Hokkaido

Well, here we are, over a week later and I'm finally getting around to writing about it.  Lazy much?  Yeah, I know.  Also, if you want, email/facebook me and I can send you the link to the school's website where they have more pics and stuff.  Important cause I was mostly too busy/didn't think about taking pics until the last day.  Anyway.

Day 1: left the house around 6:30.  At the airport, teachers had to direct students, cause they apparently couldn't find their own was to our meeting place across the road.  Flight left around nine and surprisingly only took and hour.  Surprising cause that's how long a flight is to Tokyo, and Hokkaido's a lot further away.

Then, we went to the Northern Horse Park (http://www.northern-horsepark.co.jp/language/eng/) to have lunch.  I do not know what it was called, but we got to grill our own food and it was tasty.  Saw horses and cows, which made my country heart very happy (on a slightly related note, I had one of my classes watch and write about cowboys in Argentina.  Some of the students referred to the cows as sheep.  Don't know if they have a really bad dictionary or they really don't know the difference between cows and horses.  Either way, I'm a little scared.)

Then we drove several hours through Sapporo (which is pretty and has actual FLAT areas.  I miss KS) and a bunch of mountains in order to get to Furano (http://www.furano-kankou.com/english/home.htm) and our first hotel (http://www.furano-kankou.com/english/hyperlinks/Accom/Accom-H-NFPH.html).  Both of our hotels were fancy resort-type places out in the middle of nowhere.  I'm half convinced that this was to keep the students from sneaking out at night.

They have amazing food in Hokkaido.  We had giant buffets every breakfast and supper.  Sooooo many fresh fruits and veggies!  Also real milk and yogurt.  I'm totally jealous of my friend who lives there and gets to eat this kind of food everyday.

The first night we had a lecture about the indigenous people of Hokkiado that included dancing and music.  In the evening, the teachers took turns doing stakeouts in the lounges and other public areas to make sure the students weren't getting into any trouble.  Then we had to make sure they were all in their rooms for the night and have a teacher's meeting for an hour before finally going to bed after midnight and getting up by 6 am.

Day 2: the theme for the day was "Hokkaido learning experience" (more or less) everyone did various activities such as making bread, rafting, nature walks, and horseback riding.  I was with the group that made jam and icecream in the morning, which was pretty fun, even if I did spend a large portion of the time reminding myself not to judge the students for never having made jam or ice cream before.  Before lunch we visited a flower farm (flowers/lavender being another thing that Furano is famous for) (http://www.furano-kankou.com/english/hyperlinks/FF-Tomita.htm).  Then in the afternoon my group went fishing.  It was a bit chilly and we only got baby fish that were maybe as long as my hand.  But I caught two :)

Back at the hotel we had the same room checking, stakeout, meeting routine, but I did find time to visit the onsen!  It was kind of fun and super relaxing.

Day 3: Spent way too much time on the bus.  We went to Asahiyama Zoo (http://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/files/asahiyamazoo/zoo/English/top.html)  which was quite chilly and the tiny enclosures for most of the animals made me really sad.  But we got to see some seals, which was first for me.  They were super cute!

After more time on the bus we went to a historical village for 45 min (http://www.kaitaku.or.jp/info/Historical%20Village%20of%20Hokkaido.pdf).  I was sad cause I love historical villages and I didn't think that was nearly enough time to see the entire thing.  We should have just skipped the zoo and spent a couple hours here :)  The students, like most HS students, really weren't that impressed, so I guess it would have not been a good idea to stay longer.

Then we drove for another 4-5 hours to our next hotel. (Btw, we had a tour guide with us on the bus who spent a lot of time talking and I felt really bad cause I had no idea what she was saying so I was reading and listening to music.  I consoled myself by knowing that most of the kids were probably sleeping).   This hotel was even more out of the way than the first one.  It was another fancy place (more fancy, actually), but we spent so little time there that it we didn't really get to enjoy it very much.  If you're going to pay lots of money to stay at a nice hotel you should at least get to enjoy it a bit.  (http://www.japanican.com/hotels/shisetsudetail.aspx?st=1586002)

Day 3: spent the morning shopping for souvenirs in some random town.  (http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/hokkaido/otaru.html)  k, it wasn't actually as bad as I make it sound.  But I think one should acquire meaningful souvenirs as they go along, instead of running around buying chocolate and candy just for the purpose of buying chocolate and candy.  Also, we could have stayed in a hotel in town, thus eliminating an hour of driving the night before and an hour of driving in the morning, meaning we would have had more time to explore the town and shop for souvenirs.  (But we didn't want to tempt the kids into sneaking out and getting in trouble. *sarcastic*)

So here's a few pics from shopping:

Ocean!!!

First law mower I've seen in the past 3 mo:

Then we stopped at the ski jump from when Sapporo hosted the winter Olympics in the 70's.  Apparently some of the girls had a fear of heights, went up to the top anyway and them broke down in tears.  If you're that scared, why'd you do it anyway?

Here we have a lovely view of Sapporo from the top:

Going down!

Then we had a driving tour of downtown Sapporo, which I'm sure was terribly interesting, but, again, in Japanese and I was pretty sick of being on a bus by that time, so I was kind of like, can we just go already????

In the airport, ready to go home:

Fun stuff about flying in Japan: you don't need to take your shoes off at security!  You also don't need to be there 2 hrs before hand, like they tell you to do in the States.  And, if you fly in country, you apparently don't need an ID (although this was maybe just b/c we were traveling as a group.  It was awesome anyway).

And that was my fun time in Hokkaido.  I seriously want to go back sometime (by myself).  It's gorgeous and they have real, fresh food, and there aren't as many people.