I did stay local today – exploring what else Asahikawa had on offer. I first made my way to Tokiwa Park and the city’s Museum of Art. By chance I stumbled into an exhibition of animation art by Nizo Yamamoto. His best known movie in the west is probably Princess Mononoke -and the exhibition of course also featured a number of drawings from that film (which is one of my favorite animation movies overall). Photography was prohibited in the exhibition -so, nothing to share here.

From the art museum I made my way through the city, checking out a shopping area that was indicated in my tourist map – and turned out somewhat disappointing (I guess, Aeon Mall killed the shopping street). My destination was the science museum – which turned out very interactive and – well – targeted for school children. I still had some fun – and even experienced a full blown earthquake in a simulator. From the museum I made a loop through Miyamae Park and on to Kaguraoka Park with the Kamikawa Shrine.

For a fairly late lunch I made my way over to the ramen village, basically a strip mall with a collection of ramen restaurants … and while my ramen was good, there was still a bit of a tourist trap smell on this place. From here I walked  over to a sake factory, did check out their little museum – to then skip the tasting, as the place turned out a first grade tourist trap (with two bus loads of tourists  being offloaded, just as I got out  of the museum). I opted for local beer as an alternative and made my way to a downtown craftbeer bar.