My Life in Japan
Such as it is...
Vol. 2 Oct. 2005
It's hard to believe we've been in Japan
almost three months now, but it's already the middle of
October. The leaves are changing, and the Halloween
decorations are starting to appear all over. It's getting
colder everyday here in Asahikawa. We rarely get more
than 20 degrees in the day, and it's been dropping close to
zero at night. Winter is just around the corner.
We're trying to squeeze in as much warm weather
activities as we can before the snow flies. Pretty much
every weekend we've gone somewhere and done something.
Here’s some of the stuff we’ve been up to in
the past month...
Velcome to my page. Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaa...
Er, I mean Happy
Halloween!
Santa Present Park
Late in September Peter and I went on a
field trip to Santa
Present Park with the first
year students. It's a amusement park in the summer, and a
ski hill in the winter. Inside the lodge they've got a
Christmas museum. There are Santa Clauses and Reindeer
all over. It was very festive, except that it was the
middle of September and 25 degrees outside.
There's no school buses in Asahikawa,
so we had to walk the 8 km (mostly up hill) to the Park.
But once we got there it was well worth it. The
students were very impressed that Peter and I wanted to go on
all the rides with them. None of the Japanese teachers
would go on them, no matter how much we teased them.
The Ski hill looks small and
forgiving, and I hear it’s cheap. It could be a
good place to try out my snowboard without risking my life.
Some of my students posing for the camera
(top), and enjoying the roller coaster (above). Santa
Present Park’s only coaster is small, but surprisingly
fast. Peter, the other ALT at Kita High School, in one of
the park’s many Christmas displays (left).
Kamui Kotan Festival
The next day we had great plans to bike the
16 or so Kilometers to Kamui Kotan with Jeff and Sharon for
their festival. They have an important Ainu ceremony along
the Ishikari River that we wanted to see. Unfortunately
we woke up that morning to pouring rain, and for various
reasons we didn't get going until after 1:30. We biked
for an hour and a half in the rain, which only stopped when we
finally arrived. I don't think they had much of a
festival that day because of the rain, and I'm pretty sure the
Ainu ceremony was cancelled, but we don't know because
everything was pretty much wrapped up by the time we got there.
We bought some cold yakitori (chicken on a stick) and
watched them raffle off bottles of sake and Shochou (a Japanese
vodka--like liquor) to the few people still hanging around.
It looked like they had enough bottles for everyone, even
the kids. They probably had a helluva party that night.
But we got back on our bikes and headed back to town.
So much for the Kamui Kotan Festival. But you can
check out Doug’s website for more details about the festival.
The trip was well worth it for the
bike ride though. There’s a cycling road that
follows the Ishikari River. Someone told me you can take
it to Sapporo (150 km away), but I haven't had a chance to find
out yet.
The Ishikari River near Kamui Kotan
(above). A Statue at the small shrine at Komui Kotan
(below). Jill, Jeff and Sharon on the Asahikawa Cyclying
road that leads to Kamui Kotan (below left). The cyclying
road used to be the right--of--way for a railroad. You
can see the old Kamui Kotan stationon the right, behind Jeff
and Sharon.
Furano
I've wanted to visit Furano since
I arrived in Japan. In the exact center of Hokkaido, this
city of about 21 000 is world famous for it's powder snow.
It's surrounded by mountains and in the winter resorts
around the edge of town fill up with skiing and snowboarding
tourists looking to take advantage of the driest powder snow in
the world.
In early October when we were there
it was very quiet. We took the train from Asahikawa and
rented bikes just outside the Furano station. We visited
the Furano Cheese Factory and the Furano Winery. We
wanted to go to an onsen, but they were all too far out of
town. Oh well. We're definitely going back for
skiing in the winter, so maybe we'll get to the onsens then.
Jill's lucky because one of her schools is in Furano so
she goes there once a week.
The little cartoon guy above is
called Hokkaido's navel. He's Furano's mascot because the
city is in the geographical center of Hokkaido. You can
see him all over town, even on their manhole covers.
Jill tries to milk a plastic cow at the
Furano Cheese Factory (above). The main ski hill in
Furano (below). Unfortunely that day more than half
the mountain was covered in clouds.
 | ||
Every year in Mid-October Asahikawa City holds a marathon.
They have full and half marathons, as well as five and
ten kilometer races. There were a few thousand runners
all together this year. It was a perfect day for the
race, about twenty degrees, and sunny. Jill ran the
ten-kilometer race. She was the only foreign woman in the
race. Next year I’m going to try the full marathon.
The start of the ten-kilometer race at 10
am sharp (above). Jill crossed the finish line almost
exactly one hour later (left). It was one of her best 10K
races yet.
Climbing Asahidake
I guess Jill didn't quite get enough
exercise on her 10K race, because the next day we headed back
to Asahidake. At first we had just intended to take some
pictures of the fall colours, but it was a perfectly clear
morning when we left Asahikawa. When we got within sight
of the mountain we could see clear to the top and there wasn't
a cloud in the sky. We decided to climb all the way to
the top. It was tough going, but we made it in a little
over an hour and a half. The guides at the base said it
would take about four hours to climb up and back. It only
took us 45 minutes to go back down, so we were feeling pretty
good about ourselves. Although I think Jill was wishing
she hadn't run ten kilometers the day before. By the time
we got onto the mountain the top quarter of it was covered in
clouds, so we didn't see much from the top. Although we
did catch a few glimpses of the Daisetsu montain range behind
Asahidake when the wind blew the clouds in the right direction.
A friendly Japanese couple we met on the
way up the mountain, gaze towards the top while they catch
their breath (above). A brief glimpse of the Daisetsu
Mountain range, from the top of Asahidake (above right).
When we reached the foot of the mountain again the
J-TAI (Japanese Army) had just arrived for their own trip
up the mountain (right).
© Copyright 2005 Joel Legassie, Posted
Oct. 16, 2005.
Send any questions or comments to
[email protected].
