Shiraoi Ainu Museum and Village

The Shiraoi Ainu Museum is one of the best museums in the country about Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan. The open-air museum, also widely known as Porotokotan (meaning a large lake village in the Ainu language), is a replica village consisting of five thatched houses along the shores of Lake Poroto.The museum has an extensive collection of artifacts from the culture of the Ainu, who used to live in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the northern Tohoku region.