The historical village just outside Sapporo is a real open air museum. There are about fifty buidlings from all around Hokkaido from the Meiji era (1868-1912), Taishô era (1912-1926) and from the beginning of the Shôwa era (1926-1989). Some of the buildings are originals moved to the historical village and the others are reproductions.
The village is divided in four zones: the city, the farm village, the fishing village and the mountain village.
From all the buildings, you’ll especially remember Sapporo old station and city hall, a school, the local newspapers, the post office, a photo studio, some shops, the barn, the shrine or a shelter for the men working in the mountain.
Obviously there are many traditional houses. In every one of them, if you want to visit them, you must remove your shoes… It annoyed me pretty quickly (as the good occidental girl I am…) so I didn’t enter all of them, but still a significant number. So I visited these traditional houses with the tatamis, the singular architecture and all the staged objects.
Regarding the official buildings or the farm ones, you can see that the American influence is strong. Firstly the architecture is similar. Secondly the tools used are as well. One of the most significant examples is the barn. It looks exactly like the one you can see in some American movies.
I particularly enjoyed the mountain village. First because it was 30°C outside, there was no shade and the mountain village was in the forest so in a cool place! But must of all because the forest was bringing some charm. I didn’t feel so much in a ghost village anymore thanks to the sound of the wind and the leaves. The space was full of vegetation, of life.
Cause yes, the historical village is huge and yes it is an open air museum but to me it is more of a ghost village. This impression may have been amplified by the fact that there wasn’t many visitors (I don’t complain! You must have guessed by now that when the place is crowded, I don’t appreciate it as much). Since there wasn’t many people, the village was pretty silent and the streets empty. Furthermore the houses are fully furnished, which is great because you can actually see how it used to be in the past. But there’s no actor to bring them to life, let’s say. It looks like the real inhabitants left in a hurry and abandoned everything.
When you come out of the mountain village, take a break and have some fun laying old games. I don’t know the names of the games but you could play with a metal wheel and a stick and try some sort of stilts… Great for some family time!
You also have the possibility to take the horse-drawn trolley. I personally don’t like this kind of activities. The horse was spending a lot of time under the sun and I am not sure he had much water when he was « resting ».
Vsiting the historical village is like turning the clock back in time and find out what life looked like in Hokkaido not so long ago.
Au gré du vent 
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