As all true railroad aficionados know, before the golden age of steam, horse-drawn wagonways were the preferred method of hauling heavy loads, and long before the advent of the electric trolley car, it was horse-drawn trams or horsecars that provided the main source of urban public transport. Mostly we know about this from history books, and can only imagine what it was like to glide along a tramway to the clip clop beat of a horse’s hooves. There is one location in Hokkaido though, where visitors can enjoy a nostalgic trip back in time with a ride on a horse-drawn tram.

A Meiji era horse-drawn tram as depicted by Utagawa Hiroshige