what do you see?

Well time ran out and no-one bought the car...thankfully I've been able to park it at the church (thanks Grace Baptist!) and my insurance is still valid for another week, so I'm still OK. But...
The weather has got a lot milder again, but a bit cloudy and showery now. The leaves must be at their peak, the park looks really good.

Snow on Hasso-an (tea house) 

Red maple leaves and snow in Nakajima park 

unsurprisingly we had to give in and put our heater on this morning

The wintry view this morning, sun on the distant hills. (sorry about the diamond pattern, too cold to open the window this time!) 

Well, you're probably hungry for more info, or even if you're not I'll forcefeed some now:
The temperature this morning is 2.5C and there's quite a bit of snow on the ground, and more coming down...apparently it will stop soon and the temperature will be back up to the teens tomorrow. But the forecast can not be trusted. Anyway, it's certainly strange weather.
(Picture will be up in a few seconds)

OK, I'll clarify this slight mess.
So, we went to Kyoto, for the usual reasons not the climate treaty I mentioned earlier. What, you really believed that?!
It was good, we saw a lot of places we didn't see last time (Ginkakuji, Ninnaji, Nishihonganji etc, and lots of moss gardens), as well as Nijo Castle with the "nightingale floors" again. The picture I posted earlier today was of the famous zen rock garden at Ryoanji temple, thought to represent either islands in the sea, or mountains above swirling clouds. Or......
The trees were just starting to change there, not perfect but still beautiful.
Today, we drove to Jozankei onsen (the nearest to Sapporo) to see some autumn colours and a bit of countryside. And lots of kappa statues. Pictures to come. And near there it was zero, yes zero degrees, with some light, thin, but steady snow falling. Chilly.
Incidentally, we just looked out of the window then and it looked like a blizzard. It's stopped now though.

What does it mean.....? 

OK, that's it. It snowed. It's all downhill from here.

Here we go then with another entry. It's a bit nippy. Lots of vendin' machines done gon' an' got themsel's sumothat thar heated drinks gubbins in them now. The "Ps" are fending for themselves in Sapporo and doing pretty well thankyou. We're going to Kyoto tomorrow to see where the Climate Treaty was signed.

Christine's taken them to the Sapporo Historical Village today, I wanted to go but had some lessons I could not rearrange. I might put a couple of pictures on here though anyway, once she gets back.
I've just got back from teaching in town, out again in a bit for another demo, but until then I'm enjoying a nice cup of tea and a sit down (I really wish I had thought of this web-site!).

You might have noticed I'm going a bit link crazy recently - well I'm just trying to give you a bit of value-added content, and make this thing look cooler I suppose. I hope you don't mind. You couldn't possibly object, could you?

leaving akarenga, The Old Red Brick. 

Well, my parents have been here since Thursday afternoon now, and seem to be having a great time and getting to things pretty quickly! So far, they've experienced convenience stores, Odori park, the TV tower, the subway, a train to Otaru (and in Otaru, Bikkuri Donkey), a Japanese church service (with my dad speaking at it through a translator), hayashi rice, the red brick building here in Sapporo (akarenga), yaki-niku and Sapporo Factory...I'll stick a picture on here in a second of one of those things...

Two things:
1. Anyone want to buy my car? Or know anyone who'd want it? I'm selling it, by the end of the month! I've cancelled my insurance and parking space so if I don't sell it by then, well, I'm in trouble with the police...(this link is worth a look, the Sweeney are still going strong apparently)

2. Now I'm getting into picture posting, I'll start accepting requests, within reason. So, any?

here's the vending machine in our lobby, mentioned a few days ago...still no hot drinks. that rainbow can is a new kind of Boss coffee, I haven't tried it yet though.  

Well, Parents arrive in only 3 days - I'm looking forward to seeing what their Japan is like! Perhaps I should get them to start a blog too. If you want to stalk them, they are staying in the xxxx Hotel (sorry, I decided it might not be wise to tempt you!)

The biggest typhoon for 10 years hit Tokyo/Yokohama the other day, but fortunately turned off and didn't come up here again. Pretty bad though, things like houses and national roads don't just get damaged here, they get totally destroyed.

We had yakiniku again on Saturday, in a nice place in Stellar Place Dining 6th floor, or is it counted as JR Tower, who knows but the name of the restaurant was/is gyukaku though. ANYWAY, the main thing is to try to communicate to you that we ate stuff and it was rather nice actually. OK? Blimey, you can be so demanding sometimes.

It's WARM!!! Over 20 degrees C now, it's horrible actually...
To answer akollon's comment, I don't think they ever stop selling hot drinks at convenis in Hokkaido! niku-man disappear for a short few weeks only, and it seems like they always have a trough of oden boiling away on the counter...

We went for lunch today to Stanley Market<-Japanese link, which is a kind of chilled-out, Asian street-market themed cafe/restaurant (at South 2 west 5 I think) with achingly cheap lunch deals (I mean the soft drink bar was only an extra 130 yen for goodness sake!) that only Japan can provide. They also do Guinness there apparently...probably achingly expensive though...

It's definitely cold here now, in case you're in any way interested. Vending machines are a good barometer here, I saw one today which has been half switched over to hot drinks...we have a wager on when they'll change the one in our lobby.

Well, woken during the night by gusting winds again, and today is bleak and cloudy. But that's OK - it's Saturday, I have some transcription work and online teaching to do and the bath is automatically filling with 180 litres of water at exactly 43 degrees C...

October ticks around. Autumn equinox has past. The weather is no longer allowed to be warm. But today it was.

Apart from those enigmatic words, I don't know what to say. The pressure of a blog, always to perform and write more impenetrable entries than the others...I go now.