When you visit to Otaru city you must be in Kitaichi Glass Otaru, a famous glass maker more than 100 years. It is not exaggerated to say that Kitaichi Glass has been making the history of Otaru. Kitaichi Glass Otaru, the former name, Asahara Glass was founded in 1901, the midst of Meiji era. They had been making oil lamps at its start. From the end of Meiji era, 1910, they had started to make buoys for fishing. Its demand had been going higher and Otaru city became a big city in Hokkaido as the city of the fishing industry before World War II. After that, although Otaru City was declining, Kitaichi Glass was changing to make their original products for interiors or accessaries which became the new Otaru souvenirs and they has flourished again. There are series of shops along the Otaru canal road. They presents several kinds of souvenirs such as cups, interiors, accessaries, wines, Sake and so on. Also They have some cafes and the museum for glass arts called KITAICHI Venetian Art Museum, where you can see a lot of works of Venetian glass from Venetia, Italy.
Access
JR train from Sapporo
- Take a Hakodate line via Otaru to Minami-Otaru station(28min) and walk 10min.
Bus from Sapporo
- Take a Bus via Otaru to Otaru station(55min) and walk 20 min.
By Car
- Take a high way to Otaru exit(25min) and 10min to Kitaichi Glass parking
Neighborhood
- LeTAO —a sweets shop
- Otaru Orgel Do(小樽オルゴール堂)
- Otaru Museum of Art
- Temiya Cave —relief sculptures in the Jomon era, about 1,600 years ago.
- Otaru Gasu-to(小樽ガス燈) —a stained glass shop
- Kitakaro(北菓楼) —a sweets shop
