Today's festivities started with a walk over to the local branch of Yoshinoya for a beef-bowl-breakfast, or 三つビシ, a local tradition going back decades. Then, it was on to a 90ish minute train ride on the Hokuto Shinkansen (not to be confused with the more famous, and more deadly, Hokuto Shinken) to the scenic metropolis of Shiraoi to visit the Upopoy Ainu National Heritage Museum.
Now, when I say scenic metropolis, what I mean is "a town with less than 20,000 residents spread out over a large area" and "the train station is right next to a large wood and paper mill". Can you feel it? Can you experience it second-hand through my perfect command of the English language? Wondrous. (Angie: If I play the music to the opening of Twin Peaks and you picture tree trunks cut as logs, smell the pine of a Christmas tree lot, and see the town through a haze of misty rain and fog and you would again have a pretty accurate recreation of our initial assessment of Shiraoi.)
After detraining, we assaulted by the wind in the willows. And much like Mr Toad's Wild Ride, we found ourselves wandering along a prescribed path through a former industrial area. About 500m of walking later, we found ourselves at a very lovely history park/cultural museum. It had everything: a museum, a little recreation town showing Ainu construction, a gift shop inside the museum, a theater for shows, and even a gift shop outside the museum!
Just an example of the amazing accessibility efforts this museum put forth: they had facilities for people with a stoma (like a colostomy bag) and also a prayer room? That is wonderful! Good for them!
First stop, a small gatcha machine to pick up souvenirs for some guy on Reddit. If you're the guy from Reddit who asked us to pick up buttons, we've got your buttons. If you aren't the guy from Reddit who asked us to pick up buttons, mind your own business. I'm trying to transact here.
Said requested buttons from Redditor who had regretted not getting them from the gashapon machine by the entrance. Hope they really like wolves.
Next up, tickets and the museum. It was a very nice building, with an incredibly slow escalator (this is not a complaint, merely an observation - that escalator was *slow*) (My explanation was it was slow so you had time to load the English language guide that we never used on our phones) to the main exhibition area. We learned all about how an indigenous population was stripped of their cultural heritage, punished for speaking their language, brutalized for practicing their religion, and made to assimilate into a larger imperial nation's culture. I am at least thankful this has never happened to any other indigenous group anywhere else in the world. Hang on. I am being informed that it has, in fact, happened dozens of other times across multiple continents. Man, what is wrong with people? Don't do that.
The exhibition covered the past, present, and future of the Ainu. Lots of very interesting displays, some of which were interactive, that showed historic hunting and crafting techniques. I learned several interesting and horrifying things that I didn't already know (and many that I did already know) about how the Ainu were treated by the Wajin (their word for the people of Mainland Japan which means something like "those you cannot trust" and has sort-of been backwards translated into "colonizer").
There was an entire section of Touch Exhibits - the exhibits you can touch - that showed how the Ainu fabric artisans' materials felt. It also included loads of information about the Ainu language and how it is communicated (in Japanese, it is rendered in Katakana - the characters used for foreign languages [which itself is a staggering admission of purposeful Othering by the mainland Japanese]; in other languages, there is a variant using Latin characters) including Braille and Sign variants. A thorough edutainment was had by all! We swung through the gift shop (the one inside the museum) and bought some tchotchkes, including ainu handicrafts and bear jerky! It's jerky, made from bears!
An electric tonkori!! How cool!
I loved the sensory exhibit which was aimed for those with sight or hearing impairment. They had so many creative ways to learn about Ainu crafts and culture through touch. There was a whole area that taught Japanese with hearing impairments how to form the letter "p" and "k" which are letters used in Ainu language in such a way that isn't used in Japanese. There were raised images of the placement of tongue and lips, then a description of how it feels to form the words, and even a mirror to practice forming the sounds with your own mouth!
The floor of some of the sensory exhibit
Next up, a few demonstration buildings. The first was a craft hall, but there was a class already in session and we didn't have tickets, so we could only pop our heads in. Angie thought she saw them making Mukkuri (mouth harps, made of bamboo or hyacinth wood). What fun! We then sauntered on to another hall, this one showing off Ainu dance and song. We had just missed the performance for that time period, but the women running the demonstration used the opportunity to "practice" their dance again. It was very kind of them, though kind of awkward since the group before us had been like 10 people and this time it was just Angie and I. There was also an opportunity to try on some traditional Ainu clothes, but we were all bundled up due to the weather so we politely passed.
While in the next building, an up-sized version of the inside of a traditional Ainu home, the guide (who spoke to us in English) asked us some questions about what we'd seen. She recommended a showcase that was going to start soon, only to realize that it was five minutes from then and literally on the other side of the park. "Go! You must run," she cried out to us as we made our way out of the home. I still do not know if it was her way of getting rid of the only foreigners in the park or if she truly wanted us to experience the show. Either way, thanks to her we had a destination and a timeline.
We walked briskly across the park and made it to the event hall mere seconds after the start time. Technically, this was a ticketed event. But the woman who was standing outside asked a few questions and then turned around and jogged inside. I didn't hear all of it, but I did hear "we have guests without tickets, *foreign guests*" (Angie: I heard "ii desu ka?" so whatever she asked her coworker, she asked if that was okay) and then the place was abuzz as they directed us into the closed hall so that we could experience the show.
What followed was a demonstration of traditional Ainu dances, songs, and a bitchin' Mukkuri solo. It was a good time. While we didn't understand most of the spoken words, it was still good to watch folks perform their historical artforms. (The performers really had a set of pipes! It was very moving and powerful!)
On our way out, we hit up the gift shop (the one outside the museum) and purchased some more small souvenirs (and a t-shirt for me). We started out walk back to the train station, stopping briefly at the locally-ran Buy Our Local Stuff store. Then, the 90-minute ride back to Sapporo. We did not buy tickets early enough, so we had to sit across the aisle from each other the whole trip.
This was actually my snack on the train ride to the museum this morning.
Dinner was Tokyu Hands Department Store's Food Hall, called Food Show. We picked up some sushi and fried things, (Angie: Sushi, negima yakitori, and fried menchikatsu and a creamy crab katsu) then headed to 7/11 for drinks and dessert. Mind you, it's like 34F outside with 30mph winds - so this entire endeavour may have been fruitless. But we acquired some drinks and dessert, so I guess it was fruitful after all. Damn. What a rollercoaster this blog entry has been.
We originally planned to hit up Karaoke after dinner, but our old bodies are too cold and tired to venture out again tonight.
And now, here's Angie with the corrections. (I have made the appropriate corrections or side-notes in bold. I will only add that the menchi katsu had gristle in it and was inedible, the negima yakitori was the best, the sushi was decidedly fine, and the creamy crab katsu was actually very yummy! Night night!)
And now, here's Angie with the corrections. (I have made the appropriate corrections or side-notes in bold. I will only add that the menchi katsu had gristle in it and was inedible, the negima yakitori was the best, the sushi was decidedly fine, and the creamy crab katsu was actually very yummy! Night night!)
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