Kitami

Although considered a "business trip", this weekend was more of a fun vacation to the other side of Hokkaido. Lori and I travelled together by train for about 5 hours, and then spent the weekend with 100 other JETs in Kitami. We had a blast shopping, visiting local tourist attractions, and eating ethnic food such as Mexican and Jamaican!

View from the train window. The fall leaves were absolutely beautiful!

Lori meets her first Japanese Santa Claus!


With Bobby and his wife at Kitami's very own Jamaican restaurant!

Thanksgiving dinners....

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
First celebration...Jamie, Lindsay, Paula, Stephen and Kae all came over to my place for dinner. Even though we didn't have turkey, we had quite the feast of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, pie, veggies, etc. It was fabulous! It was quite the feat considering the fact that my oven is the size of a microwave, and my kitchen is about 6 feet by 8 feet, with about two feet of counter space!

Before the meal...


And here's Jamie since he got left out of the last picture...

And celebration number two! When some of my Japanese friends found out about our Thanksgiving dinner they wanted to have one too. So, less than a week later I hosted another dinner at my house!

Lori's visit

This weekend Lori, a JET friend, came to visit from Shikabe. We had a fun time exploring, hitting some local second-hand stores, and hanging out. Here's some pictures...

At Moreunuma Park in Sapporo...


The musical fountain that causes many "oohs" and "aahs" from the Japanese crowd...