Ridin' the Rides! and Spinning at the Farm!

As the next post explains, Ruben and Phil spent the evening of "Ocean Day" at a huge amusement park in Iwamizawa with Yukari's brother Kyoichi Sato and his wife Narumi Sato, and their kids (Ruben's cousins). Here we are reflecting at the beginning of our fun evening. [A video at the end of this post features Kazuma showing Ruben what Ruben called an "awesome!" game.]

Kazuma (6), Koyori (9), [back row] Ayu (12), and their parents Kyoichi-san and Narumi-san, Phil, and Ruben.

Ayu and Ruben speedin' through the countryside.

Ruben and Kazuma speedin' through the countryside.

Ruben and Kazuma zooming through the night.

"Scary creatures" in the moonlight! (Ruben, Kazuma, Ayu, Koyori)

After amusing ourself at the fun-park (riding on countless rides!), after the pyro sky-splash (see the following post), after a nighttime ride deep into the countryside, after landing at the Sato Organic Farm, after a homemade speghetti meal with farm fresh tomato sauce and homegrown eggplant and sliced cucumbers with homemade miso sauce, and after the sweetest cantalope we've ever eaten in our lives (home grown) -- after all that -- there was time for spinning around, running through the house (done by the kids!), and picture-posing. We made it back to the Sapporo Colemans by midnight just over the wire to wish Buzz "Happy Birthday!"

"This is awesome!" --Ruben

Ruben figured out the timer setting for this group photo at the Sato Organic Farmhouse.

"Spinning" vid:

Fireworks (3000!) on Ocean Day!

Have you heard about Japanese industriousness when it comes to hard work and working overtime? Well, it's true. So true that the government has instigated a number of holidays so that the work force won't overdue it too much. In fact, reportedly, Japan has more holidays than the USA does.

One of those holidays is "Ocean Day," which we (Ruben and Phil) celebrated last Monday by joining Kyoichi-san's family (Yukari's brother, his wife Narumi-san, and their three kids, Ayu, Koyori, and Kazuma) at a huge amusement park in Iwamizawa for lots of rides and a big firecracker of a fireworks show. Over 3,000 explosions! A pyro-delight!

The park waived the admission fee for the holiday (but charged a small fee for the rides). And the fireworks rocked. (See videos at the end of this post.) Rides pix in another post.

Fireworks vids:

Llisten for 6 year old Kazuma's enthusiastic voice in the background.

Ruben took this one! It rocks (and rolls)!

Ruben took this one, too! (Watch for his peace sign "shadow.")

Signage

A cultural phenomenon here is English written for the Japanese public. You see it everywhere - on the subway, on city streets, on the T-shirts folk wear. ("The nature that/It blooms cheerfully/Magnificently") And on commercial products, like, the bottle of sweetened tea I bought: "Please enjoy our sweetness without reservation."

The letters, words, and phrases are English. The meaning may be slightly askew. Doesn't matter. It ain't for English-speakers anyway. But it does provide some entertainment for English-readers.

"This chop of becoming beautiful"

This is the name of a chain of used media - books, CDs, DVDs, etc. I understand that there's a comparable store for hardware, called "Hard-off."

The "Italian Dog Food" sign caught my eye. Then I found out that this restaurant really does serve Italian dog food to dogs.

But the best signage I saw was from a bus. It was a big cement factory. On it's tower was the painted sign, "Oops!" (subtitle is almost as good: "Concrete Basics for Life." Nothing "askew" about that one!) But the "Oops!" title has gotta be for the Japanese public. Can't imagine hiring a concrete company doing any work for me with the name, "Oops!" (On the other hand, we can hope that it's an acronym.)

Takino Park

Located deep in south Sapporo, Takino Park is huge and beautifully landscaped. We traveled there by train, subway, and bus. Ruben and Phil enjoyed an hour-long mountain bike ride while Yukari and Ren played at the "Childrens' Valley" playscape.

Ruben checking out part of "Childrens' Vally"

Wrapped up in the rubber band necklace he made.

Day Trip to Otaru

Last Wednesday Ruben and Phil took a train to Otaru, a port city on the Sea of Japan northwest of Sapporo. Although Buzz and Yukari briefed us well on directions and survival Japanese sentences the night before, we were on our own to get around and see what we planned to see. (Check out Ruben's post on "asking questions in Japanese.") We spent a lot of time asking for directions to glass-blowing factories and found, disappointingly, they were all closed for maintenance. However, we had ample opportunity to use Japanese to communicate.

Among the highlights was biking around town for two hours, during which time Ruben kept us on track with his good sense of direction. We biked through a park, along the wharf area, and through the narrow streets. We were careful to stay on the left side of the street or on the left sidewalk to conform with Japanese law. (It's allowable, we were informed, to bike on either the sidewalk or in the street.)

On the way to the bike rental shop we ran into a familiar "friend."

One of the main attractions of Otaru is the canal district. Ruben purchased a rubber band gun from a creatively talented craftsman. It fires off five bands in succession.

The Ferris wheel is 200 feet off the ground. Its slow revolution gave us a great view of the surrounding mountains and the bay and the horizon.

Chiemi Sato's Photos

Chiemi Sato, Yukari's sister, joined us before and during the family reunion bar-b-que at Yukari's parents house last Sunday evening in Ebetsu. We wanted to share her professional-like photos with everyone.

The outdoors shots are at the park right behind the Satos' home. Yukari grew up playing in this park.

I'm trying out my Japanese on these girls. (Buzz is standing by in case things go wrong.) They're speaking English with me.

"grass angels" (Sato-san and Ruben, with Ren and Yukari)

asking questions in japanese

This is by Ruben. The first time I asked for something in Japanese was when I went to a grocery store by myself to get Andie some kibi dongo (a kind of candy wrapped in edible rice paper) and I looked and looked until I went up to the cash register and said "uuuhhhhh kibi dongo wa doko desu ka" which means " where is the kibi dongo?" in a polite way. She said hai which means "yes" in Japanese and walked about 2 feet and it was right there in front of my face the whole time.

The second time I asked for directions was when grandad and I went to Otaru which is another city. When we didn't know where the bikkuri donki (which is a hamburger steak restuarant) was, I asked a guy "bikkuri donki wa doko desu ka" which means "where is the bikkuri donki." It seemed like the guy knew no English at all. He just pointed in a direction. After we were between two restaurants that both had Japanese writing on the signs, I asked another person the same thing. then he pointed to the one we were looking for. 

Its not fun when you ask a question or say konichiwa (good afternoon) and the other person says a hole bunch of japanese and all you can do is sit there with a smirk and say mate ne which means see ya later. But its nice when you say something smooth and the person says something that you actually know in Japanese. When that happens, I feel like having a conversation but I know I cant because I don't know enough Japanese yet. But I know more than I did a month ago.