Blogs from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Asia - page 8

Arrival Day We had an early flight from Hiroshima this morning. Bit of a hassle getting from our hotel, to the train station on the tram, then onto the bus to the airport, then checking in. We had been a bit concerned about the 15kg luggage limit - which we were well over - but noone seemed to care very much and check in went quite smoothly. Easy flight and got into Hokkaido about lunchtime to meet our Ski Japan rep. She had to meet a few more people so we had a bit of time to grab lunch and check out the airport - always exciting. The bus ride out to the village was a good 2.5 hours long but was actually quite a nice ride. The roads were good and it was just fantastic ... read more

After the muggy, swelting days in Thailand, Niseko's sub zero temperatures shocked all our immune systems. On top of this, my sister's suitcase was lost somewhere between Hong Kong and Hokkaido. But it's so great that families can share everything - clothes, toiletries, food and ..... colds! In our tiny Japanese style accommodation, there was sore throats, runny noses, cramps, stomach aches...etc. It was only a matter of time! But, we survived by assigning people to corners and attics. Despite our freezing complaints, it was actually a really warm year for the snowfields. Niseko is famous for powder snow but it only snowed twice! When my sister and I got sick of ‘ice skating’ on the more popular front slopes, we took a walk on the wild side through the rocks, trees and bamboo in the ... read more

Tenth and Eleventh Weeks Nov. 4-17 Nov. 4: Loreli, Kelsey, Rowena and I watched a movie and made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread at my house. I think I may be the only exchange student whose host family has an actually oven to bake in. Everyone else only has a fish oven, which is only big enough to fit about two fish. That’s something to note, most of the baked goods that people eat come from one of the several bakeries around the city. Nov. 6: Mama and her cousin and I went to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory, and Hokkaido University. At Hokkaido University we got to see the Poplars which are famous for there fall leaves. They were beautiful. My pictures don’t do justice for their bright color. We also went to Ishiya Chocolate Factory. While ... read more

Eighth and Ninth Weeks - Where has the time gone? I can’t believe that my last entry was a month ago already. It seems like I just wrote it. Oct. 28: I went to the Sapporo Dome. Mama and I went there to see the architecture of it. It’s awesome! It’s the only one in the world that has a movable soccer field that comes in, over the baseball field. We were able to get inside the dome for free since the Nippon Ham Fighters won the Championship. (Nippon is Japanese for Japan, they are Sapporo’s baseball team. They haven’t won the championship in 40 some years.) It was free admission for the first three days after they won. There were also sales at every store in the city. I guess we picked the right day. ... read more

As part of the foreign exchange program the elementary schools ask for exchange students to come and teach the children about their country. This semester there were two schools that asked for foreign students to come twice to their school. I chose to go to the school that wanted two people per classroom for a total of eight people. We needed to think of a song and game that we could teach the children (3rd graders). My partner, Kelli, and I decided to teach the children “I’m a Little Tea Pot” and “Red Light, Green Light”. We went to the school twice. The first time we told the children about ourselves and answered the questions that they had prepared for us. We also taught them the song. We did not have sheet music for them so ... read more