Hokkaido and Scott visit

Last weekend I went up to Hokkaido to visit my friend, Scott. He lived in Wakayama, and moved up to Sapporo a few months ago. It is funny because we met here in Wakayama, but he was born and raised in San Diego. Such a small world! I could embarrass him by saying what an awesome friend he has been to me here, but I know he’d hate that. Anyhow, I have missed him terribly and decided to take one last trip up north before I leave Japan to say hi.
The last time I went to Hokkaido was in winter for the Snow Festival. This time the weather was warmer, and it was a nice respite from the heat and humidity in Wakayama.
I chose to go up that particular weekend because there was a food fair on Friday, and the Flower Festival started on Saturday.
I flew up Thursday night and we had an amazing dinner at a Nepalese restaurant near Scott’s house. It turned out to be mostly Indian food, but it was so delicious. I had Butter Masala and we shared garlic and cheese naan. I also had a mango lassi. Oh, it was so good!
On Friday, Scott had school in the morning, so I slept in. We met up at Hokkaido University (where he is a student), and he showed me around campus. I had been there once before, but it was nice to see it without it’s snowy blanket. After looking around campus, we headed over to the food fair that was being held in front of the former Government Building. It was much smaller than I had imagined. There were only two rows of tents and a Spanish music group playing. The tents had samples of Hokkaido food and some were selling fresh fruits and vegetables. We sampled a few things, but Scott was braver than I and tried the wasabi natto. It looked like rat poop covered in snot. We snacked on a giant bowl of roasted potatoes that was only 200¥. After that, we wandered around the city and did a little shopping. We still had lots of time in the day, so we went to the Sapporo Station to try and find a little trip to take. Scott had heard about a chocolate factory nearby, and although I was a little upset he hadn’t mentioned this earlier, I was super excited to go.
The factory is very famous in Japan for it’s cookies. We looked around the museum and peeked into the factory floor. It was really amazing to see all the cookie machines and employees hard at work. It all was very exciting!
On Saturday, Scott went to work bright and early, while I slept in again. After he came home, we headed off to our next destination, Otaru. If you remember the pictures I posted of the candle festival, that was Otaru. It is a really quaint little town that I just absolutely love. The ride is only about 35-45 minutes depending on the type of train you take. Otaru is a port, so there is a bit of foreign and European influence. We stayed at the same hostel I stayed at when I was there last because it is conveniently located and the owners are nice. So nice in fact, that I apparently had told them we were coming July 21st instead of June 21st, but they prepared a room for us anyway that was very comfortable.
After dropping off our backpacks, we had the ramen famous in Hokkaido – butter and corn. It was delicious! Then we walked around, looked at the ocean, I bought some glass items, and we tried the giant 200 gram, 8cm takoyaki balls. Takoyaki balls are usually a little bigger than bitesize and have squid inside an eggy sort of batter that they make into balls. These, as you can see, are much bigger! Also, I special ordered mine, leaving out about 2/3 of the ingredients. I am not a fan of takoyaki, but I wanted to try it. It was ok. Later, we went to my favorite chocolate shop called Le Tao. We had cake and coffee up on the patio, and of course I bought lots of chocolate to take home for gifts and snacks. Even Scott, who normally doesn’t like chocolate (weird!) liked the rich chocolate at Le Tao.
That night we rode the train one stop to Wing Bay shopping center where we saw “Indiana Jones.” I wasn’t super impressed with the movie, but it was nice to see one on the big screen again.
Sunday, we headed back to Sapporo and had our traditional visit to Mr. Donuts. We wandered through the flower festival at Odori Park, which was also smaller than I imagined, but had some pretty flowers.
I came back to Wakayama on Sunday night.
I am glad I went to Hokkaido again because it is one of my favorite spots in Japan. And visiting with Scott was great. This will probably be the last trip I take on an airplane before I leave Japan. My time is winding down…

mmmmm...catnip

No not for the cats, this is Japan remember. I bought this drink thinking it was some kind of lemon soda. But, surprise! The ingredients of this relaxing lemon drink include catnip. So, I tried it anyway, and it was not bad. Not good, but not bad.
Surprise food, I will miss it when I go!

