April 22nd

After plans for going to the zoo fell through, Momoko, Saori and I decided to have a little adventure anyways. So, we took the car, and drove north up the coast to see what we could find! It ended up being a really fun day, full of...."Oh, stop! That looks cool..." kind of adventures.




Our first stop...the Ishikari Salmon Factory. Salmon seem to have this neverending presence in my life...from Campbell River being the Salmon Capital of Canada, to a salmon being my highschool mascot, to Ishikari being the Salmon Capital of Japan.

















Me and Saori...

















Momoko at lunch in the Salmon Factory.I opted out of the fish eggs, and had tempura instead : )






















The Hamamasu waterfall....BIG by Japanese standards!






















Don't ask me what this sign says! But, it looks cool!


















We then headed back down south, and found this famous little Doraeyaki shop...(aka. pancakes filled with sweet bean paste/Doraemon's favourite food....you know, the little blue Japanese cartoon character??!).


















Next, we found this cute little "castle" on top of a ski-hill! A little random, but that's what made it fun.

















And inside the "castle"...






















Next, we headed into the big city...Sapporo...saw a movie, and then went to fill our empty bellies at a soup curry shop. It was my first time to have soup curry and I loved it! Apparently Saori is quite excited about hers as well : )

Mom's visit continued....

After Keiko left, my mom and I continued to have more adventures in Ishikari.....



Mom at the chocolate factory...(don't ask how many times I've been there!)






















And our cute little waiter!


















Lunch with Harue-san and Yoshikoshi-san...


















And tea with one of my Japanese teachers....Imakawa-sensei.


















My other Japanese teacher, Arata-sensei, is a certified kimono-dresser! So, one morning we went to the Community Center and she dressed us up in kimonos, and then we got to have a tea ceremony. Here is mom in her lovely kimono.






















Me, learning how to be the tea-ceremony master! It's amazing how difficult it is since there are so many little details to remember.


















After the tea ceremony, along with our hosts.

















Lunch out with Imakawa-sensei at my favourite Ishikari restaurant - Art Warm. It is an art gallery/restaurant/theatre, and it serves delicious international food.


















More guests come to visit! On the left is Hiromi, then Mom, then Shiro (one of my kyudo instructors), and me...


















Yaeko came to visit, along with this beautiful gift for mom. It can either be used as a bag, when tied together, or just used as a table cloth.





















And that's the end of our adventures. Bye mom! Thanks for coming all the way to snowy/cold Hokkaido to visit. I'll miss you.

FURANO!

On March 10-12th, I got to go on a "business trip"....which included a two hour train trip with friends, staying in a hotel at the base of a ski resort, eating lots of fantastic food, skiing all day Saturday, and spending lots of good time with friends. It was a great weekend away.



Julie and me in the middle of a "crisp" (aka. awesome) day of skiing.





















Julie at dinner....with some chocolate cheesecake! We skipped lunch that day just because we knew that we needed room for the huge dinner we were planning on eating, including this cheesecake. It definitely lived up to our expectations.






















Believe it or not, this is the restaurant where we ate our last lunch in Furano before catching the train! We'd seen the name of the restaurant on a map, and walked up and down the same street a few times, looking and looking for the restaurant, but we couldn't find it anywhere, despite smelling fabulous curry. How frustrating! Finally, we saw this little shack which we'd passed a few times, and thought, "this can't be it! It's a shack!". But, we decided to brave it, and went inside. It turned out to be amazing food, and the owners were so nice. Never just a restaurant by it's exterior...at least in Japan!

















Our friendly chefs!

















And the menu, on cardboard!

Mom and Keiko come to visit!!!

On March 24th, my mom came to visit for 10 days. It was her first visit to Japan, so we had many new experiences together! However, most of the time was spent meeting friends of mine, not being traditional tourists. Almost every day we had at least 2 "dates" with different people...lunch, dinner, tea, etc. Also, our friend Keiko came from Saitama for the first four days. Thanks mom and Keiko for many great memories!
Here are some of the memories in the form of pictures.



Keiko and me visiting one of my Junior High Schools.






















Mom and Keiko visit a kindergarten near my house.


















We went out for sushi on Keiko's birthday, with Kae.

















Cute Keiko!























One of Keiko's wishes was to visit the beach in Ishikari, so on her birthday we took her there.






















Keiko falls asleep with my bear after our busy day : )






















Mom and Momoko (in her kimono!) making taco shells.






















Us girls enjoying our tacos.

















Bye Keiko! We'll miss you.