We've done a lot in the last two months, but we've only begun to scratch the surface. There's enough to do here just within our "unimpressive urban sprawl" to keep us occupied for years. Then there's the rest of Hokkaido, not to mention the other three islands of Japan, and Okinawa. If only I didn't have to work. Damn it.

I'm especially looking forward to the winter. I've inherited a snowboard from my predecessor, and Hokkaido is supposed to get the best dry powder snow in the world. There's at least five ski hills in, or just outside, Asahikawa, so even though I've never boarded before. I have absolutely no excuse not to learn.

And of course I plan to take lots and lots of pics. I'll probably send some out by e-mail every now and then, and I hope to update this site from time to time, so you might want to check in once in a while. If you like what you see (or don't), you can drop me a line at [email protected].

The fifth largest city in Japan, Sapporo contains all of the ultra-urban Japanese clichés, but in a more user-friendly package than the larger cities to the South. For one thing the streets are laid out in a numbered grid, so it's very hard to get lost. It's also highly winterized. They heat the sidewalks, but that doesn't matter because there's an intricate system of tunnels jam packed with shopping, restaurants, and hotels. You can spend weeks in Sapporo without ever going outside.

Asahikawa City

The Lonely Planet describes Asahikawa as "unimpressive urban sprawl." Technically this is accurate, but I don't think whoever wrote that spent much time here. Asahikawa (about the size of Halifax) sits in a bowl shaped valley where four different rivers come together. Actually the sprawl's not that bad. There's a pretty good downtown with loads of shopping malls, restaurants, bars and anything else necessary to the urban lifestyle.

When I first arrived in Asahikawa it was summer vacation at the High School and I didn't have to go to work. One of the first things I did was buy a bike and a digital camera so I could explore my new home.

It's been almost two months since I left my native Canada for the previously unheard of city of Asahikawa on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. I haven't really done a good job of keeping in touch with everybody so far, but in my own defense I have been very busy. Not only am I teaching English everyday at Kita High School, but I'm also trying to learn as much Japanese as I can, while having a good time exploring Hokkaido. I want to use this website to let everybody back in Canada know what me and Jill are up to, but mostly I just want to show off my photos.

I'm going to start at the beginning, from when we left Canada, because I haven't been in touch with some people at all since then, (or longer). So if you've already heard some of this stuff you can skip through to the good bits.

putting the floats on trucks and driving them around they have people pull them. Jill's office had a float, so she got to put on the costume and heave-ho like the Japanese. You can see just the top of her head at the upper-left. Behind her is Juliana, who Jill replaced at the office, and behind Juliana is Jeff, our new friend from Alaska, who's also just starting at the Kamikawa Board of Education. Meanwhile I was hanging out with Doug (Jeff's predecessor at the BOE), taking pictures and keeping my eyes out for good places to buy beer. Fortunately beer was not hard to find. Doug lent me one of his Ukata or summer kimono (left), which led to many interesting conversations with Japanese people, mostly beginning with them asking me if I liked to wear Ukata.

We spent a week in Sapporo on the company dime at the end of August. We were supposed to spend the week in boring meetings and Japanese classes, but I made sure there was lots of time for fun. Above left is the Akarenga (red brick) building where we had our meetings. This is one of the oldest buildings in Hokkaido, (Yes, I'm a history geek). It was built in 1888 by an imported American architect, and was the first Hokkaido government building. The present government offices can be seen behind Akarenga and to the right. When I got back to Asahikawa the teachers at my school asked me how much time I spent in Susukino, (above right). Susukino is where everything happens in Sapporo. It's one of those places where you can buy anything and laws don’t apply. I spent a lot of time here, especially at night. Sapporo has a number of parks that are much quieter than Susukino, and very pleasant to visit during the day. Odori Park takes up a strip one block wide right in the centre of the city. The picture to the right is a close up of one of the many fountains in Odori Park. I probably spent the most time in the small park beside Akarenga. It was a beautifully landscaped Japanese garden that was constantly packed with Japanese tourists (below).

On the first weekend of September Jill and I took a camping trip with our new Alaskan friends Jeff and Sharon. We went to the tiny resort town of Asahidake Onsen in Daizetsuzan National Park. The town sits at the base of Asahidake Mountain, the highest one in Hokkaido (below).

Originally our plan had been to climb to the top (2,290 metres), but when we got there on Saturday morning the whole top half of the mountain was shrouded in clouds. We decided to take the cable car that goes halfway up, and then hike around to a natural onsen on the other side of the mountain. It was well worth it. Since we were hiking in the clouds the trail was very misty and romantic, but it was also very cold, almost ten degrees colder than at the bottom. The onsen itself wasn't very impressive though, just a big, warm mud puddle. We soaked our hands and feet, had lunch and turned back. On the way back we took a slight detour along the trail to the mountaintop to see the massive steam vents on the side of the mountain (below left). Yes Asahidake is an active volcano. It’s been a long time since it last erupted, so who knows, it could be ready to go at anytime .

After a quick cable car ride down the mountain we had a nice long soak in the onsen at the Asahidake Youth Hostel. Sunday was sunny and warm, a perfect day to climb the mountain, but we had to get back to Asahikawa for work on Monday. We settled for a short hike and another soak in the onsen.

By the way, in case you don't know an onsen is a public bath, technically I think it means a hot spring bath, but most of the commercial onsens make their own hot water.

Bibaushi

In early August Jill and I took the train about 50 minutes south to Bibaushi. We rented mountain bikes for cheap (3,000 yen per day), and toured the countryside. For the most part it was very quiet and pastoral, except at the lavender farms where the Japanese flock to see the flowers (right). At the farm we visited, three or four tour buses arrived during the hour we were there. They were packed to the brim with Japanese tourists, each of them with at least $10 000 of camera equipment. Needless to say I felt a little inadequate, so I didn't take as many pictures as I could have.

Summer Festival

Our arrival in Asahikawa coincided with the beginning of the summer festival in Asahikawa. Every night during the festival the whole downtown area turns into a giant restaurant / bar with standing room only. The streets are packed. On one of the last nights of the festival they had a big parade, but instead of