This week I am traveling in China. I've been very busy on the trip and am having a good time.
Above is a video from the cable car at Wulingyuan park, in Hunan province. It was very pretty, so my short video doesn't do it justice. Below is a video of some monkeys that were hanging around the entrance to the park.
Also in Hokkaido we visited an Ainu museum. The Ainu are an indigenous people to the northern part of Japan. At the museum we learned about some customs of The Ainu, and about their history. Above is a large statue from the museum.
That evening was the Sapporo winter festival, something that we planned our trip around seeing. There was a lot there. Above is a large ice sculpture of the new bullet train that will come to Hokkaido, as well as some of the attractions it will pass. Also pictured is the Sapporo TV tower, and below a man in a suit dressed as the TV tower.
I saw four snow sculptures of snoopy when I was there, as well as a number of Darth Vader masks.
We also went to the Sapporo zoo. Next to the bear enclosure were some confusing holes. I think that they were for smelling the bear, as they had a warning about when not to smell.
Hokkaido is known for its seafood, so that evening we went to a restaurant where we grilled as much meat and seafood as we could eat. The restaurant we went to was a little expensive, but it had some very tasty crab. That day I ate more than I intended to.
On the second day that I was in Hokkaido we started the day before dawn. We drove from the ferry in Tomakomai to the city of Otaru. It was too early to go to a restaurant for breakfast, so we stopped at a 7-11.
Convenience stores are very respectable here. It's not the highest quality food, but you can get a warm rice ball, a hot bun, fruit, etc. Compared to convenience stores in the US, I think the stores here have less bagged snack food and fewer varieties of soda, in exchange for a wider selection of everything else.
The next place we went was to a park. At this time the sun was above the horizon but still hidden by clouds. There were a number of boats here. While I was looking at the sunrise people were slowly arriving and getting on the boats. It must not have been very long before they left the port. There were also some fishermen by the water.
Otaru has a famous canal that we went to see. After that we went to a restaurant that was lit by many kerosene lanterns.
We went to a tower with a view of the city. Below there is a video of the pedestrian traffic at one of the intersections.
There was a temple on the top of a hill overlooking the city. While me and one friend were up here, it was very quiet, but occasionally we would hear a soft drum from inside the temple.
Lastly, we stopped and had lunch. We picked out the food we would have from a large tank. Otaru is known for its seafood and I think that this is deserved. It was very good. The plate on the left had an uncooked sea urchin, but I don't remember the name of the one on the right.
This past week I took a trip up to an island of Japan called Hokkaido. To get there me and some other students took a ferry from the nearby city of Niigata to Tomakomai in Hokkaido.
To get to the ferry we left earlier than I would have liked. Above is a photo of the sunrise from Aizu when we were leaving.
When the boat left, many seagulls followed us looking for food.
Here I took a picture with some of my travel companions.
On the ride there there were not so many things to do. This boat had an arcade, a bath, several restaurants, and a shop for buying souvenirs. I found a spot by a window and watched the ocean as we traveled.
Some people fell asleep outside of their cabins in strange positions.
We got to our destination very early in the morning. I got off the boat and proceeded to fall asleep immediately in the car as we drove off to our first destination.
Last week I had some time without classes, so I went to Tokyo for three days. While I was there I visited Ueno Park. I have been to this park a few times now, and there are a lot of things to see.
Above is a giant panda in a box. It is by an exit from Ueno station. Beneath it is a photo of a large bridge connecting the Ueno station exit with the panda to Ueno Park. It is called Panda Bridge. One of the reviews on google maps for the Panda Bridge (spelled incorrectly as Panda Briage) is pictured below.
One of the times I went to the park it was in the middle of December, and there were many leaves on the ground.
There are also some shrines and temples throughout the park.
By one of the temples in the park is this small memorial. It is in memory of the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Beneath is a photo of the sign in front of it.
