Summer in Hokkaido: Biei and Furano

The third day in Hokkaido was definitely the busiest one.  The plan that day was to visit Biei and Furano.  When people think of Hokkaido in the summer, they usually picture beautiful, large plains and hillsides and an endless sea of flowers.  Biei and Furano are the most well-known areas to see such things.  However, they are pretty far away from Sapporo (give or take a couple of hours) so if you want to really explore them, you need to make a day out of it just to visit one area.  I was planning on visiting both.  Needless to say, I had to get up early and catch the 7:00 AM train to Biei.

After riding a modern train for an hour, I had to transfer at an older station.  The second train ride was very relaxing and gave me a sense of nostalgia of how transportation used to be back in the day.  The train I was on was a very old-fashioned one that only had four or so carts.  There was no air-conditioning, but instead we had all the windows open.  Let me tell you something, there wasn’t anything better than feeling the cool summer breeze of Hokkaido while looking outside and seeing the peaceful countryside.  It became one of the highlights of the day.

My first stop was Biei.  Biei is known for their grassy plains and sunflowers.  However, since the area is so vast, getting around is really difficult without a car.  You can rent a bicycle and go through a bicycle path but it’s pretty long, probably at least 10 kilometers.  I opted to take Twinkle tour bus which was included in a nice round trip package deal if you ever decide to go to Biei and Furano.  You should look into it if you ever head over there in the summer!

The first bus tour involved going around the Patchwork Road area.  It was my first experience on a Japanese tour bus.  Everyone was very courteous and polite except whenever it came to passing by a landmark.  Whatever side of the window it was on, everyone would rush to it and pull out their camera; it wasn’t a surprise to see a camera shoved by your face if you’re sitting in the area.  Other than that though, it was a good way to get around.

Biei has a lot of obscure landmarks that even some Japanese people don’t know what you’re talking about.  I don’t blame them because a couple of the things I saw were only famous because they were featured in old advertisements.  Take for example, the Seven Star Tree over in Patchwork Road.  It’s a nice-looking tree that was promptly featured in a cigarette ad.  There’s also two trees next to each other called the Ken and Mary tree from a car commercial.  Even if you didn’t know these things, Patchwork Road was really nice because of the hills and plains that completely surrounded you.  Maybe if you’re a country boy, it wouldn’t be a big deal but when you’re a city guy like me, it’s a big change of pace compared to the city life.  I love the countryside, so I took way too many pictures of the area:

 

The Seven Star Tree.

The Ken and Mary tree.

Another nice area in Patchwork Road was the Hokusai Hill Observatory.  It’s a triangle-shaped building where people can go to the top and just enjoy the panoramic scenery around them.  If I wasn’t on a time limit, I could’ve stayed there for hours:

 

The observatory.

Just a glimpse of the view from the top.

After the Patchwork Road tour was done, I hopped on another bus to take the Panorama Road tour. Panorama Road is similar to Patchwork Road (beautiful rural scenery) that I would’ve enjoyed to bike around if I had more time.  Alas, the bus had to do.

Shikisai Hill was our first stop in the tour.  This area was gorgeous because of the endless amount of flowers that occupied it.  There was a wide variety of them and completely surrounded you:

 

Further down was a sunflower field but since it was a cloudy day, a lot of them were facing down.  It was still pretty regardless:

Apparently the area is well known for their croquettes and also features lavender ice cream.  Both were delicious:

While we were on our way to our next destination, we passed by a humongous sunflower field.  Unfortunately we were only passing by so I had to take a quick picture from afar:

Our final stop was Takushinkan, a building that exhibits the works of landscape photographer Maeda Shinzo and his son, Akira.  The pictures themselves were gorgeous.  They didn’t allow pictures inside but I highly recommend searching for them online.  I wanted to buy a print but they were super expensive!

