Today (well a couple of days ago....) we went to Kyoto!

Today (well a couple of days ago....) we went to Kyoto! So much has been happening lately that I'm really far behind on uploading pictures and posting on my blog. FYI this post won't have a lot of pictures since we were pretty busy this day. So on Monday 2/5 we flew from Sapporo to Kyoto. We woke up early and took a bus from Sapporo to Chitose where New Chitose Airport is. Our flight was slightly delayed, but we finally made it on and took off. Both Harrison and I were looking forward to getting out of the cold and snow.

Last breakfast in Sapporo

 

When we landed Aya Honda, from my old host family, met us at Kansai airport to pick us up. I home stayed with her family almost 10 years ago, and since then our families have kept in touch. I try to visit her and her family whenever I return to Japan. She took us back to her family's temple, so we could see the rest of her family. Her family's temple belongs to the same school of Buddhism that Harrison and I are a part of. During the drive I caught Honda-san up on BCA (Buddhist Churches of America) news and she told me about her temple and family. Once we arrived we discovered that Honda-san's brother Makoto got a new shiba named Jo, so Harrison and I played with him for a bit before going inside the house. We were quickly shuffled into a greeting room and in typical Japanese style we were given tea and okashi or snacks/sweets. I introduced Harrison, or "Ha-ri" (Harry) since that is easier for Japanese people to say, to Honda-san's parents and then starting catching up. Her father is a retried university professor and minister, however he told me had has Alzheimer now and couldn't remember as much. He still seemed pretty sharp to me though. He asked about our families, how I knew "Harrison-kun", and then started asking about what we did for work. I explained that "Harry-chan," as I call him, and I grew up together since we go to the sample temple. Then I began explaining where we work, and what we do. Explaining CAR T cell therapy in Japanese is extremely difficult....However with Honda-san's help I was able to explain the basics.

We were then taken to lunch at a buffet in a nearby mall. Before we left, we were told that a Tea Master was visiting the temple as he teaches tea ceremony classes there and we were invited to return to participate. So we had lunch and then returned to the temple for the tea ceremony. By this time Makoto-oniisan had returned from work, and after quickly catching up, invited us to join the tea ceremony with the Tea Master or "お茶先生" (ocha sensei - tea teacher) as I called him. Honda sensei (Aya's father) performed the ceremony with the instruction of ocha sensei. Tea used in a tea ceremony is made with a lot of matcha and is very thick and bitter. However it has a good smell and tastes really good after eating sweets. It was the first time Harry-chan had drank this type of tea before. We shared the tea together and then ended the ceremony.

Afterward we talked more with ocha sensei and Honda-san's family. They ordered pizza and we met a few other people that had come to the temple for various reasons. I had forgotten how busy their temple is. Makoto-oniisan asked what we planed to do in Japan. I told him everything we had done (skiing in Niseko, Sapporo, Snow Festival, eating) and explained that we had plans to try new foods and visit new places. When we mentioned we wanted to try fugu he told us that his father recently went to a good place in Osaka and recommend it to us. He told us that he could meet us the following day for a fugu dinner. We exchanged information and he left to do some more work. We didn't plan on going to Osaka, but with good food in mind we fit it into our Kyoto schedule. It was getting late and we still hadn't cheked into our hotel in Kyoto. As we packed up to leave, Honda-san's mother told us that an all women Buddhist musical group was practicing at the temple and asked if we wanted to see them. We agreed and they performed 2 original songs and dances for us. They were very impressive and we were told they perform regularly throughout the area. After that we said our goodbyes with promises to visit them again in Osaka the next time we came to Japan. Honda-san then drove us to our hotel in Kyoto. She told me that she is planning to go to the BCA National Council Meeting in a few weeks and would see me there. We thanked her for her and her family's kindness and checked in our hotel. However even though our room was non-smoking you could clearly tell that someone had been smoking in the room. Not wanting to have to deal with smoke smell again, I went down to the front to ask if we could switch rooms. The front lady told me all of the same type rooms were full, however they had a handicapped room available on a non-smoking floor and would upgrade us. I thanked her kindly, and we moved to a new room! It was huge since it was wheelchair accessible, and we finally relaxed for the night. We planned our next day, and went to sleep.

Daily Step Count: 9,631
Total Step Count: 114,872

Jason's Falls: 1
Harry-chan's Falls: 0

Harry-chan's Kaarage Count: 7


This post had a lot of Japanese words so: Japanese Lesson Time!
~san: The most common formal Japanese honorific is -san, and it translates (approximately) to Ms. and Mr..

~kun: Japanese honorific that is generally used when referring to men in general, male children or male teenagers, or among male friends.

~chan: Japanese honorific that expresses that the speaker finds a person endearing. In general, chan is used for babies, young children, friends, grandparents and adolescents. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, any youthful woman, or between friends.

Ocha: Japanese for tea

Sensei: Japanese for teacher

Matcha: Green tea powder

Oniisan: Japanese for older brother

Fugu: pufferfish known for having a deadly toxin inside it's body. Only a licensed chef can prepare fugu for consumption.

Today we ate like kings, helped a stranger, and met new friends!

