Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
My Trip to the Frozen North: Part 3
Day 12 - Day 18: Last
week in Japan or “The week that Flu by”
The next day I packed up, said goodbye, and started the long trip home.
This post will not be as long as previous posts due to a
lack of outside activity that week brought on by a bout of the flu.
On Tuesday we had to get up at the crack o’ dawn to catch a
train to Horonobe Junior High, however once again we had failed to let the
weather know what we were planning. When
we got to the train station we found out, probably for the best, that the train
was canceled due to blizzard conditions.
The reason I say I was for the best, is because when my sister came home
early from work she had the news that she and most likely I had the flu.
Thankfully my sister’s friends brought over lots of food
since we could not leave, and we had plenty of TV to watch. Also, I got time to hang out with my sister
without her having to take vacation.
Fast-forwarding to Saturday once we could leave the house we
went to the dog sled races, when to the snow poark again, and had dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant.
Snow Removal Wakkanai Style |
Cool Mini Snow Drifts |
Wakkanai |
Fishing Boat on Soya Bay |
What Size Difference! |
GO! |
Some Teams had Trouble Crossing the Finish Line! |
10th Annual Convention of People Wearing Colerful Coats! |
Perfect Pole Print! Say that five time fast... |
The next day I packed up, said goodbye, and started the long trip home.
Leavin' on a Jet Plane... |
Monday, April 9, 2012
My Trip to the Frozen North: Part 2
Ok, so I am a mean lazy blogger making you all wait for this
post :) Actually I have been enjoying a
beautiful early spring, and blogging has been the last thing on my mind.
Anyways let’s forget about that and get on to the good
stuff.
Day 5 - Day 6: Traveling
to Wakkanai and Recovering from Flights a.k.a. “Lazy Daze”
Didn’t do much these days so I will not bore you with the
details. No wait, actually I will!
Before we left Sapporo, I actually got to experience
something completely foreign to Americans- Chinese Food. “Wait,” you’ll say. “There is like a Chinese restaurant on every corner.” Correct. There are “Chinese” restaurants here
in America, but most of them are “Americanized” Chinese restaurants. There is a saying that the farther you get
from China, the more shiny the food gets.
This is very true; so much so that I didn’t realize that I was eating Chinese
food until after the meal when my sister was able to translate the menu
outside! And, let me tell you this, the
food was amazing-weird, but amazing. It
was nothing like the food that you get in the traditional American Chinese
restaurant. In fact, the only thing that I recognized were the dumplings, and
that was because I remembered them from Kung Fu Panda! On a side note, I do find the disparity in what
we view as Chinese, or any other culture's type of food, and what it really is
as disappointing. I think that it is important that we as Westerners do not put our own
assumptions on how food should taste or look, because we can miss some excellent
opportunities to learn more about another culture.
-Ok, getting off my soapbox now-
After getting back to Wakkanai, I pretty much crashed until
Tuesday evening when we went to the arcade, which was awesome!
Day 7 - Day 8:
Horonobe Junior High and Office Party or “Who ordered the snow?”
On Wednesday, I got the opportunity to visit one of the
semi-local junior high schools. By
semi-local I mean we had to get on a train at o’dark hundred to get there.
I had a great time at the school until they came to us with a weather warning. They said that
due to a massive blizzard coming in, that we needed to catch the next train out of
town, because after that, the trains were shutting down for the rest of the day!
So we grabbed some bentos (boxed lunches) from the local market and made our way to the train
station. By this time, the weather had turned nasty, and everything was falling
sideways.
Once we got to the train station, we had to wait because the whiteout conditions had slowed the train down. After we got on the train, we had a very slow trip back to Wakkanai because we had to keep stopping due to the weather. They also said that we might have to get off the train and take alternative transportation.
Anyhow, we made it to Wakkanai safely and later went to a going away party for the head of my sister's department. It was really fun! We got to see a funny slideshow, and they had a cake- making competition since it was also his birthday. The food was really cool and diverse. Since I couldn’t well refuse what was given to me, I totally overate!
