany, but I'm pretty sure I recognize the flag at the top ;)

I find it fascinating on the one side that I see in Japan so many signs of this connection but on the other side it's sad that this isn't been showed in Germany so well. The Japanese seem to be proud to have this connection with Germany but my home country doesn't seem to feel that way :(

I didn't find out until now what kind of fruit that is :(

After a while, I finally came to one end of the park. There was also the Former Hokkaido Government Office Building. The park in the front of it was not so beautiful because of the weather, but anyway I took my time, shoot some photos and rested a bit.

In front of the Former Government Building

Now. I went to the most important place I wanted to see: The Historical Village of Hokkaido. They actually rebuilt or moved houses from the past into this place. The first challenge was to find the way, because the whole thing was placed at the outside of Sapporo. After I unsuccessfully searched at the bus stop of the main station, I just asked a woman at the Tourist Information (in the main station too). She was really nice and described me my way, so I could find it ^^

Dyeing Shop (for Kimonos)

After a train to Shin-Sapporo and taking the bus to the village, I was finally there. From the moment I got in, I was overwhelmed by the whole area. It was so huge and about 50 buildings could be discovered from the out- and the inside! To take a long story short: I took about 3 hours and was in about half of the buildings. Some just have three or four rooms, but there were much larger buildings like an old College Hostel with 2 floors and many, many rooms. The best pictures, you will find below :)

There was more than one time when I looked into a room and a person seemed to be there.
But it were just puppets. Still I got frightened some times :D

Alone from its size, it was a real village :)

Name Board (?) in the Sapporo Agricultural College Hostel

And this is how a Hostel looked around 1900

In many places, you can find old photographs,
so many to explore :D

Old School Books

At first I thought some of the pictures were just damaged
but it's actually old censorship :D

Wait ... they had beer in the official lunch menu?

Graffiti from Past Times (Photograph)

Inside a Wood-Cutters Shanty

In front of Kendo equipment in a Martial Arts Gym (Dojo)

This is how photographers worked back in the days
Damn ... I'm happy to have my Canon :D

This machine looks like the ones in Germany ^^

A Family's House

Barn with a Horse
Looks pretty real, or?

In some places, they even have sound boxes.
And when someone comes in, they start playing music or original sound from those times.
This is a bit creepy if you walk alone through the buildings, like I did :D

Because it took so long, I used all my left time here. But it was more than worth it :) I don't know where else I can get a so authentic feeling of past times. Okay, it helped that I was alone the whole time when I walked through the buildings. They were some other tourists within the village, but the area is so big, I just met some outside.

Anyway, definitely something worth to see more than one time. At the end of the day, I took my flight to Narita Airport, went with a bus to Yokohama where I just fell into my bed :D