Oragel in Otaru
Towards the end of my stay in Hokkaido, I had a chance to visit Otaru, which is in central Hokkaido. Sometimes referred to as the 'Venice of Japan', Otaru has many small shops that specialize in glass blowing and souvenir type of gifts. Otaru is also the hometown of this famous entertainer in the 1960's and 1970's named 'Yujiro Ishihara'. He was so famous that they created a museum in honor of his death. My mom's birthday was coming up, so I popped into a few stores and looked for some novelty items that I thought would amuze her. The picture on the left is a picture of this place I went to called 'Otaru Oragel'. I found this neat mirror with two crystal figurines that dance when you turn on the music of the mirror box. Somehow it reminded me of the waltz between Cinderella and the Prince or that dance scene in the 'Beauty and the Beast'. I thought my mom would get a kick out of it and so I bought it. There was not too much other stuff to do in Otaru besides shop and eat. So after I did a little shopping for Hokkaido Souvenirs to take back to my friends in Tokyo, I went back to Sapporo and waited for my flight back to Tokyo.
