Last week in Sapporo

Souhei and I went ice skating at this sports center place.  Who knew I would have the opportunity to go ice skating in Japan? I love ice skating and Japan so this was, obviously, like the best thing ever.  They even played the Frozen theme song while we skated around so it kind of made the moment perfect.  Also, despite the fact that I took that ice skating class, I'm really not that good. The extent of my abilities generally tend to include not falling down (which is more than I can say for some other skills..like walking and running.) But compared to Souhei, who had never skated before, I actually didn't look half bad.  (That's a good trick to remember-just always skate with complete beginners.)

  

After skating, we stopped by a bento store for my first time, and I was actually surprised by how delicious the bento was.  Definitely something I should not have put off until my last week in Sapporo.  Lesson learned. (A little late though, huh?) I guess a part of that could be that I was really hungry, but honestly I thought it was just good food.  Next time I go to Japan I'll keep that in mind. 

Next to talk about was the big trip to Otaru!  It was a ton of fun and had lots of pretty sights to see. I don't even think I need to do much explaining for these pictures-just look at how gorgeous they are. 

Ok actually these two might need some explaining. Apparently these boys were swimming around and catching these sea urchins so they were just hanging out on the shore all disgusting and pathetic like that.  Then, the boys just cracked them open and ate them. it was so gross and crazy and yet apparently they were super delicious.

The day was full or touristy stuff, eating delicious food like this, seeing the sights, eating Dippin Dots (Dippin Dots in Japan, who knew, right?) walking around stores, eating free samples, and just having a blast.  This took pretty much the entire day but it was such a fun trip. Souhei and Adrian came with Momo, Papa, and I and the 5 of us explored the town. 

This is Souhei, Adrian, and I at a festival where we went through my first haunted house in Japan. It was actually pretty short and not really too scary, but still fun.  Just walking around and looking at the stands and food is fun because it's all so different from America.

Adrian and I even decided to do this fish catching stall because it was so Japanese. You had these little nets and your bowls and you tried to catch the fish and then you could keep them.  It's difficult though because the nets break super easily.  I attribute my fish catching success to years of practice while waiting to go canoeing with my family.  I considered keeping the fish, but I wasn't sure how my family would react to me bringing home 2 goldfish. Well I'm sure Momo would have loved it, but I'm not sure about the parents. Anyway, I ended up letting them go, but it was a lot of fun to experience it.


This was a fun day after class. Adrian, Souhei, and I biked around to Susukino which is a pretty strange part of the city, but I had a goal to ride the ferris wheel, and that is where it was located.  Anyway, on our way there we stopped and ate at a ramen shop and I ordered my first bowl of cold ramen, which I actually really liked. I like it more than the warm bowls I have tried.


        Here's my first boba that I bought before going to ride the ferris wheel. I've been craving one of these since Hannah visited but I could not find any that didn't contain milk tea so this was my first.  It was even chocolate banana boba, which I didn't even know was a thing until I had it. Mmmmm.

If any of you know me, you know I love ferris wheels.  It was so fantastic, and it's cool seeing cities at night-especially from such a good vantage point.  The downside was, trying to get home from the ferris wheel we could not remember where we had left our bikes. But once we found them, we just biked home next to the river and it was actually very pretty.

This is Adrian and I trying to play Smash Brothers on his computer. I say 'try' because have any of you tried to play a video game with someone else while sharing the keyboard?  Actually, it was pretty dang fun and part of that was because it was so ridiculous.

Even though I actually had plans to go eat dinner with another family on this particular Sunday, I was extremely sad to be missing out on this delicious looking meal.  I can't believe they would eat sushi without me.  But look how great my family is.  

Speaking of how great they are, here's another picture of them. One of the missionaries had written their names in fancy calligraphy and so we took a picture with everyone below their names. I'd like everyone to notice how gnarly my mom is in this photo. 

The last adventure to write about is when Souhei, Adrian, and I went to see the lavendar fields at Todai university. They weren't quite as purple as the pictures promised but still a cool sight to see. Plus, while we died going up all the hills to get there, it was a (somewhat terrifying) blast to go back home.




We even randomly ran into the missionaries up there which was funny because we were all getting ready to go to a members baptism.  Where I had been asked to give the prayer.  Not that I mind giving prayers, but in Japanese I feel like I have to write it all out before hand so I don't sound like such a foreigner and then I was all nervous.  Bah...it went well though and I was glad I had participated even though I had never even met this man before.

Ok, I'm done trying to play catch up with my blog. Sorry for the overload here.

But also, seeing as it's the last time I'll be posting about Japan in who knows how long, I feel like I should reminisce on that one time that Hannah and I went to Jozankei and saw a bottle of juice at the gift shop which was called "Pure Pungency." I'm loving whatever translation error caused this to be a thing.  I know, it is extremely disappointing that I forgot to take a picture, but the least I can do is share this golden nugget of goodness.   

Well, later Japan.