Little Zoo in Kuriyama Park !

by Kazu

This is what I mentioned about Kuriyama Park previously. There is a small zoo in the park. For kids, it may be wonderful to see the animals everyday near their home.

The Japanese monkey looks so lonely in the cage without friends.

Small horses are just eating grass without romping around. I am wondering if the space for horses is enough to run around or not. Anybody takes them outside the zoo and let hem play on the lawn? 

Birds are also in the cage without birds of prey.

The peacock is not alone and enjoying his walk in the cage.

His wife is in the house and doing house chores.

Easing him into the coldness of winter in Hokkaido is  tough call? His feather can be increased?

The Chinese black chicken is called "ukokkei" and the meat and eggs are put a premium so much that the zoo has to place the special security around the cage.

As it grows, the feather turns to white in spite of the color of the skin, black.

Rabbits are eating veggies without giving a glance at me.

The wife peacock is grumpy and grumbling about her husband's extramarital relationships in the cage.

Another grumpy bird is this turkey. She does not have her steady in this tiny zoo. Matching party should be arranged by the zoo. Matching parties for the successors of farmers are arranged by the municipalities in Sorachi sub-prefectural area but it is difficult to collect  enough females from urban area like Sapporo. So the staff members in each municipalities are so busy that the matching party for her is set aside and procrastinated.  

She got angry and turned red talking about her life. I hope she will be able to find he better half before she blow her top. "Till death do us part", my favorite words will  be said by her? I hope she will !;)

Kuriyama park!

by Kazu

What rankles me recently has been the lack of the place to enjoy BBQ with my wife in Iwamizawa City but I found a very interesting place that more than satisfies us in doing BBQ, in Kuriyama Town.

Going down the Route 274, this ice cream shop can be seen at the gate of the park and , it is more helpful to find this Kuriyama Park than the road sign that shown on the photo above.

The park is much wider than I imagined and has a very interesting draw. I am wondering if the park can be run by a municipality.

Other than the ice cream shop, some vendors are at the gate of the park.

Kuriyama Town is the good place to live particularly the couple with small kids and to commute to Sapporo City, having a house with a garden.

The forest contains the athletic facilities in it.

It was so beautiful day in Kuriyama Town but I had to go back to Iwamizawa City from my business jaunt.

Kuriyama Town also had a coal mine and this steam locomotive connected the coal mine and the town.

Many railway mania love this type of locomitives so much. This year is the 130th  anniversary since the first railway had been built in Iwamizawa City, Mikasa City and Otaru City so some events for the anniversary are being arranged by JR Hokkaido.

This sign is not what had been used on the platform of the JR station but the shows the location of the facilities such as ballpark and kiddyland.

From Sapporo City to Niseko Town, this kind of steam locomotive shows its elegant mechanism running sometimes but even in this annivarsal year, we will not be able to take and see such locomotives in this area.

The BBQ area can be used even in the rain.

Enough space and water supply system are proveded in the park.

This BBQ sign can be easily found from yhte gate of the park.

For what purpose is this stage used for? It is like the ruin Mexico. Have a great weekend and enjoy your visit to Sorachi!

Port City OTARU !

by Chiseko

Anybody suffer from restless legs syndrome?
To cure the disease, walking around in Otaru City must be good, I think.

This is the March'e Fraise called "Shin(New) Nantaru Ichiba"in Otaru City, that opens all the year round, different from original "Nantaru Ichiba".

The staff in the market  is very responsive. Early in the afternoon, most of the fish have already sold  but the rest of the them are still attractive on the tables. 

Original "Nantaru Ichiba" is closed on Sunday but this march'e opens even on Sunday and that is convenient for tourists as well as the citizens in Otaru City.    

Every time I visit the march'e, I purchase meat, cod roe called tarako, salmon roe called ikura and sliced salmon. 

Every spring my hubby has bought bamboo shoots in this march'e as well as table grape produced in Yoichi Town.

I think the grade of fish is superb in this march'e and the price is reasonable. That is why the march'e is called "the kitchen of the citizens"

The march'e is filled with super sushi-grade fish in the morning. We should appreciate the taste of each season ,being grateful to God for the grace.   

Soon everybody will go home and have dinner. My hubby will prepare for dinner tonight while I will write a report for my M1 course in Hokkaido University. I strongly recommend the meat in this march'e. Have a nice day! 

Shakotan Peninsula 2!

by Chiseko

Shakotan Peninsula has two horns. This is the tunnel to Shakotan Horn. There is enough parking space some restaurants near the tunnel.

Please be careful to step forward because entering the dark tunnel from the parking area may get you dizzied and the tunnel is very narrow.

Bright sunshine and Shakotan blue will welcome you all. It looks so nice to swim and actually my husband swam frequently but it is banned to go down to the coast because of the fear of falling rocks and landslide now.

When I was seeing my hubby swim, I was bitten by some mosquitoes on the rocks of the coast.

Different from the coral island where the white seabed is made from the sand that the fish made of coral they eat, the white seabed is the rocks in the sea that turned white like lime stones because of the low level of fertility of the sea water. The rivers in the Oshima Peninsula including Shakotan Peninsula  are so short that they can not bring enough mineral and nourishment for the kelp and seaweeds in the sea.   

