Arashiyama

Nara

Kyoto

Happy Belated Valentines Day

Capsule Hotel

Sapporo at Night and Otaru

Sapporo

Early in February I took a long weekend trip to the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most island. Sapporo's biggest draw is their annual Snow Festival, bringing visitors from all over the world (including myself). Highlights from the trip included the famous snow sculptures, visits to beer and chocolate factories, and Satoland (a winter wonderland with such novelties as a giant snow slide, a snow maze and an army of snow men, which can be seen below). Other memorable moments include dropping 8 dollars on one plate of king crab sushi (as delicious as it was expensive), staying in a capsule hotel and a beautiful lantern festival (see above posts). That's a lot of lists for one post....my apologies.

Expressions/States Take 2

Back by popular demand. Not really.



Hungry



Thirsty



Sleepy

Merry Christmas クリスマス おめでとう

Hey everyone. Merry Christmas! Actually....I'm just getting around to writing this post in late February. Oops. Anyway, as you can see below, Japan isn't completely devoid of Christmas celebrations. However, things here are, not surprisingly, a little different. For example, gift giving is a very small affair between people in a relationship (usually boyfriend/girlfriend), and Christmas cake is a really big deal (they were really confused that no such thing existed in the States).





Sendai City celebrates the season with a festival they call the Pageant of Lights, during which they line the streets with countless Christmas lights. The final product was rather lovely.





Christmas time is also the time for special holiday themed lessons at my Elementary schools. The lesson plan was more or less the same for all grades, with some variations made for age/ability differences of course. First, we sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," followed by a quick game that introduced holiday vocab words, and finally we finished by making Christmas trees out of cutouts of our hands. On one side, students would decorate the hands to look like a Christmas tree and on the other half they would write want they wanted to receive. This years most desired gift? The Nintendo Wii.

Holiday English Boards