Ainu  museum in Shiraoi

Shiraoi is again small village  a short train ride away from Tomakomai. And after depositing our luggage in the hotel lobby, this was today’s destination.
The Ainu, being the original inhabitants of Hokaido and the islands to the north, have been subject to the changes of the borders between Japan and Russia a lot. Looking at the old pictures, there is even a strong European influence in their ancestry.

But like with all smaller populations, the vast plots of land were given away to new settlers from the main land and to people needing a new place to live after Japan lost their overseas territories. Add to that to forced relocations of the natives because the border to Russia moved and the suppression of the local customs and language and the Ainu as a people almost disappeared.
The museum in Shiraoi was built to keep at least some of the language and traditions alive for future generations. But as most of the history and culture had never been written down a lot got lost with the language as well. In one of the traditional huts we got roped into a singalong, and the nice lady tried to teach us something like a canon. Using only one verse, thankfully.
Time flew by and soon it was time to get back on the train to pick up the luggage and catch our train to Sapporo.

Dinner was some ShabuShabu. Grill your own meat (mutton in our case) over wooden coal . Add some sides and onions on the grill, and you have a modern variant of an archaic ritual that came from Korea and is now being exported there in the refined version again. To make it less of an olfactory experience for the next day, they have extractor hoods right on top of your grilling station. So no smelly clothes. That’s effective.