Sato-san and Ruben (with Guanara in hand), Hokkaido bamboo in background
Last weekend began with Sato-san, Yukari's dad, picking Ruben and I up and driving us to Ebetsu, a town of over 100,000 people, located next to and northeast of Sapporo. Before we reached his house, Sato-san treated us to some ice cream at one of Hokkaido's oldest dairy farms where he worked as a veterinarian early in his career. Then we checked out a nearby park where he showed us one of the oldest houses in the area from the late 1800s.
During our walk I asked him about the bamboo growing everywhere. He explained that it is Hokkaido bamboo and grows only on the island of Hokkaido. Then he plucked a bamboo leaf and created an origami of a ship, complete with mast. As a child he and his friends used to make such creations. He topped off the bamboo discussion by tearing off a unopened leaf and using it as a whistle. Ruben tried it. The sound is birdlike, hence Ruben's arm-waving gesture.
Sato-san had an evening lecture to attend in Sapporo so Ruben and I dined with Yoko-san. She prepared a delicious sushi meal! There must have been at least eight kinds of raw fish. We feasted.
Our sushi was like folded sandwiches on the nori (dried seaweed). We spread the nori with rice and packed every sushi "sandwich" we made with the fresh raw fish and garden-fresh lettuce.
After the meal, Yoko-san prepared rolls of sushi-stuffed nori with the left-over rice and fish. She sliced the rolls into the more traditional type of sushi we usually see in the States. Refrigerated, it was ready for inclusion in the next morning's breakfast.
Saturday morning we awakened at the Sato household to this display of colors.
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