Ishikari English Camp

Four days after arriving in Ishikari I went to the Ishikari English Camp to help out. We had a great time with about 20 kids, playing games, eating western food, roasting marshmallows (on chopsticks no less!) and dancing around a huge bonfire, sleeping in tents, and doing a beach clean-up the next day. It was a great way for me to be introduced into the "English" community of Ishikari.

Me and some of the kids...

The beach clean-up...Deb, James and some of the kids and volunteers

Ishikari

Ishikari...my new Japanese home-town and the sister-city of my Canadian home-town Campbell River.


My local "suupaa maaketo" complete with a doctor's office, 100 Yen store, movie store, bakery, pharmacy etc...

And my apartment complex...


And my office at the Board of Education...


And the Ishikari beach on a cloudy August day...

Sapporo

Just a 45 minute bus/subway ride away from Ishikari is Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido. It's a beautiful city with lots of great parks, tourist attractions, restaurants and shopping!

The Sapporo 'Eki' - aka subway/train station, which also has a ton of shops, movie theaters, hotel, restaurants etc.


Odori Park...

My apartment

My apartment is a "Community Housing" apartment. There are about 18 buildings in the complex with 40 apartments in each building. I love my little apartment with it's tiny kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, bathroom and balcony. It's painted all kids of crazy colours as you'll see, and it's a little bit old, but it's great nonetheless.

My orange living room!

My bedroom...

My apartment building. I'm on the fifth floor.

View from my balcony. One of my elementary schools is on the right. Behind it is a big park with tennis courts, baseball fields, a playground, pond etc. It's a great place to read a book, go jogging etc.

The park behind my house...