Monday, May 31, 2004
Pinch punch.
Had a nice weekend in Sapporo again, although it was rainy on Saturday. We stayed at the Oak Hotel, I'd recommend it to anyone - very convenient location, cheap, and the rooms are quite big (although decorated a little bleakly as is often the case with Japanese Western style rooms). We did some shopping and eating as usual, and also went to the Botanical Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
Had a nice weekend in Sapporo again, although it was rainy on Saturday. We stayed at the Oak Hotel, I'd recommend it to anyone - very convenient location, cheap, and the rooms are quite big (although decorated a little bleakly as is often the case with Japanese Western style rooms). We did some shopping and eating as usual, and also went to the Botanical Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
I've just uploaded some pictures of the aforementioned flower extravaganzas...please have a look.
Saturday: it was pretty cold again, but we went to two places which are the kind of places the Japanese do best - nature controlled in a park containing a lot of the same kind of thing. In this case it was first tulips at Kamiyubetsu Tulip World and then ground cherry/setanaria/shibazakura/moss pink in NonkeyLand, Higashi-mokoto near Kitami. These places were actually pretty good, interesting and quite spectacular - maybe we're getting too used to Japanese tourist attractions!
Today, it got really nice and sunny, pretty warm, so we went driving. We discovered the road to Akan is still closed for some reason, so went over Bihoro pass again to Kussharo lake and walked around there quite a bit. This time the trails were totally open and free of snow, so no risky wading through snow on the cliff-side like last time! We saw a snake in the woods, not sure what kind - it was kind of brown and not too big, but had very red eyes...
Today, it got really nice and sunny, pretty warm, so we went driving. We discovered the road to Akan is still closed for some reason, so went over Bihoro pass again to Kussharo lake and walked around there quite a bit. This time the trails were totally open and free of snow, so no risky wading through snow on the cliff-side like last time! We saw a snake in the woods, not sure what kind - it was kind of brown and not too big, but had very red eyes...
Saturday, May 15, 2004
oh yeah by the way, I really don't know why that picture above doesn't work, no earthly reason for it I assure you. I've checked the code time and time again. So sorry about that. Also, a lot of people have mentioned that our cam is never on, well it's only on if the computer's on and we want to be seen! But I will try to make that a little more often (like right now for example!!) I suppose the time difference makes it difficult too though.
A warm, humid but cloudy Saturday - spent most of it cleaning, excitingly enough...no, it wasn't that bad really, kind of relaxing! Now Christine is planting out new flowers in the pots on our balcony, we'll probably spend the evening sitting out there with some wine, like last weekend. It's such a novelty to have warm weather you see.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
A grey and slightly humid morning now, only the sound of the crows attacking the rubbish "stations" outside...
I've just got back from Kitami Drivers License centre, and I now have a fully legal Japanese driving license! It was very easy to change the UK one over (after I got a Japanese translation of it by post) - just an hour, filling in some forms, getting some payment stamps from the cashiers, more forms, a very simple eye-test, more stamps, taking a picture and that was it. I'm used to the way Japanese bureaucracy works now, always very smooth if a little drawn out.
I've just got back from Kitami Drivers License centre, and I now have a fully legal Japanese driving license! It was very easy to change the UK one over (after I got a Japanese translation of it by post) - just an hour, filling in some forms, getting some payment stamps from the cashiers, more forms, a very simple eye-test, more stamps, taking a picture and that was it. I'm used to the way Japanese bureaucracy works now, always very smooth if a little drawn out.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Very warm and humid today, and there's cherry blossom coming out, finally, right next door to us in our neighbours gardens.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Pictures are there now, 10 of them to be precise.
Went to the dentist again, in case you're in any way interested. Extremely quick and easy, once I'd persuaded them to let me have an anaesthetic. It's not just me right, we usually have one for a filling don't we, or am I just being silly?
Went to the dentist again, in case you're in any way interested. Extremely quick and easy, once I'd persuaded them to let me have an anaesthetic. It's not just me right, we usually have one for a filling don't we, or am I just being silly?
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
PS - I'll put some photos up online today, replacing the "Japanese English" ones I think...
We got back home around 9 last night after Shanghai...we had a great time there. China is kind of what you'd expect Japan to be like, very Asian. It makes you realise how easy and convenient Japan is!
It was pretty warm in Shanghai, and rainy the first couple of days, but got better. We did a lot of tea drinking and eating Chinese food (of course!), as well as sightseeing - mostly just walking around, but we visited Shanghai Museum, Yu Gardens (and teahouse), the Bund which is a street of 20s colonial buildings and various other places. Shanghai is strange because it has a lot of Art Deco buildings as well as some Chinese ones.
There are really two sides to life there too, lots of bourgeouis hotels, designer shops and restaurants and cafes which have only recently opened up, almost alongside family run businesses selling old machine parts, fabric, food and anything else imaginable. Some people seem to live their lives in the shops too. There were a few child beggars with their parents/grandparents. If the adults saw us or other Westerners coming, they'd tell their children and send them running to us (a few children seemed to refuse!) with a paper cup saying "Hello, hello, xiaxia (thankyou), hello...". We had to literally run off a couple of times as they just kept following us for ages.
When we got back to our local airport, it was rainy, windy and freezing cold! It still doesn't seem to be spring yet. Ridiculous!
It was pretty warm in Shanghai, and rainy the first couple of days, but got better. We did a lot of tea drinking and eating Chinese food (of course!), as well as sightseeing - mostly just walking around, but we visited Shanghai Museum, Yu Gardens (and teahouse), the Bund which is a street of 20s colonial buildings and various other places. Shanghai is strange because it has a lot of Art Deco buildings as well as some Chinese ones.
There are really two sides to life there too, lots of bourgeouis hotels, designer shops and restaurants and cafes which have only recently opened up, almost alongside family run businesses selling old machine parts, fabric, food and anything else imaginable. Some people seem to live their lives in the shops too. There were a few child beggars with their parents/grandparents. If the adults saw us or other Westerners coming, they'd tell their children and send them running to us (a few children seemed to refuse!) with a paper cup saying "Hello, hello, xiaxia (thankyou), hello...". We had to literally run off a couple of times as they just kept following us for ages.
When we got back to our local airport, it was rainy, windy and freezing cold! It still doesn't seem to be spring yet. Ridiculous!
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