PBL101
15 December 2022
Marika Tanaka
Juri Yuge
Evan Muir

Hokkaido Study Tour: Final Report
What We Learned: Regional Background & Fieldwork
This Hokkaido Study Tour’s fieldwork experience consisted of visits to six towns andcities: Chitose, Tomakomai, Shiraoi, Date, Toyako, and Muroran.
We arrived in Hokkaido on a chilly Wednesday night at New Chitose Airport, where Dr.
Ono, from Muroran Institute of Technology, welcomed us and briefly toured the airport grounds,
teaching us about its history and the ongoing stamp rally program and tourism programs as we
prepared for departure southwest.
Tomakomai hosted our group for that first evening, and after we planned the course of
the tour into the night, we woke up to a chilly morning and a family of deer. That morning, wevisited Upopoi, the National Ainu Museum, to learn about Ainu art, craft, and culture, which
included live demonstrations of impressive dancing and instrument playing. Next, we visited
Date’s Museum of History and Culture, where we enjoyed dying cloth in personal designs withlocal indigo knotweed, and witnessed the swordcraft of Korehira Watanabe, at work on hismission to revive the metallurgic tradition as one of the last remaining swordmakers in Hokkaido
and all of Japan. To finish the day, we traveled to Toyako to visit the Windsor Hotel, the locationof the 34th G8 Summit, and rested at the Toya Kanko Hotel to the sight of a fireworks display inToya Lake.

On the last day, we began our return east, stopping by the Toyako Visitor’s Center andToya-Usu Geopark to learn about Usu Volcano, and visited Mr. Watanabe again before arriving
at Muroran IT, where we engaged in monodzukuri with the creation of our own country-sign
paperweights with faculty and students in the Cremo center, studied the counting systemcomplexities of the Ainu language with Dr. Sangyub Baek, and joined Ono-sensei’s International
Exchange class to share laughs and experiences with his undergrad and graduate students. That
Friday evening, the visit ended with the departure of Ono-sensei, and we realized just how
quickly time had passed.
On this study tour, we were able to appreciate Ainu culture, interact with Mr. Ono as anexperienced guide, interact with people from Muroran Institute of Technology, and experience
manufacturing such as casting and indigo dyeing. We learned that it is necessary to create value
to make tourism resources attractive. Hakucho Bridge is a symbol of Muroran, the Iron Town.
We also learned that they support transportation for local residents. Not only is Mt. Usu is adangerous volcano, but it also exists as a volcano that provides economic benefits by creating hot
springs and rich soil. We learned that they have an important role to play in deepening ourunderstanding of coexistence with volcanoes.
In order to further revitalize infrastructure tourism, we felt that it is important to havepeople come and experience it. Through this experience, we were able to experience the“ extraordinary” that we don’t experience in everyday life, such as the charm of infrastructure
tourism, the threat of disasters, and the splendor of people's lives coexisting with volcanoes.

Main Ideas of PowerPoint Presentation
In our group presentation, we focused on geographical tourism and infrastructure
tourism. Also, we presented that having experience and communicating with local people isimportant to make our trip more attractive.
Firstly, we discussed infratourism, which is a new kind of tourism that utilizes man-madeinfrastructure such as dams, bridges, and tunnels. For example, Hakucho Bridge in Muroran
City—we learned that this bridge not only has an important role in transportation for Murorancitizens but also tourists, as they can join the tour and enjoy the scenery from the top of thebridge.
In addition, we talked about geotourism, which uses the natural character of anenvironment’s geography. The Toya-Usu Geopark has had several volcano disasters fromthousands of years ago until recently, yet the townspeople have remained—why? While
volcanoes can cause serious humanitarian disasters with eruptions, the people have used theirhidden blessings to create a dynamic scenery, rich land for farming, and hot springs forthemselves and visitors, which holds unique economic potential.
We presented that the current infra- and geo-tourism are unable to harness the economic
potential of Hokkaido’s landmarks due to lack of recognition. One of our methods for increasing
recognition was employing virtual reality (VR) for tourists who cannot visit them in person, asdone in Okinawa with including virtual shrine visits, and Tokyo Skytree with virtual bungeejumping activities. For the on-the-ground infrastructure, we suggested ways of working moreclosely with local restaurants and accommodation facilities.
Finally, we talked about the importance of experience and interaction with the local
people to make travel more attractive and memorable. On our trip, we had many conversations

with Muroran locals, including MuIT students and faculty like Ono-sensei, who gave us anexpert tour with deep, personal insight into the history of the island—a value that locals canuniquely add to the place.
Understanding the history and culture of the places we live in and delivering it to people
who visit is a fantastic way to make them more attractive, and we were glad to explore Hokkaido
and give our recommendations.

Course Improvement Recommendations
We suppose that this course should include pre-study before we have a field trip in order
to better understand the purposes, problems, and goals before we arrive to make the field work
more effective for our presentation. It is also good for us to have confusion and we can focus onthings that we want to know about. In addition to pre-study, the course could allocate free timeeach day for full meetings with instructors, individual group meetings, and at least eight hours ofrest.

Thanks again to Ono, Marc, and Lloyd-sensei for making this trip possible.
We really enjoyed it, and hope others can enjoy it as we did.