Wonderful Experience in Hokkaido III

Day #8: 25th August 2006
Homestay with Mr Sakaniwa's Family 坂庭さんの家族とのホームステイ
Spent the previous night with Mr Sakaniwa's family after the soba-making. Mr Sakaniwa's family own a farm and a cattle ranch. They plant carrots (人参), sugar beet, potatoes (じゃがいも) and raddish (大根). Mr Sakaniwa's mother live together with them.

Everyone in the family went to bed after dinner, which was before nine because they have to wake up at as early as four in the morning, working till sunset at around seven!

They are pleasant people leading a simple village life. They don't know much about other countries outside Japan and was asking me curious questions like: Where's Malaysia? Is Malaysia a safe country to live in? Do you have snow in Malaysia? Is Singapore Malaysia's capital? After a brief explanation, Mrs Sakaniwa exclaimed, "わっ、なかなか不思議な国" - Wow! It's really an unbelievable country! By the way, she seemed to like English as she was always saying simple English in a funny accent like, "puh-rease, puh-rease" and "werl-come, werl-come".

They were kind enough to let me "help" around harvesting raddish in the morning; though I know that I wasn't of much help.

Dressed up and set off to the farm at, uh, 5.30 instead of 4.00. Well... Mrs Sakaniwa told me not to wake up so early!

The machine for harvesting raddish.

Different harvesters are used for different plants.

The weather was fine, unlike the previous days.

So, I took a few snaps at Mt Yotei (羊蹄山).

The locals call it Rusutsu's Fuji because of perfect cone shape akin to the familiar Fujisan that Japanese worship like god.

The cattle ranch. The cows were reared for meat, not for milk.

(Fun-o-meter: )

Last Day in Rusutsu Primary School
It was our last day in the school and there was a simple farewell ceremony. Kind of sad to leave because we had a great time there. (No kidding! We enjoyed the school life there!) The kids were running here and there, collecting our signatures. (Whoa! Mr Nakamura was asked to sign too!) And Saito-kun gave me an origami crane.

Oh yeah. So, what did we observe during the three days in the primary school? Well, the kids learned addition with abacus; cook tempura during living skills lesson; made recycled paper from milk packs; and played soccer in the field during recess. The teachers were so friendly and the kids obviously enjoyed the lessons. (In fact, in Japan, teachers are not allowed to cane students. Some teachers get so stressed that they take medicines to calm down their nerves and swallow sleeping pills before going to bed.)

And the kids' drawings were fantastic!

They can draw like Picasso!

(Fun-o-meter: )

Camping at Toya lake 洞爺湖のキャンプ
Reached the campsite at Toya lake slightly after sunset. This was all I managed to take.

It got dark before we started erecting the tent. So it was kind of taihen (大変).

(Fun-o-meter: Unrated)

Day #9: 26th August 2006
Canoeing at Toya lake 洞爺湖のカヌー

This, is Toya lake. A serene, beautiful place; no Loch Ness monster, no godzilla dwelling in the waters.

We brought along a canoe. The problem was: how do we assemble it? There wasn't any instructions and Mr Nakamura was only sitting back and relax, while we crack our head trying to figure out how to assemble the skeleton, and fit it into the body, or whichever comes first. Anyway, it took us one and a half hour before it was done, breaking two parts in the canoe's skeleton in the process. But we decided that the canoe wouldn't kill us, and went for it anyway.

That was my first time canoeing and it was fun. Would have paddled all the way to the other side if only Mr Nakamura weren't that worried. It was too sunny anyway and I got sun-burned.

(Fun-o-meter: )