On top of that, the sea urchins and abalones we put a premium and eat, eat up the kelp and seaweeds in the sea. The white rocks in the sea shows the barren sea even though it looks very beautiful like the coast of coral island.

Well-solved mineral and nourishment are required to raise more maritime creatures around this area.
Many scuba divers including my hubby enjoy boat dive around this peninsula. Once he said that yellow small coral could be seen near Shakotan Horn. The guide told him the yellow coral is the only one kind coral that can grow in cold sea water, he said.  

I have not enjoyed scuba diving for more than ten years but I am planning to live in Oahu Island of Hawaii, U.S.A. to get the doctorate in Hawaii University despite I am struggling with the master course of public hygiene in Hokkaido University and I am not sure if Hawaii University has an appropriate doctor course for me or not.    

Shakotan Peninsula 1!

by Chiseko

I think that it was prohibited to use the name of Mecca, the sacred city of Islamic people for expressing "the center" of something, so it can be said that Shakotan Peninsula area is one of the most popular area for the people living in Sapporo City and the neighbours to visit, particularly for scuba divers, Yoichi Town, Furubira Town,    

Shakotan Town and Kamoenai Village are the place of training and pleasure diving.
The seafood restaurant is at the horn of the peninsula. Route 5 to this area was so crowded  on the day. So many people deluged to this area that some restaurants ran out of sea urchin, in particular, the highest grade sea urchin "Ezo Aka Bafun Uni" which means Red Horse-dung-shaped sea urchin of Hokkaido disappeared first. 

Most of the tourists dropped off the Route 5 to this horn and went into the restaurants seeking for the taste of summer sea urchin. my husband and I were the first group to enter the restaurant on that day but so many tourists followed us 5 minutes later.

Very cosy space is set for the guests but so many fishermen are smokers that the restaurants run by fishermen or provided with the seafood directly by fishermen, place ashtray on the table. It's a pity. But I could not find any ashtray in this restaurant.

My favorite "Ezo Aka Bafun Uni" rice bowl costed 3,800 Japanese Yen on that day and the salmon roe with "Ezo Aka Bafun Uni" rice bowl costed 3,400 Yen. The price fluctuates every day according to the market price.

I hate the sea urchin coated with Vaseline or alum for keeping its shape. Violet sea urchin called "Murasaki Uni"
is a little bit cheaper than "Ezo Aka Bafun Uni".

It's very sweet and so delicious that I decided to limit the occasions to have the superb sea urchin to once or twice in each year.

Well-processed salmon roe is my another favorite but considering to regulate the amount of blood cholesterol, too much take of salmon roe and sea archin leads to life-style related diseases.

Two more seafood restaurants are near the restaurant that we enter and they were filled with many tourists before our venue of lunch is swamped by other tourists.

This restaurnt was nearer than the horn of bthe peninsula and we use it last year . According to the web site of this restaurant, the same kind of sea archin costs 4,500 Yen in this restaurant. So we chose another restaurant this year. 

It was beautiful day and I had very nice seafood up to ears. Everybody, enjoying your stay in Hokkaido? I love it!

42nd Hokkaido Rugby Championships

by Andy (U.K.)

Believe it or not, there is a thriving rugby scene in Hokkaido. Last weekend, over 60 teams from all over the island competed in the annual Hokkaido Rugby Championships.

A few expats play for Iwamizawa RFC who were in action on Sunday at Jozankei Sports Ground. After a strong performance last year, we were a seeded team, so automatically were put through to the semi final, where we faced the Tokachi team. The first half of the game was rather slow, and frustrating for both teams, the only points coming from an early penalty kick, putting Tokachi three points in the lead.

After half time, Iwamizawa turned on the pressure and we found our rhythm. Within ten minutes, we had scored and converted a try, which gave us the boost we needed to take control of the game. The forwards worked hard to win possession of the ball, allowing the backs to make darting runs through the Tokachi defence. Two more tries followed for Iwamizawa in the second half, and at the final whistle the scoreboard read 19 - 3 to Iwamizawa.

 

The final will take place next Sunday, July 8th at Nopporo Rugby Ground, where Iwamizawa will face either Kushiro RFC or Hokkaido Medical University. Kick off is at 12:00. If you can, please come down to Nopporo to watch the game!

No,1 Whisky on the globe, NIKKA!

by Chiseko

I am not sure when "the single cask Taketsuru（竹鶴）" and "the single cask Yoichi（余市）"　has got the first prize of whisky competition of the world but I remember I was very surprised and pleased with the results with my husband and informed my husband's host family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the U.S.A., who loves bona fide Scotch whisky with their son.

Many tourists visit the premises of NIKKA distillery every day and enjoy enough the taste of real whisky made in the way Mr.Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of NIKKA, learned in Scotland where he met his would-be wife Lita.

This is the main gate of NIKKA distillery in Yoichi but the tour buses and tourists by car have to enter the entrance on the other side.My husband and I really appreciate what Mr. Taketsuru imported from Scotland. Visitors can enter and see the old house where Mr.Masataka and Mrs.Lita Taketsuru lived. Masataka and Lita had no kids but adopted a boy. I believe Lita was taken care of by Masataka enough and had her happy life in Hokkaido even though she might have had tough time to settle in. I love the photo that is exhibited in the museum and that shows Lita enjoying skiing in Yoichi. Please have a look on those photos in the museum and try the whisky that I can not drink.