So Tuesday it was a national holiday so no one had any classes. So instead some of my Japanese friends put together a trip to Otaru for everyone! We met bright and early at school to board a bus that was ordered just for us. About 32 people went on the trip. It took about an hour to get to Otaru and once there we visited a couple of different places.
The first stop was a sake factory. It was a small factory where we got to see how sake was made and even see people making it. It was pretty neat to see and we all had fun walking through the factory. Outside was a fountain that apparently had some of the best water in Sapporo, it tasted pretty regular to me, but who knows.
The next stop was the streets of Otaru. We all got some free time to explore the city and check out different shops. I went with some friends to a glasswares shop and then a music box shop, the two things that Otaru is the most famous for. They were all pretty neat and it is interesting to see what people can do with glass an music boxes.
Next we went to a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was really cold and windy, but still cool to see the view over the cliff and the ocean. There was a lighthouse near by, but no one got to see that except for three guys who went running up the hill to go see it.
The final stop was to Kihinkan. This is a building in what used to be Aoyama Village. Now it is a historical spot that is owned by the family of the friend who put the whole trip together, Ayami. She took us to the building and we were given a tour of the whole place and told about it's long history. It was all pretty interesting and very fancy.
And as if the building was not fancy enough, we then got a very fancy lunch. There was a lot of different foods and it was all nicely prepared. It seemed to be fish/seafood themed and was all really good. While eating we had to give a self introduction so everyone could know who we are and what we like, there were a lot of people I did not know very well. This was all done in Japanese, so I am not 100% who everyone is or what exactly they all like, but I understood most of it.
After eating five of us then went to play a quick game of frisbee. Then it was time to board the bus and head back to Sapporo. Today was a lot of fun and it was great to hang out with everyone and also get to hang out with a lot of people I haven't really been able to hang out with much before.
Wednesday was also a lot of fun. For lunch I went with Mal, Euna, Emily, and Eric to a soup curry restaurant. You can probably tell by now that we all love soup curry. I tried the seafood curry which was pretty good, but I think I like the chicken better, chicken is cheaper too.
Wednesday night was movie night. Mal and I met my friend Shun at school and we then went to rent the movie "Frequency." This is an American movie that I saw a few years ago. It is pretty good and is apparently one of Shun's favorites. While in the movie rental shop we kind of got distracted looking at all of the movies, the place actually has quite a lot of foreign movies, maybe more than a place in the U.S. It was pretty surprising. But because we got distracted we were late to meet up with Emily, Eric, Kazuma and Natsumi. The movie party was at Kazuma's apartment and we walked there after picking up some snacks. Then we all watched the movie and tried to explain parts to each other, it is a somewhat confusing movie. The party was a lot of fun and we all had a great time watching the movie and hanging out.
Today it was back to school, it was kind of strange going back after not having class the past two days and doing so much. This weekend should be pretty exciting too. My friends and I are thinking about going to the historical village of hokkaido. It is this village that has old fashioned buildings and old activities that you can do. It should be pretty interesting.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Stephen
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