Today we visited the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi! It was amazing! The Ainu people have such a beautiful culture and they should be extremely proud of it. We were very sad to hear, earlier this week, that there are about only 10 native speakers left who has had Ainu as their first language and about only 20 more Ainu speakers who’s had Ainu as their second language. But we are very happy to see their language and traditions in the process of being revitalized as we watched a few beautiful Ainu dances at the museum.
[insert video of dancing with Ainu people]
Here are a few pictures of our short visit to the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi
After the museum, we had to hurry to lunch for a delicious salmon-filled meal!
As stuffed as we were, the day was only halfway through. We headed to the JICA Hokkaido building to work on our presentations that will be held tomorrow back in Tokyo at the JICE Headquarters. We are very excited to share about all that we have gained throughout this program and visit here in Japan!