It gives a great impression of how a historic community looked like. Be it a town, fishermen or mountain village. The only downside is the following: we were visiting in December, with quite some snow being present in the village. As such, we were wearing appropriate gear (sturdy shoes). However in most of the houses you need to take off your shoes before being able to enter. Don't understand me wrong: I know it is a big "no-no" to enter a house with shoes on - but there is also a practical side to it. Taking off heavy snow boots to see the insides of 50+ houses is simply impractical and after all it is a public museum. I also understand and fully appreciate that the historic houses need to be protected from stomping feet. Maybe the curators can think of a solution, and put some thick heavy rubber mats on the floor, maybe even transparent ones? This way the house is protected but still it provides an easy way to walk through the houses without having to take your shoes off. The fact that we couldn't easily access each house kind of dampened the fun for us visiting this otherwise great museum.

We enjoyed this village with over 50 public and private buildings. Many are not original; but was very interesting anyway. The buildings were placed very close to one another so even though this village is a large acreage, it wasn’t a long walk. It was a particularly enjoyable walk through the winter crisp air. There are no attendants in the buildings, you are free to visit on your own. If you are bothered to take off your shoes for some buildings, just stand at the cemented entrance and peer through. Good enough. About three hours should be set aside for the walk plus lunch.

I went here and the Haikkaido Museum. Note you can get a combination ticket for both and they are adjacent to each other. So if you see one, not bad to pop over and see the other. It is described as an outdoor muse, portraying different types of buildings of Hokaiddo. Each building is also a microcosm of rural or city Japanese life - village, barber shop, home etc. Each one is labeled with the purpose, who donated them (some were original homes transported and reassembled) and a recreation inside. I spent about 90 min wandering around. Worth it if you like being outside and taking it slow. Highly recommend in fall and spring (really anytime you don't mind being outdoors). The park is next door to a park/nature reserve. It was gorgeous in the fall with the foliage and birds. I imagine summer would be great too!