New computer

We FINALLY have a new computer on the way, perhaps. After being down for nearly three months, we purchased one yesterday through the Dell website - thanks for suggestions, Brendan! We bought a Studio 15 laptop, which will hopefully quench Jeremy's gaming desire and make us available to you all again soon! Yay!! We should have it up and running by the end of the first week of November. :-) We can't wait to Skype again!

Christmas

We did it! After all the talk last year about going to Okinawa for Christmas and being too late to get any good deals - we did it EARLY this year, and just in time too! It seems it was the only all-inclusive resort with air packages still available. Sooo... it's official, we're spending Christmas in Okinawa! Sweet!

We'll be at Club Med Kabira on Ishigaki island from 12/22 - 12/28.

Apple Picking

On Sunday, one of Jeremy's students, Kumiko and her husband took us apple picking near Tsuwano. (We haven't actually been to Tsuwano yet, and look forward to going the first of November!) I've been to apple orchards before, but this one had dozens of different kinds of apples! It was so much fun to pick and taste them all, even taste the difference between the different trees of the same kind. Interesting. :-) After we had our bellies full of apples, we had a BBQ, yum! Amazingly, we finished everything. It was delicious as usual! We LOVE Japanese BBQs! As we were going to pay for the apples we were taking home, I noticed a tree full of apples with stickers on them. The man in charge said they were tattoos - after a while, you peel the sticker off and it leaves a discolored patch of skin in the shape of whatever sticker it was. They had some with the happiness kanji, some with Hello Kitty, some with baseball team logos, etc. Pretty cool.





We also saw the steam locomotive pass by the orchard. It only runs on weekends between Tsuwano and Yamaguchi. Jeremy said his dad would have liked it. :-)

Computer

As some of you may have already heard, we did get our computer back yesterday. It worked for about 3 hours. And died again. Apparently, there was some water damage and would cost close to $1,000 to be fixed, so needless to say we're in the market for a new communicator, err, computer. Sigh. So please hang on a little while longer until we can get a new one, we miss you all too!

Hokkaido!

After days of preparing and planning, we were finally ready to begin our first "big" vacation to Hokkaido. All the planning was stressful, but it did eventually pay off for which we were thankful. We started the day at 5am and arrived in Fukuoka around noon - we explored the city and stayed the night in a teeny tiny, but comfortable hotel room. During our exploration we happened upon large groups of costumed people wandering the area; out of curiosity and nothing better to do, we followed them to see what was going on, and what was found was awesome - an Asian Festival at the bay. Hundreds of performers from all over Japan and Asia were there in traditional costumes and makeup dancing on stage in an apparent televised competition, along with many supporters and sightseers. We were shocked when we wandered in and didn't have to pay an admission fee! Dozens of booths were set up with international Asian foods, Kyushu specialty foods, tourism brochures and packages, and souvenirs. Very cool! We picked up some information on Pusan, South Korea. Although we were hungry, most of the food had been sold out by the time we arrived, so we had regular old KFC for dinner, haha.

*sorry, no pictures of the festival!*

This was the first sight we saw upon arriving in Hokkaido: It reminded us of the evil tower in the Lord of the Rings.

And sadly, this was one of the last sights we saw: Asami waving good-bye. *sniff*

All in all, it was an awesome trip, but our bodies ached from the busyness of all the traveling. Our poor feet never had a break!

Hokkaido: Biei & Furano

Tuesday morning we left Sapporo bound for Biei. We took the Norokko train, a slow-moving sightseeing train with wooden benches and large open windows. Our first stop was Farm Tomita, one of the many flower farms in the area. It's most famous for its lavender fields, which are very beautiful and popular with tourists in the summer season. Unfortunately, we obviously missed the lavender but were still able to see some colorful autumn flowers. Despite the absence of the lavender plants, it was still ever present in the numerous gift shops dotting the farm. Lavender perfume, soaps, candies, neck pillows, makeup, cookies, pens, candles, incense, hot pads, T-shirts, decor, etc... even ice cream - which was quite good! We also saw a man whip out his toothbrush and start brushing amidst everyone, I guess he wanted to be ready for his picture!






