Japan - Day 10

We woke to pouring rain... so no hiking up Mt Meakan today. Instead we drove north for a bit, to visit Abashiri prison museum.

The prison opened in 1890, and was pretty much the equivalent of being sent to Siberia.

Crossing the Mirror Bridge to get in. On seeing their reflections in the water, prisoners were supposed to reflect on their crimes.

In those days Japan claimed all of Hokkaido, but the northern part of the island was mostly undeveloped and the Meiji government was worried that Russia would march in and take it. So the idea was to send prisoners there to build a road connecting the north to the settled parts in the centre and south.

Walking up to the main entrance.

You know the story of the Burma Railway in WWII? It was pretty much the same here: the prisoners cleared the forest and built the road by hand, in appalling conditions.

I doubt the real prisoners smiled quite so much.

But they did it, in record time, and Hokkaido was safely entirely Japanese.

(click to enlarge)

The prison still exists, in a modern form - the original buildings were moved to the museum site but there were replica modern cells too.

Not much different from student housing!

Apart from the bars, of course.

There was a restaurant serving replicas of the prisoners' meals. We went to a different one.

 Despite loving Japanese noodles at home, Téo refused to try them in Japan until... yesterday. Guess what? He loved them!

Lukan was very happy that the menu included the Italian kind.

The museum being an outdoor museum, we were quite soggy - but we dutifully visited all the buildings before heading home.

On the way back we stopped at another Mt Io. We pulled in just as the rain stopped - and just ahead of a huge bus load of Chinese tourists, prompting me to sprint across to the interesting part in order to snap some unpeopled shots.

We could walk up quite close to the vents, and could hear boiling water under our feet - it was pretty cool! The Chinese tourists didn't stay long, but we didn't linger either as the rain soon started again.

Not fancying the same restaurant menu as the night before, we asked TripAdvisor where to go for dinner. The top recommendations were all full, but at last we found a great little izakaya that hit the spot perfectly.

Mmm, deep-fried chicken. He declined the deep-fried intestines, however.

Then it was back to the hotel for an onsen and bed.