Sapporo Winter School 2009 Excursion Plan
Otaru: the city of wonderful scenery and historical sake brewery
We go by bus to Otaru, a popular sightseeing city. First we enjoy the wonderful scenery of the city and the sea from a hilltop (Asahi Observation Platform) or a dramatic landscape of rocks and cliffs in Shukuzu (Which place we visit depends on weather condition). After that we get off in the city centre to look the city around. There are many kinds of shops: lovely glass sculptures and small music boxes (which would be good presents for your family), interesting local foods such as fish sausage (“kamaboko” in Japanese) and kombu products (teas, sweets, snacks, etc.; kombu is a sea weed that is widely used as soup source in Japan), etc. Finally we visit a sake (Japanese rice wine) brewery. The brewery is in a beautiful classic wooden building designated as one of the historical buildings by Otaru city. Along with its delicate taste, sake is known around the world as one of the fermented beverages (not a spirit) with highest alcohol concentration (20% or more for raw sake) . We will see how sake is brewed. You can taste (and buy, if you like) various kinds of sake there.
The excursion starts at 13:00 on February 11, and finishes at around 19:00. The excursion fee is just 2,000 yen including everything except for the lunch box (sandwich and drink) for 600 yen. We will have the lunch inside the bus because of the busy schedule. If you want to join this excursion, please email the conference secretary by
February 2
to inform her of your name and whether you need the lunchbox or not.
Otaru
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