Although this area of Hokkaido may not look spectacular to our fellow midwestern family and friends, it IS for Japanese people. The "flatness" of Hokkaido is ooed and awed over here just as much as Rocky Mountains and Grand Canyon are back home. We were there just in time for a good vegetable harvest, particularly onions. At times, we noticed fields full of them in the morning, and by afternoon they had all been picked up and stored in boxes ready for transport to the factories where they'd be inspected and sent to grocers. Even with the flat land, you can still always see mountains. We had perfect views of the volcanic Tokachi mountain range during every train ride.





In Biei, we took the hour-long Hill Course bus tour that took us by some famous sights used in commercials, such as the tree of Seven Stars, a cigarette brand. We were also lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Calbee potato chip factory!


We stayed in a hotel in Asahikawa, Fitness 330, which we had hoped to go swimming at, but unfortunately, the ONLY day we could swim was Thursday, the one day in the week it happened to be closed, haha. We never had any days in Asahikawa, but we did get to explore some at night, mainly shopping and restaurants. This statue stood out in particular, though there were so many others like it...

The next day, we headed to Furano to experience the wine and grape factories there, and of course more ice cream (grape)! Perhaps, this part of the trip should have been called the ice cream tour. :-) We rented bicycles at the train station and rode the 4km to the grape juice factory and vineyards, then rode up a hill to the winery. We had a quick lunch nearby of Cheese Fondu, the most popular menu item. Yum!






We took the Furano bus tour in the afternoon, stopping at a few other TV locales as well as some more factories and shops: Jam farm/factory - where they had every kind of fruit and vegetable thinkable jarred, Anpanman shop - the largest in Japan, Cheese Factory (where we tried pumpkin AND cheese ice cream), and finally the outdoor shopping area of Ningle Terrace.

Hokkaido: Sounkyo & Asahiyama Zoo

On Thursday, the ONE day it rained, we went to the Sounkyo Gorge. Everything we had read said it would be the prefect time of year to go as the autumn colors would be brilliant. We were a little too soon for the best colors, but we were still able to see a good array! Unfortunately, when we arrived at the top of the Mt. Kuro, it began to rain and become very foggy.




After heading back to the main area, we decided to get some lunch - and much to my luck we found a ramen shop with Asahikawa ramen! It's a special ramen only known to this area that is delicious! The best I've ever had!

After drying off a little, we decided to head back out into the rain to find the picture famous waterfalls, Ginga and Ryusei, about 2 miles down the highway. Thankfully, the rain stopped once we got there and held off for the rest of the day, allowing us time to dry out - we should have thought to bring an umbrella with us!





I tried taking a picture of all of our "omiyage" or souveniers, mostly for others as is Japanese tradition, but missed a few items like the corn chocolate, and birthday gifts (of course). ;-)

On Friday, we met up with Carla in Asahikawa to go to the Asahiyama Zoo - the most famous zoo in Japan. It was crowded with people, the weather was pleasant, and we got to see some pretty cool exhibits. Jeremy and I wore our matching KUMA shirts that we bought in Sounkyo - Kuma means "bear" in Japanese, a play off the popular Puma name brand. We thought it was clever, plus it had a tiny outline of Hokkaido in the U. Everyone seemed to love the penguins, sea lions, polar bears, and red pandas. They even had robot animal rides for the kids! Our lunch bentos were pretty neat too - with animals printed on the nori. :-) And I couldn't help but take a picture of the long line of trash cans, all neatly separated into their specific categories... ahh, the Japanese trash system...










One of the best things we saw was this picture diagram about the Sika deer, a native species to Hokkaido. And remember, kids, a sika deer is NOT a "bambi" - the adult deer have spots too!



And with that, we had to say good-bye to our 4-day train passes we picked up in Sapporo for this excursion. It was actually quite nice to be able to travel at our leisure without having to worry about purchasing tickets for each ride.