First Day's in Japan- Aug. 17 - 22
Trip Start
Aug 17, 2010
1
2
54
Trip End
Jul 29, 2011
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Friday, August 20, 2010
Now I am at the tokyo airport waiting for my flight. I didn’t sleep the entire way here and now it is catching up to me. I also just bought my first thing from Japan- water!
I realized that buying some sort of food that is foreign to the country will not taste the same as you always had. What I found out was about hot dogs... definitely different and from now on going to stick to the Japanese food only. I also got ketchup on my shirt, go me.
First day here was my meeting with the rotary club, which takes place in the Sapporo Park Hotel. It is made up of all men which is very different to Canmore. I had to make a speech but i didn’t say much since i don’t speak japanese. Then that day i got a phone which meant spending 2 hours in the phone place not knowing a word of the conversation that was being passed between ottosan and the lady. That night I spent showing my family Canmore and surroundings on google maps and showing them rotary and pictures about my life. I also showed them maple syrup and how it was made using photos since i couldn’t talk to them. Then I brought out the maple cookies for each one to have, which they found extremely sweet.
It is extremey humid here, alot different then Canmore. I wonder what the winter will be like, being humid and cold. The cars here are really different as well. They are alot smaller and flat in the back. I think that is so they can fit better into parking lots. Even the vans are smaller and have a flat back. I would love to see an Albertan big weeler roll down these streets. Would make my life.
Yesterday I was super tired because everything caught up to me. I didn’t do much other then get insurance and go for a walk around hokkaido university. There motto is “boy’s with ambition”, confused that girls had no ambition. The interesting part was that we had lunch at Big Boy. First time ever eating at that place and it happens to be in Japan.
Today I went to the hokkaido shopping centre which is to big to imagine. I will go back to take pictures. I went so I could get a lunch box. They are so small and square! like tiny but cute. Then we went for a walk and i saw the Sapporo TV tower which is like a mini eiffel tower, the view from the top was amazing. The only place you could see the end of the city was where there was mountains, well hills really, and those were so pretty. On the way back I realized that the shopping centre was even bigger then being like 5 floors up. It was underground as well. I bought my first Japanese book, of course it was a picture book! It's about a dinosaur and when I brought it home I looked through the pictures and I think he dies in the end... there is also a saying in English which says "The only chance is one's life". I also heard Eminem and Sean Paul playing in the stores, quite awesome. For supper we went out to a sushi restaurant. Its really different from home and truthfully I would rather have the home stuff but I guess I am not used to the stuff here. It was though very interesting and i found out I don't like the green stuff but I am getting used to the green tea and I love their soups, plus you can slurp all you want.
Comments
Thinking of you Kayla as Japan endures the current tragedy. I realize you are far away from the danger areas, but it still leaves me concerned for you. Hope you will post your experiences with this disaster on you blog.
We are finally warming up here in Canmore. I have Pedro, our inbound ex. st.
from Brazil living with me here. He is great. All the best to you. Marilyn K