Koyasan

This weekend, I headed up to Koyasan with my friend Aiko. Koyasan is a sacred mountain in Wakayama, about 2 ½ hours away by train. I went up there once before in autumn with my dad and Georgie. I wanted to go up once more before I left. There are many temples and world heritage sites there.
We decided to stay overnight at a temple, where you can get special meals prepared by the monks and attend a service in the morning.
Aiko and I arrived about 1pm, and went to the tourism office where they booked us for that night at a nearby temple called Tentokuin. We left our bags at the temple and explored. The main area we went to is called Okunoin. There is a temple surrounded by a tranquil cedar forest, and a half million tombs. It is a beautiful and very peaceful place.
The town closes down at about 5pm, so we headed back to the temple. A monk showed us to our room and explained the boy/girl rotation for the bath. Our room was a traditional Japanese style, which I really love. It was very simple and when we opened the windows, we discovered a beautiful view of a pond and garden outside! It was such a peaceful and serene place. We had an amazing vegetarian dinner with a beautiful view from our room. After dinner, we took a Japanese style bath that was so relaxing! When we returned, the monks had made our beds up for us, and we went right to sleep, at 9:00!
After a good night’s sleep, we woke up at 6am and got ready for the morning prayer service at 6:30. I sat on my knees for as long as I could, but I had to shift a bit in the middle. It was a really interesting service. The two monks chanted in perfect harmony with each other and it was very beautiful. The service would have been even more tranquil had a giant bee not been present right behind me. I heard it, and turned around and saw a bee about three inches long trying to get out the door behind me. It was clearly agitated, and I was clearly uncomfortable. I turned to the monk sitting at the back of the room and he gestured that there was nothing to worry about. About 5 min later, I heard him jump behind me, as the giant bee had starting buzzing by him. Now he was clearly alarmed, and tried to open the sliding door, but was afraid to get too close. Finally, the bee settled down, and we could all enjoy the service again.
At about 7:30, the monks brought us our breakfast. Another tasty meal comprised of rice, tofu, vegetables, miso, and tea. I forgot to take a picture of that though! I guess we were too hungry.
After our meal, we went back into town and did some shopping. I got some omiyage for the teachers and my adult students. And of course snacks for me. We passed a shop that was making fresh yaki mochi (grilled rice cakes filled with sweet beans). It was warm and fresh, and SO delicious! It was as soft as a toasted marshmallow.
I also got a juzu (prayer beads) for myself.
Koyasan is definitely one of my favorite spots in Japan. I’m happy I made it back there one more time before leaving!

Hula Show

A few weeks ago, I was in my second hula show here in Japan. I waited a while before writing this post hoping that Mike would send me the pictures he took. But, I’m sure he is just busy (or exhausted) with his adorable little baby girl, so I am forced to show the pictures from my camera. I asked one of my adult students to take pictures for me, and as you can see, I think she may actually be blind judging from these pictures: 70% wall and ceiling, 25% other people, 5% me. So, the first picture, well the first one is Sumi getting into the hula spirit the night before! The second picture shows, with no cropping on my part, the quality of pictures taken. The rest, I fully cropped, ‘till you can almost see each pixel. But, at least I have some pictures of me. Last year, Scott did a great job getting photos of me, but he moved Hokkaido. I will be visiting him in a few weeks.
I was in five dances, including a solo. I chose to do a Tahitian aparima, which looks similar to hula awana. This year, I was much less nervous than I have been in the past. My self-confidence is definitely building. Another song I did is called, Leinani. Of course it being so similar to my name, everyone thought it was actually my namesake. Plus, I was dancing on the floor, with all the other members behind me on stage, so that thoroughly convinced people the song was all about me. And if you look real close, you can see the French whore make-up they painted on me. But, really it was a fun show, and I had a great time.
This, of course was my last show here in Japan. I will continue my hula lessons through July, until I leave for California on August 4th. Unfortunately, I will miss many lessons due to me trying to pack in all the last things I want to do in Japan before I leave. This coming weekend, I will stay at a Buddhist temple in Koyasan. In two weeks, I will go and visit Scott in Hokkaido. The last weekend of June, my friends (and neighbors) Matt and Hitomi are getting married. July seems less busy for now, but I will be packing and preparing for my last big adventure here in Japan – hiking Mt. Fuji! I will go to Fuji-san the weekend of July 19th, hike up during the night on Saturday, and *hopefully* make it to the top for a sunrise Sunday morning.
So if it takes me a little longer to get back to your emails, I apologize. I am quite busy with work (for a change), and getting things (mostly cats) in order to move back.

small & LARGE

My, how my little fur ball has grown. Mom had a good idea to take a picture of Sumi on the sofa again to see how much bigger he is.
I still can't believe how tiny he was.