This is a story of two very different halves. But I'm getting ahead of myself; let's start at the beginning.
On first glance, Nibutani looks like any other rural Japanese village. Modest and unassuming, it straddles the two-lane Hidaka National Highway that criss-crosses the broad Saru River in Biratori Town, a couple of hours from Sapporo and close to Hokkaido's southwest coast.
Though seemingly little more than a jumble of prefab houses, closer inspection reveals several woodcraft shops, a stonemasonry, a brace of museums — and even some thatched houses. Clearly on this, my first visit, there was going to be a lot to learn about this settlement of some 500 people, of whom around 80 percent have Ainu blood in their veins.