I AM SO SORRY, HAVEN'T POSTED IN AGES!!! I will do better, I promise.
I'm currently at Merican Park, by the harbor. There's festival (find of), with music and food. It's been atrociously hot, but the humidity has let up a bit the past couple days. Actually, since the sun has set, I would venture to say that it's a perfect summer evening.
Some of you know that I went to Hokkaido for a week this summer, visiting one of my friends from college who is also an English teacher. If yo don't know, Hokkaido is the northern most island, famous for cool temps, snow low population, and farms.
I felt like I spent the entire trip listing all the awesome things Hokkaido has. I felt a bit bad, I really couldn't help myself. Mostly cause all the stuff reminded me of home. It went something like this:
-they have queen Anne's lace!
-and clover!
-not hot!
-so flat!
-straight roads!
-real gardens!
-botanical gardens, complete with rustling leaves!
-the weather is amazing!
-gianthuge bookstore!
-super fun people!
-farms that grow real food! (real= deliciousness like corn and carrots and NOT boring bland rice)
-uncrowded trains!
-parking lots! (instead of garages)
-giant takoyaki!
-huge park, straight through the middle of downtown!
Then I felt really guilty, because of course there are many things that I appreciate about Kobe/Osaka. So I made a counter list:
-trains every 5-10 minutes
-China Town
-largest bookstore in western Japan (it's not as convenient to the station as the one in Hokkaido, but possibly has a larger selection of English books)
-Merican Park, of course. I have not spent enough time here recently
-My friends, who are awesome
-okonomiyaki
-takoyaki
-delicious food in general (Kobe has a rather large foreign population, so we get all kinds of ethnic restaurants. Indian food is particularly prevalent. Not that I'm complaining)
So that's basically Hokkaido in a nutshell. I'm planning on posting more, but school starts on Saturday, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going in to school today to work, but currently waiting on a download... slow computer.