Once we got to the train station, we had to wait because the whiteout conditions had slowed the train down. After we got on the train, we had a very slow trip back to Wakkanai because we had to keep stopping due to the weather. They also said that we might have to get off the train and take alternative transportation.
Anyhow, we made it to Wakkanai safely and later went to a going away party for the head of my sister's department. It was really fun! We got to see a funny slideshow, and they had a cake- making competition since it was also his birthday. The food was really cool and diverse. Since I couldn’t well refuse what was given to me, I totally overate!
The next day I woke up feeling unwell, and I thought that I
was exhausted from the previous days, but it was a forewarning of what was to
come.
Day 9: Snow Park,
Sunsets, and Russian Restaurants or “Snow Cold” or “Russian to the Restaurant”
Friday my sister got a day off work so we decided to go to
the local snow park. Sorry for my
overuse of the phrase, but IT WAS AWESOME! They had a lot of cool things to do,
many of them free. When we first got
there we went snowshoeing.
Mt. Rishiri |
Snowshoeing trail |
Sister trying to climb a steep hill |
Sister going down another steep hill |
snow rafting, and snowmobiling.
Now that we were both worn out, we decided to head to Cape Noshappu to try and catch the sunset.
After the amazing sunset, we went to the local Russian Restaurant where we had a funny encounter with a young Japanese man who thought that we were Russian and tried to start up a conversation in Russian. He became very embarrassed when, due to the puzzled stares we gave him, he realized we were not Russian. It seems that he was studying Russia and was quite excited to have a conversation with someone new. Poor guy, if only he wanted to know more about America :)
Another cool experience was that on our way to the restaurant, we got to catch the tail end of a Russian festival.
Dancers at the Russian Festival |
Day 10 - Day 11: Winter Festival, Cape Soya, and Church or “The Northernmost Frozen Americans in Japan”
On Saturday we visited the winter festival and the ferry
terminal, where we found massage chairs and excellent souvenir shopping.
Then we went to the northernmost point in Japan-Cape Soya. Let me tell you this, it was cold! But I did get to see Russia!
Wahoo Memorial |
Tower of Prayer (Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Memorial) |
Add caption |
Signpost with distances to major cities around the world |
RUSSIA! |
Northernmost Point of Japan Monument |
Temperature on the front of local shop |
Later we were able to go to church and visit with a wonderful missionary family.
Well that is all for this post. Tune in later for the next
and most likely last part. Now, off to enjoy more of this spring weather!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
My Trip to the Frozen North: Part 1
So it has been over a week since I got back, and I have been relaxing and enjoying the early spring weather. But, it is now time to get back to blogging.
So what I’m going to do is give you all little taste of my trip. I hope you enjoy!
Day 1 – Day 3: Traveling to Japan or “I swear that the farther you go on a plane trip the smaller the seats get”
So the trip was long but thankfully uneventful, except for the possibility of the flight to Wakkanai being canceled or diverted.
In Tokyo they had an awesome skydeck on the top floor. I was able to view a beautiful, but very cold, sunrise over the bay.
In Tokyo they had an awesome skydeck on the top floor. I was able to view a beautiful, but very cold, sunrise over the bay.
I also saw the ANA Pokémon Plane…
…and my first 787
Once I got to Wakkanai, my sister and I hopped on a train to Sapporo where we went to the...
Day 4: Sapporo Snow Festival or “Lamb Steak, nuff said…”
The next day my sister and I went to visit the snow festival and see the snow sculptures. They were very impressive.
We also tried cross-country skiing and lamb steaks!
No this is not skiing, but it is a funny sign!
After looking around at the other snow sculptures and visiting the Sapporo TV Tower, we got to watch some free-style trick skiing.
Later we went to a park for a very “cool” walk. The wind was picking up the snow off the ground and making it look like a “fog” of snow had came in!
Well that is all for part one. Please check back for part two, hopefully coming soon!
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