The Final Snowfall in Sapporo

Welcome back,

This is my last night in Japan and I have had a great time here. The past few days have been a lot of fun.

So to catch you all up on what has been happening recently:

On Wednesday I  did not have class so I spent most of the day with Okaasan. Today we went on one of my last sightseeing tours. We went to Hitsujigaoka Tenboudai. It is a place overlooking the city where there is a statue of a guy named Clark. Clark helped introduce forms of agriculture to Hokkaido. There we got to take pictures with the statue and also go to a snow festival museum. The museum had pictures of all of the past snow festivals. The snow festival, by the way, is a winter event is Sapporo where people build huge snow statues and things out of snow for people to see. It is really neat, unfortunately it doesn't start until January so I can't see it.

For lunch we went to a crab restaurant. This was a fancy restaurant where almost every food had crab in it, the soup, salad and the main course. For my main course I got a rice bowl covered in small and large chunks of crab. It was really good. Hokkaido is well known for its crabs, they are a little sweeter than the ones I am used to, but still really good.

Thursday was the last day of class, and that meant speeches. All of the international students had to give a speech about anything they wanted to talk about, in Japanese. I did my speech on Maryland. Everyone's speech was really good and we were all glad when it was finally over. It was pretty nerve racking at first because the speech was fully in Japanese, and we also had to do it in front of teachers, host families, and friends. Okaasan came to watch the speech and Shun and Daiki also stopped by.  Below are pictures of Eric, Mal, Euna, and Emily giving there speeches.

Once the speeches were done it was time to celebrate. For lunch a bunch of us went to Sama, a soup curry restaurant that we commonly go to. Soup curry is mainly only a Sapporo thing so we all wanted to enjoy it one last time before we left.

Then it was time for ice-skating. After some slight difficulty getting to the rink, we all went out and tried our best at skating. I have not done it for a long time so I was really bad, while everyone else was pretty good. Luckily Emily babysat me as I skated slowly near the wall most of the time. Towards the end though I was able to go a little faster and not have to touch the wall at all. Even with my struggling it was still a lot of fun and we all had a blast.

For dinner some of us went to Yakiniku, a place where you cook your own meat. There we met up with Daiki, Yatsu, and Yukina and got to eat with them. After eating we all went to karaoke for one last time. Unfortunately Euna, Daiki, and I had to leave early because we had to, literally, run for the last bus. Luckily we made it.

Friday was also a jam-packed day. It started with Me, Mal, and my host-family going to Euna's host family's house to see Euna off. Euna left Sapporo today, one of the first to head off. We all took lots of pictures together and waved goodbye as her host family drove her to the airport.

After saying our goodbyes, Mal and I met up with Eric and Emily to go see one final movie in Japan.  Today we saw Tron in Imax 3-D. It was a pretty good movie and the Imax and 3-D were great. After the movie I did some traveling to Shin Sapporo and Odori to do some last minute souvenir shopping and just to see some places we went to a lot one final time. Then I went to another station to meet some friends for a Christmas Party.

The Christmas party was at Ayami's house, the girl who gave us the tour of Otaru a few weeks ago. Over 30 people came and we had a lot of fun. We ate dinner there, which was great. We also played bingo where the prizes are presents that everyone brought. I also just got to hang out with friends which was great because it was the last time I would get to see some of these people. I got to hang out with Shun, Kimu, Monma, Kazuma, Ayami, and tons of other people who I am forgetting.

After the party I said my goodbyes to a lot of good friends. Hopefully we will be able to keep in touch and see each other again. I took the last bus home and Shun and Kimu came to see me off. I was really surprised and happy to be able to hang out with them for just a few more minutes. We have had a lot over the semester and I am really going to miss them.

Saturday, today, was my last full day in Sapporo. It snowed last night so this morning we were welcomed by the most snow we have had thus far. I went out and helped shovel the driveway and sidewalk with Okaasan.

For lunch I met Daiki and Yatsu at Mitsui for our final get-together. We went to a soup curry restaurant for lunch where I, really this time, had soup curry for the last time. After lunch we walked around Mitsui and just hung out for a while. Eventually it was time to go back home and I said my goodbyes to two other really good friends that I have had a lot of fun with over the semester.

For dinner I went out with my host family to a yakiniku restaurant. This was our last dinner together and we had a lot of fun. My host family has been really great the whole time I have been here and I will really miss seeing them everyday. After dinner we drove around town in search of houses with Christmas decorations. We found a lot and some of them went all out, probably more so than some American homes. It was a lot of fun and we all took a lot of pictures in front of the lights.

Well I am all packed and now I am probably going to hang out with my host family a little more and have some cake before going to bed. I have to get up at 5 tomorrow to catch my 7:50 flight. I have had such a great time here and am really going to miss Sapporo and all of the good friends I have made here.

Stephen