Otaru Canal

Otaru was Hokkaido's main port in the early twentieth century and the canal, completed in 1923, was built for lighters to move cargo between anchored ships and the stone warehouses along its bank. Containerisation ended that trade by the 1960s, and the city planned to fill the canal in for a road. A residents' campaign that ran for about ten years produced a compromise in the 1980s: half the width was filled and became the road, the other half kept, the warehouses restored, a promenade laid and gas lamps installed. That history is why the canal is narrower than the old photographs and why it exists at all. The warehouses now hold restaurants and glassworks - Otaru made glass floats for fishing nets and the trade turned to ornamental work. In February the Snow Light Path festival floats candles on the water.

What you actually see

• Half a canal - one side filled for a road in the 1980s compromise, the other kept.
• Stone warehouses - restored 1920s buildings along the retained bank.
• Gas lamps - installed with the promenade, lit along the water at dusk.
• Glassworks - a trade that began with fishing-net floats and turned ornamental.

When to go

February for the Snow Light Path; dusk any time of year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

It is short - the photogenic stretch is a few hundred metres. The main street is heavily commercial with repetitive souvenir and glass shops. Coach parties dominate the middle of the day. Winter footing on the promenade is icy.

Nearby

Sapporo is east; Cape Kamui is west along the Shakotan coast.