Today we ate like kings, helped a stranger, and met new friends! Today was our last day in Sapporo. We decided to spend the day shopping, eating, and sightseeing. Unfortunately for us the main part of the snow festival in Sapporo opens the day we leave. But we were still able to walk around and view the setup, as most of the major snow displays were finished. We got breakfast at the hotel and headed out.

Omelette set

We decided to go up the Sapporo TV tower which over looks odori park, the park where the snow festival is taking place. We bought day and night tickets so we could go up once during the day, and once again at night. However before we went up we stopped at a capsule toy machine. Harrison really wanted the red panda figure so we tried for a bit and ended up with 3 donkeys and 3 seals so we gave up.

We shared some matcha ice cream, and then proceeded up the tower. We went to the 3rd floor where we took a commemorative photo (which I then bought later). And then we rode the elevator up the to the observation deck. It was very much like going up in the Space Needle.

Cheezin

Odori Park

 

Is that a squid? - Harrison...It's the TV tower...

The view was nice and from up there you could see how large of a city Sapporo is. After that we went back down, bought the photo, and then walked around the snow festival area. We walked by the large structures, and citizen structures.

After that we decided to get some food. We decided on a restaurant that specializes in crab. Ayano san also recommended we try crab sushi so we went to Kani Shogun. We entered, removed our shoes and were showed to an elevator to go to our table. We then ordered and awaited our food.

Kani Shogun

The elevator had tatami in it

 

More highballs

kani moriawase sushi - kani nigiri, kani miso nigiri, and kani kappa maki

kani shumai

kaniage shumai

After that we were still hungry and realized that we haven't had ramen yet in Sapporo. So we found a ramen shop on a ramen shop sidestreet to eat at. 

Harrison hit his head on that sign...and while we were eating someone outside did the same thing...

Ramen!!

Once we were completely full we walked back to our hotel to rest and pack. I also took the time to take pictures of our room which was super small.

It was literally a dorm room with a bathroom. After packing and waiting for the sun to go down, we ventured back to Sapporo TV Tower to go up at night. As we were walking a man came up to me, and in Japanese, asked me where a local shopping area was. I responded, in Japanese, that it was just over there and he bowed and thanked me. I guess I look Japanese enough to pass off as a local, and he understood what I said. Achievement Unlocked! We got to the tower however before we went back up, we also hit up our capsule machine again and after 2 tries finally got the red panda figure!! It only cost $16.... Happily we walked into the tower, took another picture (which we also bought) and went back up to see Sapporo at night!

Odori park at night!

After that we walked around Odori park again at night to see if more people had finished their statues.

What was really cool was that on the large structures they display lights or shows! They were doing some test runs and private showings for news crews, however we were able to watch from the sides. It looked so cool!

"There's that squid again" - Harrison

We stopped by a Lawson Station so Harrison could get Karaage, and then walked to find food. We decided that we wanted to have oden again so we walked back only to find it was closed! (I mean it was Sunday). I went onto google and we found an open oden shop nearby. So we walked a couple of blocks to the oden restaurant in the basement of a building. It was a small restaurant with two tables and a large counter in front. However when we arrived the nice oden lady tried to explain that some of the oden wasn't good since it had been cooking too long. However seeing our confusion, a man at the counter started translating for us while I filled in the blanks. We said that it was fine, and we sat down next to group already at the counter. While we were waiting for the oden lady, we starting talking to the group next to us. The man who spoke English starting asking about where we were from, and information about us and our trip. We ordered sake and then began talking with them in hybrid Japanese/English. We got our oden order in and had the best oden yet! It was so good and the broth was so flavorful!

Appetizers

Oden!! Daikon and mochi in age!

good sake from sapporo

Salad

baigai!! (sea snails)

We kept talking with the group next to us, which turned into me giving everyone English lessons. They very impressed with how much Japanese I knew, and how much Harrison and I knew about Japanese food. Inside the oden cooker I spoted some baigai, and asked if it was in fact baigai. They said yes and were super surprised that I had eaten it before. I explained that I worked at a Japanese restaurant in college and knew a lot about Japanese food. Harrison had never had baigai before and wanted to try so we ordered that as part of our next round of oden. The nice oden lady apologized for the lack of certain foods as she said her fridge was empty and her shipment wasn't coming till the next day. I told her it was fine, everything was so good we were just happy to be there. She brought us some salad, as well as some new type of Japanese orange. We continue talking and eating with everyone as the night went on. I asked for the bill as the restaurant was closing soon and the lady responded again with apologies and gave us a discount since not all of the oden was available. Finally when it was time to leave, Sanae, the original man who helped us out who we had be talking to most of the night, told me that he wanted to recommend a restaurant to us in Tokyo when are there. Since he and his friends live there they wanted to go to dinner with us again and show us around. We exchanged information with plans to message to set up a time for dinner in Tokyo. I apologize to the oden lady for staying long and thanked her for a great meal. We talked with the group a bit longer and then went our separate ways. Who knows if we will see them again, but overall it was a fun night filled with good food and new friends!

Daily Step Count: 26,618
Total Step Count: 105,241

Jason's Falls: 1
Harrison's Falls: 0

Harrison's Karaage Count: 5

So much has been happening that I'm behind a day..stay tuned for more post soon!