Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Hokkaido Happiness...

Last week went to Hokkaido and was very suprised. Why? Because it is not at all like Honshu. Hardly anyone lives there and there are virtually no rice paddies!

We took the 16 hour Niigata - Otaru ferry and arrived in Hokkaido early in the morning. Having taken a very long detour we drove to Asahikawa - Hokkaido's second biggest city. But don't be fooled, this is nothing like Tokyo or Osaka - more like a Northern Toyama but without the Russians on bicycles!

Asahikawa is really close to the Daisetsusan nature reserve which has some stunning mountains, gorges and waterfalls. It is beautiful, but not a patch on the two lakes - Shikotsuko and Toyako, which are situated surprising close to Chitose, Hokkaido's no1 airport. When you think of the number of Japanese people who have visited Hokkaido on holiday, it`s amazing that this place has not been developed more!

We stayed two nights at Lake Shikotsuko camping/sleeping in the back of my car. It was virtually empty. Everything closed at 6pm including the gate to the campsite. We then spent the next couples of days visiting the many onsens and volcanos and taking in the sulphuric/eggy smells of the Jigokudani (which remind me of the geesers and hot water pools at Yellowstone park).

Our final stop - Sapporo was a blast. It`s a great city with a great nightlife and lots to do. It reminds me a lot of an American city, wide streets and fairly easy to navigate. Suskino is also one of the liveliest places I`ve seen in Japan.

Overall, I would thoroughly recommend going to Hokkaido. Even during the peak holiday season there aren`t the crowds you would expect. However, without a car I think you`re wasting your time. There`s too much to see which wouldn`t be accessible by train and who wants to go on a tour bus?

Friday, August 19, 2005

I like Nagoya!!




Spent the week down in Nagoya. I really like Nagoya!

Thursday, August 11, 2005

My new baby...

Dear readers,

sorry to be a complete geek, but my new iriver 40 GB mp3 player arrived in the post today. It's one of the best things I have ever bought!! It's great!

For the past three to four months I have been umming and arghhing about what sort of thing to get. It basically came down to either an ipod or an iriver. I choose the iriver. In the end it was a complete spare of the moment decision.

I love it!! It's all mine! HA HA HA!!!!

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Nursery School

The past few weeks I have been making regular visits to Nursery schools, round and about in Asahi. There are ten in total and over the course of two weeks, I will have visited all of them. They are all different sizes - some have only 10 students, whilst others are nearly 150; but the kids are exactly the same in all of them! Crazy!

What is so funny is that kids at this age are the same all over the world - there are the cheeky ones, the shy ones, the big ones, the small ones and the rather smelly ones. The only difference from, for example, the children I met in Botswana, is that there is a lot of ceremony before a lesson gets started. One of the things which also cracks me up, is a group of kids bowing simultaneously at the beginning and end of my "English" lessons (in actually fact, my classes are just an excuse to go crazy with the kids for about an hour). It's unbelieveably kawaiiiiiii and extremely funny. I wonder where else in the world this happens?

Here we are having a game of 'What time is it?' It's exactly the same as 'What's the time Mr. Wolf'. Always goes down well. Note Zander and Gail's monster impersonations.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Essential checklist

My brother and sister-in-law were down visiting last week, for only a week. Somehow we managed to do pretty much everything we wanted to do.
Here's my checklist of things to do in Japan if you only have six days!

1. Karaoke (bar and booth)
2. Temple
3. Japanese garden
4. Print club
5. Meet members of the town council (this is entirely optional, but always makes for a good photo! Hee hee)

6. Take an onsen (indoor and outdoor)
7. Meet local friends, get drunk with local friends and sing karaoke with local friends.
8. Shinkansen (what more can you say)
9. Go into a Pachinko parlour (but for God's sake don't play it! You might like it...maybe not)
10. Eat natto/umeboshi/anything else that looks like a monster from an old sci-fi film.