What is “Country Sign”?

 

Do you know “Welcome sign”?

Hi, I’m Ryu. It’s time to write the blog again, but this is the final blog for me. This time, I’m gonna talk about “welcome sign” in Hokkaido.

 

At First, have you ever seen this? ↓

As you can see, a picture of Sapporo clock tower is drawn there. There’re a lot of kinds of pictures like this. ↓

Actually, these are welcome signs, which are called Country Signs in Hokkaido. Each city (town) has it. It obviously shows that what’s the city stands for. For example, in terms of Sapporo city, Sapporo clock tower is one of the most famous sightseeing spots in Sapporo. To my surprise, they were made in Hokkaido for the first time in Japan and spread throughout Japan! You can see them as you drive in Hokkaido. ↓

 

 

There’re 179 kinds of them in total in Hokkaido! Here are 5 of them that I wanna introduce.

1, Hakodate city

Hakodate city is known for its fishing industry, but other than that, it was the first city in Japan to open its port! As a result, it was affected by foreign culture, so it’s an exotic city. You can see that if you see this country sign.

2, Otaru city

Otaru city is famous for “Otaru Unga”, which means the canal in Otaru. If you visit there once, you can understand how apparently this picture shows its view.

3, Obihiro city

As I said in the past blog, Obihiro is my hometown, and famous for speed skating. Why don’t you visit there? Its food and sweets are highly recommended!

4, Asahikawa city

Asahikawa city is called “The city of rivers”, and ”The city of bridges”. In this picture, there are a mountain (Asahi dake) and a bridge (Asahibashi). Both are famous in Asahikawa!

5, Kushiro city

In Kushiro city, there is Kushiro-Shitsugen National Park where is home to the tancho crane, a special natural treasure. You’ll be surprised if you see the huge Kushiro-Shitsugen.

 

As I said in this blog, there’re more country signs in Hokkaido. How about checking them out and find real ones on your eyes?