Upopoy (National Ainu Museum and Park)

New and interesting place with a lot of activities to do in addition to simply visiting the museum. We attended a dance performance, did a workshop for wood carving. Excepting a small section in the museum all the information was also in English (and Chinese and Korean). You can easily reach it by train from Sapporo Station, in less than 1h:30.

This was my second visit to Upopoy and I must say I love this place. If you were not interested in Ainu culture before, you will be after. Great for kids, elderly, and very handicap accessible. The main point is arrive early!!! A late arrival will result in missing certain live exhibitions and will force you to rush other exhibits. There are two very well done gift shops, lots of locally made and handmade products. The staff are friendly and generous of their time. This time, we tried a carving lesson, the carving instructor was SO sweet and funny! If you interested in languages, it's very educational as all signs are in Ainu first (and Japanese/international languages 2nd). Very international language friendly. Even the plants have multilingual descriptions in addition to Ainu. I cannot recommend this place enough, it's an absolute must-stop of you are coming to Hokkaido!!

Amazing location and layout to inform on the Ainu people of Hokkaido. I wish there had been a little more acknowledgement of mainland Japan's colonial role in the suppression of Ainu people and their culture and a more general decolonial statement however. But worth going absolutely for the live performances, natural setting, and incredible museum and learning. I learnt so much and hope this helps Ainu history continue in perpetuity.

We visited on October 31, 2024. We took a bus from Shiraoi Station but later discovered that we could have walked there; it took us about a 10-minute walk on the way back. Firstly, I want to give credit to all the staff who work there. Their service was amazing—everyone was friendly and demonstrated great hospitality. There was no issue with assistance. The staff were proactive and readily offered help whenever they sensed we needed it. I can't name everyone, but one person in particular stood out: Mdm Paikarik at the “Ikar Usi Crafts Studio.” She patiently showed us the crafts and explained the exhibits in detail. The cultural show was both engaging and entertaining, and the museum exhibits were highly educational. Additionally, the location offers beautiful views of the lake, which create a sense of calm.

It is true that they need to update their Google hours as they do not account for holidays where they are open on a closed day and move the closed day up to the next day. It had some good exhibits, a village recreation with performances, and a great movie intro on history. Seems quite big, but is mostly park.

An informative place. The workers here tried so hard to use Ainu lanuguage suchas signs in the park and greetings to guests. I was impressed with workers' knowledge. A little disappointed with the size of the Māori secrion. This place is a bit away from major cities, so you need to plan well to make the most of it.

Wonderful museum, with a good introduction to the Ainu’s history and culture. The activities and performances were well done, particularly learning some of the language. Kudos to the designer - the architecture is inspiring. It would be great if there were some books in other languages to learn more about the Ainu. The museum left me wanting to learn more.

Must see museum of Ainu culture. Needs a full day. Once you’ve arrived if you want you can book timed-entry ticket to the cultural shows - one was an anime featuring an Ainu traditional story and the other a music and dance live performance. Also if interested and definitely will attend, then book a workshop like playing an Ainu instrument or doing some wood carving or embroidery. Beautiful main exhibition hall has a panoramic view that is simply mind-blowing. Beautifully designed place. Apparently it cost £100m to build in 2020. And of course closed 2020-2022 because of pandemic and only re-opened 2022 so we must have been some of the first foreigners to visit it in June 2024. It all looked beautiful and brand new - staff are very kind and clearly proud to work here. It deserves to be visited!