00:00Hey guys, so today we're in Abashiri which is in northern Hokkaido, northeast Hokkaido
00:05and we're at the Okhotsk Sea Ice Museum, the Okhotsk Yuhyo Museum, which means the Okhotsk Sea Ice Museum.
00:17So between Siberia and northern Hokkaido is the Okhotsk Sea, so famous for its sea ice in winter.
00:30So the sea ice forms up near Siberia and then comes down to the northern coast of Hokkaido.
00:38And some seasons absolutely covers all the way around the northern shores of Hokkaido.
00:44Particularly in this Abashiri area, it seems to collect around here quite seriously as you will see.
00:51So you can imagine in winter it'd be pretty hard for tourists to get here, that's why we didn't even
00:56try.
00:57So whenever you come here, you can come to this museum and see what the sea ice thing is about.
01:06So they've got lots of videos, lots of imagery, lots of pictures showing how serious it is.
01:12It's absolutely amazing.
01:17So those images we showed you recently of the coast of northern Hokkaido would just be covered in ice.
01:26Oh, so they're showing, actually they went and collected some and brought it here to the museum.
01:32So I got some of the sea ice and brought it to the museum.
01:36So they give you one of these jackets to put on and then you can go into this room over
01:41here, minus 15.6 degrees Celsius.
01:46So you can go in there and experience what the cold's like in winter.
01:51So we have experienced, I think in Nagano, on top of a mountain, once, one winter we experienced minus 20.
02:00So this is pretty similar.
02:02So the little guy there's got a wet towel.
02:05They give you a wet towel and you go in there and swirl it around.
02:09And it freezes solid because it's so cold.
02:13Just like being in a big freezer.
02:15So that ice there is actually sea ice that they've collected from the sea.
02:19And they've brought it here and put it there so we can come and see it.
02:22So yeah, it turns your wet towel to cardboard.
02:28Quick freeze.
02:33It's an interesting idea, isn't it?
02:36This poor guy.
02:37Anyway, we saw lots of these guys, saw lots of the foxes.
02:40We showed you a couple in previous videos.
02:42We saw quite a few.
02:54And then lots of explanation, how it actually forms, the actual science of it, how it forms
03:02up near Siberia.
03:03And then just because of the ocean currents and various other things, it comes down from
03:11Siberia and then covers the northern part of Hokkaido.
03:14So it was interesting, very interesting to see how and why.
03:20We didn't even know this place existed.
03:22We stumbled on it, went to Abashiri to see some other things and just stumbled on this
03:26museum.
03:26So if you guys find yourself up in this part of Hokkaido, it's worth coming and have a look
03:32at this just to get the big picture.
03:34So that's the explanation there.
03:36Okay.
03:37So it forms up there and near Siberia and then comes down from there and why.
03:46Interesting.
03:47It does make us really tempted to come back again in winter.
03:51It might be hard to get there in winter, but it does make us sort of think about it because
03:56it would be amazing to experience it.
04:07That's all this did.
04:08It just, it wetted our appetites to come and experience it for real.
04:13So they've got sort of a souvenir shop there and then up on their roof, they have quite
04:20an amazing view.
04:22So you can imagine from up here in winter, it'd just be white.
04:25Everything would be white.
04:27A couple of meters of snow, four to 15 meters of snow and then just ice out there on the
04:34sea as far as you could see.
04:36So it is open in winter.
04:38If you can get yourself up there in winter, you could come experience it firsthand.
04:42If you can get there.
04:44More videos coming soon.
