08-24.08)
Juha Luukkonen & Turo Ylitalo
After two weeks of linguistic research among the people of Sakhalin it was time to take the ferry back to Wakkanai over at Hokkaido. The time on the ferry went by sleeping, looking back to the weeks gone by and forward to the last few days in Japan.
Having landed to Wakkanai we still had a long train ride in front of us to get to Asahikawa where we would spend a night. The lush green scenery passed us by whilst the train ran towards its destination. At Asahikawa it was time to part ways with one of the members of our group as professor Saarikivi headed to Sapporo and then Finland a few days before us. After waving our goodbyes we headed to our hotel for a well-earned rest.
The next morning we made our way to Abashiri where we were taken to lunch by our local guides who would be taking us around. First on the itinerary for Abashiri our group had the Museum of The Northern Peoples, where we had an interview with a couple of ladies from an Uilta style embroidery club. After that we went around the exhibition of the museum which had showcased not only ”local” indigenous peoples like Nivkh and Ainu but also other peoples of the North such as Sámi.