2 small adventures

Kyle and I went on two small adventures a few days ago.  Nothing too exciting, but enjoyable.  On Sunday we went to Nakajima Park and on Monday we went to the top of the JR Tower.

Sunday we had originally planned to spend the day at the Art Park, but the weather did not cooperate.  The morning saw 2.2 inches of rain (56 mm), mostly falling between 11 and 12 am.  We waited on the rain to stop, but by 1pm, decided the Art Park was too far away to get to spend much time there.  So instead, we took the subway to Nakajima Park, the large park just south of downtown.

Kyle took some nice photographs.

The island in the middle of the pond ("Naka" means inside and "Jima" means island, giving the name to Nakajima Park)

This is a wisteria vine.  Kyle really liked the texture.

I carry all the stuff while Kyle takes pictures. 
(In Kyle's defense, usually he carries the bag)

The waterways through Nakajima Park were all flooded from the earlier rain.  It looked pretty neat, all that muddy water flowing through the creek beds.  The lake was flooded too, but not dangerously so.

Because the creeks were so flooded, we were curious about the main river through Sapporo, the Toyohira River.  We walked along this river before going home.  It was also pretty flooded.  Kyle blogged earlier about the Toyohira River here-- the page includes a couple pictures of the river when it was not in flood in June.  The water in June is blue, not brown.

From the center of a bridge, Kyle and I discussed the best way to take a raft if we were white-water rafting down the river.  Kyle's final decision-- go down the middle and let the water push you right or left.

We decided that we probably couldn't raft through some of other man-made obstacles however.  Although, Kyle speculated that it might be possible if the water were 50% higher.

On Monday, we went up the JR Tower to the 38th floor.  We tried to go when we could catch the sunset, but it was pretty cloudy that day, so the sunset was more like a sky-darkening event.

The road in the center of the photo runs on either side of the canal by our house.  We often go running along this canal, and sometimes we take it to go to the beach on our bicycles.

On top of the Century Royal Hotel is a round structure that reminds me of the Space Needle without any legs.  I think there is a restaurant inside, but I'm not certain.

Family photo.

That's all for now,
-Bre (and Kyle)

Sunset walk to the field

On Sunday, Kyle and I went for a walk to the field that was next to our old apartment.  I hadn't been there since the field was covered in snow, so I was curious to see what it was like full of crops.

 

Our walk was just before sunset, so Kyle had fun with the low-angle light. Here is a picture of the street in front of our current apartment.

 

 

The field is planted with a couple types of corn.  The type in this picture is really tall- taller than Kyle.  The picture is looking back towards our old apartment building from the center of the field.

 

You can see the sun setting behind the mountains.

 

Part of the field is a pasture for cows and sheep.  How do you say "Moo" and "Baaa" in Japanese?

 

Kyle made a friend.  The cows were very friendly and very interested in the lush grass just out of their reach that Kyle would pick for them.

 

That's all for now.

-Bre (and Kyle)

Rock gardens

Kyle and I had a quiet weekend in Sapporo this week.  I had a lot of work to do, so we mostly stayed at home, but we took long walks on both Saturday and Sunday.  This is a short post about our walk to look for the giant rock garden that we had come across once while running.

 

Here's a street in our neighborhood.

 

Here's a picture of the giant rock garden.  The rocks were all about 3 ft (1 m) in diameter.  They were all different types of rocks.

 

And finally, here is someone's topiary garden. 

That's all for now.  I'll post Sunday's walk soon.

-Bre (and Kyle)

Shakotan Peninsula with HUISA

Yesterday we went out to the Shakotan Peninsula with HUISA (Hokkaido University International Student Organization).  We started out at Shimamui Beach.  It is a stony beach with many partly eroded pillars of rock rising out of the sea.

Here is a panorama photo of Shimamui beach with many of the other HUISA trip participants.

The water was very clear and there was lots of marine life to watch.  I accidentally kicked an anemone when I went swimming with my friend Anton.  Good think it wasn't one of the many sea urchins!  I also saw many hermit crabs, snails, mussels, and starfish.

Here is one of the starfish out of the water.  It is very brightly colored.  Anton found a starfish that was digesting something.  When he picked it up it's stomach was sticking out, but it quickly pulled it back in.

After the beach we went on to Kamui-Misaki.  Kamui-Misaki is a narrow peninsula with a lighthouse on the end.  Unfortunately due to landslides the path to the lighthouse is now closed.

Photo credit to Anton for this photo of Bre and me by the sign for the lighthouse trail.

The last stop on our trip was the Nikka whiskey factory in Yoichi.

I like the sign saying,"The legend of whisKy to you."  I think it means that if you buy a single malt whiskey you will be purchasing the legend of whiskey.  I also like how every K in the sign is a capital K for no apparent reason.  The room indicated by the sign had a very pleasant whiskey smell.  I never thought that I liked the smell of whiskey until I went into that room.  In addition to the little bottles of whiskey that they were selling they were also storing hundreds of barrels of whiskey, which is probably what gave the room its smell.

They had this funny little scene of two dolls drinking whisky together.

Here Anton and Bre are at the tasting room trying out the apple brandy blended whiskey.  It turned out to be our favorite.  However tasting whiskey can be a very intoxicating experience so we only tried two other flavors.