By the time both tours were over, it was around 2 PM.  I had to hurry to Furano if I wanted to see the famous lavender fields.  What I didn’t realize though was that the train to get to the fields from Furano had long passed so when I got there and the next one wasn’t coming in an hour and a half.  I needed to get back to Sapporo by the evening so I wasn’t able to get to see the lavender fields, sadly.  Instead, I walked around Furano and enjoyed the peaceful little city.  There was a nice river and hills as well:

On the 2 hour train ride back, a rainbow appeared outside of the window.  It was a great way to conclude a hectic, but gorgeous day in Biei and Furano.  There are still many things I didn’t get to see besides Furano lavender fields (for example, the famous sunflower fields in Biei and another section in Furano) so I definitely want to visit there again.  It makes me happy that there are still areas like this in such a technologically-driven world.

I’ll come back soon, Biei. I promise.

Unleashing the fangirls.

Junior high, never boring!

Recently I haven’t been able to go to the library since I had to train my students for the upcoming skit contest.  The last time I went over there though, I saw Maido, Ina and Reno just relaxing by a table.  It was very odd not to have anyone else present.  So, I did my own thing and started reading a book.  Of course, it didn’t take too long for them to start talking to me:

Ina: Oh Diego?  What are you reading?

Me: Me? Just Vader and Me.

Ina just looks at me for a minute while I’m reading and says “Diego is too cute.”  I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or bad thing. After that we had a nice little chat about my weekend plans, Halloween and other random things.  It was very nice to just sit down and talk them as I never get a chance nowadays.  When the librarian, Miss Harada, asked me what I think of them, I just say “Oh I love this combination of girls!” Reno just yelled out “YAY!”  Then she proceeded to pretend to trick or treat while I gestured giving her candy.  I’m really going to miss them when they leave.

Another nice anecdote was when I was playing a sentence unscrambling game with my third years.  It’s a fairly simple game:  I have sentences cut out and give them to each group.  The sentences are jumbled so the students simply have to arrange them in order, write it down and put it on the blackboard.  You’re racing against other groups so the faster you do it, the more points you get.  They were really enjoying themselves.  For kicks, I had the last sentence involve Japanese celebrities.  I usually do this but I was specific this time around and wrote Sho Sakurai (from Arashi fame) down.  The sentence was:

“My ideal boyfriend is someone who looks like Sho Sakurai from Arashi.”  I wanted to see if I could get a reaction from them, the girls at the very least.

I was in for a surprise.  Almost all the girls start screaming when they saw the scrambled words.   Mao in particular was freaking out, as if Sho Sakurai himself was there, swooning them with English words alongside me.  Throughout the entire time they were unscrambling they were squealing like junior high school gir-oh wait, they are that.  Even Bookworm Girl, the girl that never talks to me or never smiles was excitedly hopping on her chair, looking so happy.  It was like I had unleashed some fan beast that had been slumbering for decades.  Needless to say, competition was fierce as everyone was trying to post that sentence on the board as fast as possible.   When I was reviewing each sentence on the board, there was harsh criticism from all teams.  The one that got the answer right only managed to scribble “from Arashi”.

Ina was yelling “That doesn’t count! That isn’t clear enough!” I honestly forgot who won that round but it was great.

Here are some of the sentences the kids had to unscramble.  By the third question, everyone was doodling things around the answer or writing messages to people as I would read them.  Half of them were flirty like “Maido is way too cute” and “Ryoma is so cooool!”  My favorite one was from Mao though.

The Japanese above the sentence says one of my students is too cute. Thus began the flirting.

The now infamous Arashi example. Above the sentence, Mao wrote: ‘I REALLY WANT THIS TO BE TRUE!!!’

Summer in Hokkaido: Otaru and the JR Tower

The next day of my Hokkaido summer trip was fairly mellow.  I was planning on do a lot of things on the second day but because it was going to rain the entire day, I decided to adjust my schedule a little bit.  I headed to Otaru in the morning as the rain wasn’t going to hit there.

Otaru is a little city northwest of Sapporo and only a train ride away. The train ride itself is beautiful because you get to see the ocean right outside the window for nearly the entire ride.  Otaru is a peaceful area and famous for its canals and sushi.  The canals were nice to walk around but if you’ve been to canals before, this one isn’t particularly special.  It is a different change of pace of what you usually see in Japan though:

Great little sketch of the area.

