Hokkaido

On the first weekend of July (July 3 to 5) my wonderful host family took me to Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan). It was so fun! Hokkaido was perfect. I was kind of hoping I would get the chance to go to Okinawa this year, but I think Hokkaido was better. We had beautiful weather, delicious food, and a fun adgenda. The weather was very similar to Ironwood, actually. Maybe that's why I liked it so much there. It was cool enough in the mornings and evenings to wear a sweatshirt and warm in the daytime. Without the humidity.

On Friday the 3rd, I got done with school early, went to the gym, and came home and packed for Hokkaido. We left for the airport by 4. We flew into a city called Chitosei and took the a train to Sapporo. I think Sapporo is the prettiest city I have ever been in. It's very clean and the air is fresh and everything is built in a nice grid system so you can see down one street forever. It was so much different than Tokyo! We ate the freshest sushi I have ever eaten for dinner. The tuna, which is my favorite kind of sushi, was so good! The raw sea urchin was still disgusting. My host dad was like, "but this is Hokkaido's! It is really good. Totally differnt than Tokyo's. Try it." (Then again, my host dad also said that you are supposed to eat the raw shrimp's brain as you pull off the head. He then proceeded to suck it out of the head. That's just sick.) I just cannot handle that mushy, squisy, slimy texture. I have now tried sea urchin sushi 4 times. I think I am allowed to say I don't like it. :) We also saw the famous Tokeidai before heading to our hotel. Dinner lasted until almost 10:30. It was a late night. The hotel was really nice, including it's onsen.

Saturday morning we got up and had the continental breakfast at the hotel. I got to eat a real american breakfast (almost) and it was awesome. :) (My host mom's breakfasts are also really good, it was just the first time I got to eat cereal in a while.) Then we were off to the train station. We rode the Zoo train to Asahiyama!

Asahiyama Zoo is the most famous zoo in Japan. We had a fun day there. I didn't really take pictures as animals pretty much look the same no matter what zoo you see them at. By about 3:30 we had seen most of the animals and were ready to go to our hotel in Asahikawa. We napped for a bit and then went out for dinner. We had jingisukan, which is mutton barbecue. I think it was the first time I had never had mutton before, but it was really good.

Back at our hotel we all played games, including UNO together for a while. It was really fun and it really felt like a family. Those kind of moments have been pretty rare in the last 10 months or so. It was nice.

On Sunday we rented a car and took a little road trip. The scenery was so beautiful! My host mom got really excited when we saw some cows in a field on the side of the road. I laughed at her. I guess I haven't seen cows in Tokyo either...

We stopped at a little shop on the side of the road to get melon (Cantelope) and ice cream (both famous for being good in Hokkaido), which were dang good. Melon flavored ice cream. Y-U-M. We also stopped to see a "recycled house" which is the old set for my host dad's favorite drama. It was pretty interesting.

Lunch was at a cheeze factory. They had pizza made fresh in a big stone oven. It was probably the best pizza I have had in Japan. Then we went to the Flowerland. Hokkaido is also famous for it's lavender fields. We ate ice cream there, too. Lavender flavor. What does lavender taste like, you ask? It's not as good as melon.

Then we went to the airport and flew home. Back at Hanedea Airport we got ramen and udon for dinner and then came home. It was such a nice trip. I had a lot of fun and I am so grateful that my host family brought me there. I am such a lucky exchange student. :D

(I will get pictures up on here later, too. A lot of them are on my host family's camera.)