DEAR’S 1st JAPAN TRIP

10th Feb (Sat)
- Okunakayamakogen
Visited Gerard and Jaslyn in Ichinohe. We took the Iwate Ginga Aoimori Railway train fr Hach station. Gerard & Jaslyn helped us buy a Ski + Onsen package [2-way train cum 2-way bus cum (train fr Ichinohe-Okunakayama Kogen)] and we met them on the train. The ski rental voucher allowed us to rent the ski equipment at half the stated price. We skiied the whole afternoon, then went to an onsen and headed back to Gerard's house to have a home-cooked dinner by Jaslyn. Boy, skiing was really difficult. I fell down and my skis got tangled so many times! The funniest one was when when i fell and crashed through the orange plastic fence. A little kid on the snow lift shouted 「大丈夫ですか？！ 」　and I answered weakly 「大丈夫です... 」 Dear was really good ay skiing simply coz he rollerblades... Hmpf...


11th Feb (Sun)
- Ichinohe Snow Festival
On the way to the festival, Dear bought his most memorable gift from this trip, a robber-like looking beanie. At the festival, we pounded mochi, drank miso soup & sweet sake wine [甘酒], rode on a snow sleigh and visted Jomon-period huts. Apparently during the Jomon era, people used to live in these huts and when they moved out, they would just burn down the huts... Environmentally-friendly eh? And here's dear trying to look scary with his robber-like beanie...

- Iwate Snow Festival at Koiwai Farm.
Smaller version of the Sapporo Snow Fest. Unfortunately the snow sculptures look a little blackish... Guess there wasn't enough snow.
We settled our dinner there, in a igloo-looking snow sculpture known as kamakura in japanese. Had beef and lamb ghengis khan for dinner. Snowed really heavily when we were returning to Gerard's place. My face was consistently being splashed by the falling snow... Dear pulled down his beanie to shield the snow from his face. Guess he must have looked pretty hilarious, as though he was some bad guy who kidnapped a young lady!

12th Feb (Mon)
Hakodate Mountain. Nice view coz we went just before sunset so we could catch both the day and night view of the city. Many people thought the same way though so it was pretty crowded...
Then we went into a random japanese restuarant for dinner since the one that is reccomended on the map has closed down(!?). The waitress directed us to a bar upstairs where a Filipino guy works, so that we could speak English to him. We had a feast: crab sashimi, grilled eel and chicken cartilage... Superbly yummy!!!! Then we (or rather, only me) also managed to sing some karaoke songs as the Filipino guy invited us to sing as a service to foreigners! Good deal eh?

13th Feb (Tue)

Had the most aromatic grilled scallops at some small shop at Hakodate Factory. Hakodate Hakodate Beer Factory. Tried the 4 types of beer through a trial beer set. Very cute! Even though I was never a fan of drinking beer, the beer was not too bad! WE also had other food and I realised for the first time in my life that salmon with salmon roe actually taste really good on pizzas!

14th Feb (Wed)
Took 0745am Chuo bus from Hakodate to Sapporo
Back to Sapporo again! Snowed quite heavily in the late afternoon... Had much difficulty finding our hotel in the blizzard....

Met up with Ros in the evening. She brought us to try the famous Soup Curry. Contray to my expectations that it would be really bland, it was amazingly tasty! Good choice!

15th Feb (Thur)
Went to a newly opened pet shop in Tanukikoji . This shopping arcade is very similar to the one in Sendai as it is also covered and stretches over a few streets (http://www.tanukikoji.or.jp/menu.html). Couldn't resist cuddling this female puppy at the pet shop... How I wish I can have a pupply like that in future! Had the well-known Sapporo Ramen for lunch (we got more ingredients thanks to Ros' special relationship with the boss! Haha... She always brings foreign friends to his shop so he recognises her. Plus she can extend her student discount to her friends!) . It was really the best ramen i had in Japan!

After our stomachs were satisfied, we took a 1 hour train to Otaru to see the Otaru Snow Gleaming event. Otaru is really beautiful at night but it's very much a place for girls coz as we visited glass shops and musical box shops. Dear looked rather bored... Poor thing....

We went back to Sapporo at night and had kimuchi hotpot (nabe) dinner at Ros' apartment. Was v filing! Then I was introduced to the anime that Ros & Dear are both crazy about now, "Bleach". Looks ok but I don't understand it since I didn't watch from the beginning.

16th Feb (Fri)

Took 0700 Chuo/ Donan bus fr Sapporo Station but we reached Tomakomai station late again. So we had no choice but to take a cab to Tomakomai Ferry terminal. Managed to get on the ferry where I spent most of the time sleeping.......

17th Feb (Sat)
Walked ard downtown Hach. Saw many of my students as it was the first day of Enburi! Paiseh!
Dinner at Mayumi’s. Really delicious, as usual! She even prepared my fav potato soup.. How nice! Mayumi & Dear hit it off well as they both work in the healthcare industry.

18th Feb (Sun)
Brought dear to my church. It has been a long time since we both attended a serivce together. Good times... My churchmates were all very welcoming. Of course Mari-chan made a new friend really quickly! See how they click? We had the always-so-yummy home-cooked Japanese lunch in church before leaving to do some sight-seeing ard squid town.

Visited Kabushima in the afternoon. Nice place but still really cold.. Saw some seagulls there though. Dear decided to impersonate a robber again in the above pic. The "dangerous" sign suits him to a tee in this photo!
Then we watched Enburi dance outside City Hall at night. Didnt see any of my students though
After that, I brought Dear to Wise. We bowled a little and played pool. Then Dear gets hooked on an arcade game. Of course, it is a soccer game... But there's an interesting option of choosing Sonic the Hedgehog's characters as a soccer team, rather than the usual Brazil, Argentina, England etc.. SO cute to see those characters play soccer with their short round feet and round tummies portruding...

19th Feb (Mon)

Dear accompanied me to Shimachuu as a guest. He finally truly understood what was my job all about as he was roped into the lesson plans as well. Students were excited to have him in class too. We had a good school lunch with the kids.

20th Feb (Tue)

Dear took a morning train (while I went to work) to catch the bullet train to Tokyo, then Narita Express train to Narita airport and flew back to Singapore......and that marks the end of Dear's 1st trip in Japan.