I wandered a bit further into the docks and saw this cool boat docked in:

At this point of the day I was starving.  I decided to go to Sushi Street, a famous area known for a plethora of sushi restaurants in one little area.  After checking out the prices, I opted out because it was very expensive.  I was willing to dump some money but I wasn’t willing to pay 50 dollars for 6 pieces of sushi!  I decided to go to a cheaper sushi place and I could still tell the difference from a sushi place back home (in Osaka).  It was really good!

By the time I got back to Sapporo, it was raining so I figured this was a good time as any to check out the JR Observation Tower.  The tower itself is in the JR Sapporo station so it’s a pretty easy place to get to.  It’s just like your average observation tower except it’s more relaxing.  There are couches and chairs for you to sit down and just enjoy the view of the city.  It was pretty empty during the day but I really enjoyed it; it was a good way to kill time while it was raining.  There is one unique thing about the tower though—in the men’s bathroom, you can still get a bird’s eye view of the city!  It feels pretty awesome to be taking a piss and enjoying the view at the same time:

The TV Tower always makes an appearance!

Now you can take a piss with a view, thanks to the JR Tower.

It was around dinner time by the time I got out of there.   My friend recommended me to go to Otaru Beer—a restaurant that serves delicious beer and pretty good food as well.  Unfortunately I couldn’t go to the original location in Otaru because it didn’t open until the evening.  However, recently, a new one opened in Sapporo so I was in luck.  The beer itself was great and not too pricey!  I got part of a rotisserie chicken which was delicious.  The waiter was a bit odd though.  When I first came in, he acted like I was lost or something.  He kept staring at me and didn’t bother helping me until I said “Uh, can I get seated?”  I’m not sure what was his problem but whatever.

After dinner I headed back to the hotel and just relaxed.  I noticed my hotel also has a manga based on it.  Oh, Japan.  I went to bed early because I had a looong day ahead of me the next day.

Walking down the streets at night was a lot of fun.

Night life.

Salad Days

Time continues to pass by in my junior high school.  Graduation day for my beloved third years is slowly approaching so I’m trying to enjoy my days there as much as I can.  Here are a few anecdotes that have been going on this fall.

I was doing a three hint quiz for the kids to answer.  The answer was English.

Me: It’s available all over the world.  It’s very useful.  People use it everyday! What is it?

Maido: OOH, OOH, I KNOW!

Me: Maido!

Maido: IT’S TOILET!

I’ll admit, it does fit the criteria…

Another day we were giving speeches about who would our ideal girlfriend/boyfriend be.  I knew this was going to be a hilarious lesson as a result.  And yet, it was oddly flirty:

Ina: My ideal boyfriend is kind, has a nice smile and has very good English.

Me: Hey, perfect job Ina! *gives the okay sign*

Ina: *gives the okay sign and winks at me*

Me: Ahh…

It’s pretty funny how she has gone from hating my guts the first year to hitting on me.  Silly girl.

Kimiya’s speech was just as ballsy though.

Kimiya: My ideal girlfriend is someone like Maido!

Everyone: Oooooooh!

Maido: Oooooh wow! *winks* (in Japanese) God, that’s disgusting.  The worst! UGH.

Hopefully Kimiya was just playing around…

As much fun as I’m having with the third years, the second years are growing on me a lot.  Both the boys and girls think I’m a rock star for some reason and I’m cool with that.  In October we were preparing for the observation lesson later that month that involved students drawing their ideal Halloween costume.  I showed a bunch of Halloween pictures to get them thinking.  For some reason, pumpkin pie was on there.

Ami: Ahh! That pie looks so delicious!  That’s it!  I want to be a pumpkin pie for Halloween!

Me: Umm? Really? That’s fine but why?

Ami: Because it looks delicious!

So while everyone is drawing pictures of cats, witches, monsters, I have Ami drawing a slice of pumpkin pie while she whines that she can’t draw the frosting very well.  Junior high kids can still be adorable.

Ami’s version of pumpkin pie.

