The Hokkaido University Botanical Garden

In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Hokkaido University botanical garden. It has a nice botanical garden and also has a small Ainu museum.

Ainu coat made from birds

Ainu coat made from seals

I had heard that people working at Hokkaido University for free, so I went up to the lady at the entrance to ask if that was true. She waved me away and said in broken English that I should first go buy a ticket in the ticketing machine, then come to her. I asked in Japanese if it was free for Hokudai teachers to enter, and showed my staff ID. She was surprised that I spoke Japanese but complemented me on my Japanese and then said that indeed I could enter for free.