On a different note, I have noticed that this is the 100th blog posting on Kyle-and-Bre-in-Japan.  It is amazing to me to think that we have managed to write 100 times.  I have recently come to calling Kyle-and-Bre-in-Japan "Kabij" (sounds like cabbage).  Way to go Kabij!

If any of our loyal readers have a blog request please let me know.  I'll write about anything (within reason).  Our time in Japan is nearing an end.  We will be returning to America in November.  So if you have a request don't delay in dropping me a line.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)

Homemade Ice Cream with Peaches

It has been hot in Sapporo.  Bre and I decided to make ice cream last night.

We found a homemade ice cream recipe that does not require an ice cream machine.  After our first trial I learned that it is too sweet for me.  I cut the sugar in half.  Now it is pretty good.

Vanilla Ice Cream recipe

2 Tbs sugar (I prefer 1 Tbs sugar)
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine in a pint sized plastic bag and seal.

1/2 cup salt
about 1/2 gallon of ice cubes.

Combine salt and ice in a gallon size ziplock bag.  Carefully place the ice cream mix in the larger gallon bag so that it has ice on both sides.  Shake for 5-15 minutes until the ice cream is hard.

Make sure to get the salt off the ice cream bag before opening, or it may taste salty.

For those who prefer a metric measuring system you can find easy conversions here.

Hokkaido cream.  See those Japanese lessons paid off, I can read Katakana!

We found some very ripe peaches at the grocery store for a discount.  They were delicious.

Here is Bre peeling one of the peaches.  I was told by one of my Japanese friends that Americans don't peel their peaches.  Really?  Do any of you eat your peaches without peeling them first?

The Vanilla.

Here is the bag of ice cream mix.  I squeezed out most of the air before sealing the bag.

Bre is measuring out the salt in this photo.  The salt combines with the ice cubes to make it really cold.  Cold enough to freeze your fingers if you aren't careful.  We used mittens to handle the cold bag.

Here is the ice cream after 10 minutes of shaking and rolling.  It is frozen!

Squeezing out the ice cream.

Bre is blowing on her hands to warm them up after holding the cold ice cream.

And here is the final product.  A tasty treat for a hot day.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)

Nippon Hamu Faitazu aka The Hamfighters

Last Sunday, Kyle and I went to see the local professional baseball team with our friends Anton and Mami.  The game was also played in the Sapporo Dome, the same stadium where we watched the soccer game.  However, they configure the field and seats differently for the two different sports.  There is a really cool video about how they change between the two fields here.  It's in Japanese, but the transformation starts at 45 seconds.  The baseball field is artificial but the soccer field is grass.  The soccer field lives outside the stadium (so it can get sunlight) and only comes inside for games.

Sapporo's baseball team is called the Nippon Ham Fighters, which is possibly the awesomest name for a baseball team ever.  Tragically, they are not Fighters-of-Ham, but rather they are sponsored by the Nippon Ham company.  But we English speakers prefer to call them as the Hamfighters.

Baseball here is much more popular than soccer.  The soccer game we went to had 12,000 people, while the baseball game had 30,000. However, there were many similarities to the soccer game, including continuous organized chants (whenever the Hamfighters were at bat) with drums and horns, and a dedicated visiting team seating section.

On Sunday, the Hamfighters were playing the Lotte Marines from Chiba.  Their mascot was a big chicken, so we called them the "Marine Chickens"...  which sounded funny to us.

Here is the opening pitch of the game.  We were completely baffled by all the people on the field.  It looked like 2-3 people were at each position.  We couldn't tell who they were.

Here is a panorama of the whole stadium.  We sat in nose-bleed seats above 1st base...  the same approximate place that Kyle and I usually sit for watching the Seattle Mariners. 

At the beginning of the game and halfway through the game, a very large group of cheerleaders came out and performed for the audience.  These cheerleaders were all children, which we found surprising since cheerleading for professional sports in the U.S. is done by primarily by scantily-clad women.  We later saw two of the cheerleaders at the restaurant near the stadium, where we went for dinner.  I estimate that one was 10 and the other 5 or 6 years old.

Kyle made a video of the cheerleading and the blimp that circled the stadium in the 5th inning.

A panorama of the play.

In the 7th inning or so, people around us started to inflate these large blue balloons with little hand-pumps.  In the transition between one team's at bat and the other's, everyone released the balloons in unison.  It looked pretty cool.  I don't know what happened to the balloons afterwards. 

This video showcases some of the organized cheering for the Hamfighters when they are at bat.  It was less energetic than the soccer game was, but significantly more than what you would find at a U.S. baseball game.

In general, the game was pretty slow.  The Marine Chickens managed to score 2 runs in the 6th or 7th inning.  The Hamfighters rallied to score one run in the 8th, and they almost, almost, almost scored again in the bottom of the 9th, but no luck.  It was very intense.

Here is the video of the one run the Hamfighters scored.  The crowd was very happy.

Bad luck for us to watch them lose.  They won the two other games in the series with the Marine Chickens, and they won yesterday 13-3!  That would have been exciting!

Well, that's all for now. Until our next adventure,
-Bre (and Kyle)