Along with drawing a picture, they have to draw the kanji equivalent of the word on the back.  An interesting way to combine English and Japanese into the lesson but hey, it wasn’t my idea.  The amusing part was that since I was going to be the model example for the observation lesson, I had to draw a picture and the kanji character myself!

I’ve only done calligraphy once and I was mediocre at it. When Kita-sensei told me I had to do it, almost all my students overheard her and rushed over to the calligraphy corner.  I had to draw the kanji equivalent of “jack-o-lantern” for the first time ever while having 7 or so students look at me! It was a little nerve-wracking so it didn’t come out as nice as I hoped.  However, everyone was super polite and said it looked nice and some kids even said they would do worse.  Kita-sensei wanted to take a picture of me and everyone overheard that so they all wanted a group picture:

 

Ayu from the 3rd years managed to sneak in!

Another day the music teacher asked me if I could pronounce some English words for a song that the 1^st years were singing.  I was more than happy to.  After hearing that I used to be in choir, she requested if I could sing the whole thing on tape.  I clumsily did it since it was my first time singing the song and I thought that was the end of it.

(Yep, I guess I ended up singing EXILE’s version of 銀河鉄道999.)

Was it over? Far from it!  During after school activities, she came running to me asking me if I could re-record it since it didn’t come out well.  Naturally, some of my students overheard this and listened to me sing it.  After awhile, they jumped in themselves!  I screwed up again but it was a lot of fun and nostalgic.  It was like I was in high school all over again!

I used to be able to read music really well..

Summer in Hokkaido: Sapporo

Time to dust off the ol’ blog and get back to my old posting habits!  I actually have many things to put on here but things got crazy busy during October and before I realized it, it’s already almost halfway through November.  Hopefully I’ll be updating this more than a couple of times a month now.

In late August I decided to head to Hokkaido for a few days.  A lot of people go to Hokkaido during the winter for the Snow Festival or to go skiing and snowboarding but none of those things really appeal to me, especially since we have a similar festival back home in Minnesota.  What does appeal to me though?  Cool weather, especially during the hellish summer.  Hokkaido seemed like it could provide that.

And boy did it!  While it was in the 90s with high humidity in Osaka, Hokkaido was in the 70s nearly the entire time.  It felt amazing. Of course, there is plenty of stuff to do besides enjoy the weather.  The first evening I got there I decided to check out Sapporo, the main city in the prefecture.

Fortunately there was a summer festival going on when I arrived so there were lots of festivities in the nearby park.  Since it was obon season, festivities were still going on in Sapporo.  Right in front of the TV Tower, there were many people doing a Bon Odori, which is a kind of dance during Obon. The majority of people doing the dance are in traditional Japanese clothing but you also see some in ordinary clothes doing it.  The best part was when a salaryman jumped in and started doing the dance, handbag in his hand and all.  There’s something about the bon odori that is so peaceful; everyone of all ages and backgrounds are doing the dance and enjoying it, it gives you this sense of unity.  I took a few pictures and videos:

 

Salaryman dancing was the best.

 

After watching the bon odori for awhile, I decided to check out the TV Tower that was behind the summer event. The view from the top is nice but the windows were a bit dirty.  I’d only recommend it if you are a fan of eagle-eye views:

The bon odori from above.

During my night walk, I also passed by the Sapporo Clock Tower, aka the Tokeidai.  Apparently this is a very popular tourist stop but is known to disappoint people as it’s pretty small compared to the bigger Western-styled buildings that surround it:

My final stop of the day was to eat a well-known local dish–miso ramen.  I headed to Tokeidai Ramen and had the butter corn ramen.  It is exactly what it sounds—ramen with lots of corn and a slab of butter on the top.  The butter gives the broth a buttery, smooth feeling to it.  It’s nice but after awhile the tastes gets a little too buttery for my tastes.  Still, I recommend eating it if you happen to be in the area.  If you drink, make sure to get some Sapporo beer.  It could be just me but it tastes a lot better when you’re in the actual city.

Delicious butter corn ramen.

Aji no Tokeidai Ramen.

After that I decided to crash for the night.  A busy day awaited me tomorrow…