北海道は江戸時代末期に幕府が東北地方の６つの藩に開拓を命じた頃から、急速に開けていく。道庁が置かれた札幌に近い小樽は、明治から大正時代にかけて港・運河や鉄道が建設され、北海道開拓の玄関口として繁栄する。小樽運河沿いに100を越える石造の倉庫が立ち並んだのもこの頃だ。町なかには石造りの建物が建ち、銀行や会社が入りにぎわった。
　今は運河もその役割を終えたが、昔のままの姿で残されたことは幸運だった。運河とそれに面した石造りの倉庫群が今はレストランやカフェ、ショップに改造され、小樽の新しい魅力を作っている。街中の旧館も、多くそのままの姿で保存されて、商業空間として活用されている。往時の繁栄が今の活力になる―望んでもかなうことではない。小樽は観光都市に生まれ変わった。

   Hokkaido start to see rapid development when the Tokugawa Shogunate Government ordered six Domains in Tohoku region to explore the then untapped land.  Close to Sapporo, where the Hokkaido Government was placed, Otaru enjoyed continuous infrastructure development in ports, canals and rails, and serve as the gateway to the Hokkaido exploration.  It was in this period that more than a hundred of  warehouses built of stone lined the both sides of the canal.  In the town, a number of buildings were built of stone, which housed banks and company head offices, and the town flourished.
    Now that the canal had long ceased to play the original function, the luck thing was that the canal was preserved in its original shape.  The warehouses facing the canal now accommodates various restaurants, cafes and shops, and attract hundreds of thousands of tourists.  Old mansion houses in the town are also utilized in the same shape as before, converted to commercial use.  The experience of Otaru - that the past prosperity makes the present day vitality - is not a common phenomenon.  Otaru had it to emerge as a tourist city.

写真をクリックすると大きな画像がみられます−
Please click on the photo to view a larger image.

1 小樽運河−Otaru Canal	2 　運河・夏の日　−　The canal in summer	3　オルゴール館−　Orgel Museum
4 北一硝子　-　Kitaichi Glass Outlet	5 ロフト裏通り　−　A back street	6 倉庫今昔−Warehouse - past and present
7 廃線敷の展覧会　−　An exhibition on an abandoned rail track	8 海猫屋　− Hidden in green	9 硝子細工　− Glass working
10 ボタン雪　-　Heavy Snow	11カニに雪が　-　Snow falling on crabs	12 つらら−　Icicle

---