We arrived in Otaru City. Otaru City is the second biggest city in Hokkaido. During the Meiji Era, about 100 years ago, this city was the centre for finance and the distribution of goods. As you know, the biggest city in Hokkaido is Sapporo City, but Sapporo had no harbour. The goods that were transfered to Sapporo were brought to Otaru City at first. The distance between Otaru and Sapporo is about 30km. The commodities were carried by trains or horse carts from Otaru to Sapporo. There remain dozens of historical buildings everywhere in this city.
I usually choose my hotel using my PC connected to the internet. I searched for a favorable hotel for us at the beginning of July as usual, but it was too late. Otaru City is one of the most famous cities for sightseeing as is to be expected. There was no vacancy. More properly, I found some vacancies at extremely luxurious hotels, but it wasn't suitable for us. Finally I called the municipal sightseeing agency and asked them to help me find a hotel. At any rate I chose a Japanese-style hotel.
I headed for that hotel, "Wakaba-sou," shortly after getting off the train. I'm going to report about this hotel. On the way to the hotel, we got lost. We found ourselves getting into a dark alley. I took some picture here.This is Otaru, too.
(Vocabulary)
commodity 商品, 生産物
agricultural commodities 農産物
horse cart 馬車
more properly より正確には
at any rate とにかく、ともかく、いずれにしても、いずれにせよ、どちらにせよ、何はともあれ、どのみち、何しろ、それにしても
alley 裏通り、路地、小路、小道
(KW: 小樽 観光 若葉荘)
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