Return to Tokyo

Okay! It's been awhile!

So! Osaka was a good time. Brian and I just wandered around for awhile.
The next day, we took the train to Kyoto to see a big float festival. I wore my yukata; it was fun. I think that there is some unwritten law that women must become excessively proficient at tying obi when they reach a certain age. I still suck at tying mine, so I went down to the lobby and asked one of the ladies at the front desk to help. She was young, and so therefore was horrible at it. But, while she was failing, several middle-aged women kind of appeared out of nowhere and starting milling around us. Now, in the states this would be rather akin to the women leaning up against me going "I know how... Want me to help? I can help, you know..." Eventually the younger woman just got out of the way and the older lady just did her thing in about 20 seconds. Then she just wandered away, lol.

In Kyoto, I thought that we might have missed the parade, but fortunately, we showed up right in the middle of it. It's amazing these men carry or pull huge floats for miles. I was very popular... because I was gaijin in proper yukata dress. I think I probably ended up in a few newspapers with the hundreds of pictures that journalists and other random people took.

That night, in Osaka,　Brian and I met up with Yuko and Naoko for dinner. It was really good to see them again before we leave Japan. The hotel was very nice. The room was big for a Japanese hotel.

The next day it was time for the world's longest train ride. We took four 3-hour trains up to Sapporo in Hokkaido. I was okay for the first nine, then it really started to wear on me. We checked in to our comfy little hotel spent the first night just wandered around a little.

We went to the Sapporo zoo, which was a little sad, honestly.　The animals seemed cramped. I did enjoy petting the bunnies, though. We went to the Sapporo Factory, which is really just like a big shopping mall. There was some version on Japanese Idol going on there, which was fun to watch. We ate dinner at the factory and tried a couple of their beers. Also, we went to the Sapporo Museum and learned about how they make it and everything.

After that we took a train journey to Noboribetsu- the land of hot springs. We went to an amazing aquarium there that was in a building like a castle. Then we went up the mountain to Hell Valley, which is the major sulfur producing rocks that causing all the water to heat. We walked out on the bridge over it and I took lots of pictures. One of them is of Brian looking very unhappy about the smell of sulfur. Haha. We walked on the trails in the woods, too. We finally went to a hot spring in a hotel. It was in this really cool private little room with the bath constantly flowing out like a waterfall. It was so relaxing. We had dinner in a little ramen shop and took the train back to Sapporo.

For our last day in Hokkaido, we went to thr zoo in Asahikawa. It's supposed to be an amazing zoo. It was pretty cool, but it made me realize that a zoo on an island in the middle of the ocean can never live up to the aquariums. All the big cats were sleeping right up against the glass/bars, which I really liked.

Then we took a special train to Farm Tomita in Furano. It has fields and fields of absolutely beautiful flowers. They are also famous for acres of lavender fields. I tired lavender ice cream, too. It was delicious. They also had rows and rows of melon plants. I loved it there. Pictures when I get home, because it was so great.

We took the train into main Furano when it got dark and stopped at a pizza place. Now, Japanese pizza is not American pizza. We had a curry sauce with mayonaise, cheese, onions and peppers. It was crazy and awesome. We also stopped in a bar when we had nothing to do until the train came, and it turned out to be owned by a guy for Pennsylvania who had moved to Japan teaching English with the Jet program. It was funny. We caught the train back to Sapporo and wandered Susukino for a little while before going to the hotel.

Today we took three 3 hour trains to Ueno and stopped there for dinner and street wandering, and now we're back in the ryokan we originally stayed in Tokyo.

Tomorrow we go the Ghibli Museum. That's the quick run- it's been very annoying not having a computer, lol. I'm addicted to technology.