Weekend

First of all I want to congratulate Dave for winning the caption contest.  You won!  As of the last time I checked Dave was the only one to put a comment in the caption contest.  Perhaps you intimidated the competition.  The prize is that you can choose what I will talk about in the next blog posting.  Just let me know by comment or email what you would like to know and I will talk about it in the next blog post.

On Saturday we went on a biking adventure down to Odori Park.  These photos are all from that ride.  The first photo is of what I think is a temple.  The chimney in the center of the photo had real woodsmoke coming out of it.

Here is Bre, my wife the model. 

This pole is from Munich Germany.  Turns out Sapporo has a sister city, Munich Germany.  The pole is a gift from the city of Munich and the location of the annual Odori Beer Garden.  I also learned that Sapporo is sister cities with Portland Oregon.

 In the distance here you can see the TV tower with the giant clock on it.  I included this photo even though I don't like the lamp-post in the foreground because Bre and I went up the TV tower and I forgot to bring my camera.  It has an observation deck at 90 meters (above the clock).  We rode up in a glass elevator to the observation deck with our friends Anton and Mami.  We went up around sunset and waited until they turned on the Christmas lights in Odori Park.  It was very pretty, and the view of the city was great.   I plan to come back when we have guests to give them a view of the city.

Afterward Anton and Mami took us to a miso ramen noodle shop in the Susukino district.  The miso was very rich and warm, perfect on a cold day.  I had the miso ramen with pork which was huge.  Bre had the regular miso ramen which was large.  Miso ramen is one of the foods that Sapporo is well known for.  I recommend it to all of you.

 Here is Bre sporting her fancy clear umbrella.  If you have never tried a clear umbrella you probably didn't know that it is possible to have an umbrella that you can see through.  This is convenient if say the rain is blowing at your face and you want to see where you are going.

 In an earlier post I explained how the city is named based on where you are relative to the TV tower at the center of the city.  In this photo you can see it says North 11 and West 15.

 This is the Japanese equivalent of the men at work sign in the US.  You may not be able to tell from the photo by there are three flower petal like circles on the sign.  Each one has a spiral patter of lights that spins constantly to warn you of the construction.

In an earlier posting I had a photo of our shower room and asked about the small mirror near the ground in the shower room.  I had an explanation given to me by one of my Japanese friends about the mirror in the shower room.  She explained that Japanese use a small stool to sit on when they bathe and they would set up the stool in front of the mirror so that you can make sure that you are thorough in washing yourself.  I re-posted the photo below to clarify what I am talking about.  You can see a reflection of my feet in the mirror.

 

That's all for now.

-Kyle (and Bre)