Japanese brunch, public restrooms, and more...

Good morning devoted followers of our Green Family adventures! As I mentioned over on Facebook, it was quickly becoming clear that my updates were going to be more lengthy than what Facebook was really designed for, so I'm going to resurrect the old blog from our Europe days and start posting details of our adventures here.

It's just after 5AM in Sapporo, and it feels like a small victory to have slept this late. The sun rises at 4AM here and that, combined with the fact that we can't stay awake past 8PM, has made sleeping in challenging.

Yesterday, Jason had his first day at the university which he says went well. While he worked, Fiona and I had more wild adventures. On our way out, we were crossing the small river/creek that runs beside our apartment building and Fiona was thrilled to discover hundreds of koi living there. She said, "it's like we've visiting a Japanese garden, but we're in Japan!"

We started the day by heading to Nijo Market for a typical Japanese brunch. All the people working the stalls were enamored with Fiona and there were lots of free cantaloupe slices offered out to her which I was thankful for after seeing some of the fruit prices here. It was delicious, but not $68 delicious!! That's right - $68! Also available were $55 watermelons. Yikes!

The market was stocked with huge king crabs, giant prawns, salmon, scallops, squid, oysters, and uni. You could buy fresh seafood to take home with you, or they will serve it to you sashimi or grilled right there at little tables in the market. We decided to give the scallops and the uni a try - both grilled. We weren't quite brave enough to take on raw just yet!

First up was the scallop. Fiona loved it and ate the whole thing in a matter of minutes. I'm really not a seafood lover, but decided to give it a try to see if super fresh would make me a convert. It didn't... It wasn't awful, but one taste was enough for me.

Next we tried the uni (sea urchin). I went first because I was actually really excited to try it. The chefs on top chef always rave about how amazing and delicious it is, so I've often wondered. Well, curiosity satisfied. I'd have to describe it as quite possibly the most unpleasant texture I've ever experienced...with a pretty awful flavor to boot. I wasn't about to biased Fiona though, so I put on a brave smile and passed the plate to her. Here's what she thought of it:

The pictures pretty much say it all!

Needless to say, after "brunch" we were still feeling a little hungry, but no longer so adventurous, so we decided to head over to Odori Park in search of some more familiar eats before some more exploring of the "sculpture playground." On our way, Fiona spotted this and couldn't stop cracking up.

Before finding lunch (which ended up being pizza! - decidedly un-Japanese, but oh so comforting!), Fiona declared that she needed to go to the bathroom. I wasn't too worried because I had seen lots of public restrooms around, and judging by how clean everything else has been, I was pretty sure they wouldn't be anywhere near as gross as, say, a public restroom in Boston Common. Well, I was right about the cleanliness - it was spottless and smelled a heck of a lot better than even the bathroom in the apartment we're renting! - but we did encounter some surprises nonetheless. The first restroom we stopped in had a sign on the door announcing "We do not provide the toilet paper." Okay then...I wasn't prepared for that one, but I'll definitely carry a roll with me from now on. We decided to look for a fully stocked restroom and soon found one that did offer toilet paper, but this time, the toilet was sort of missing...

I'm happy to report we successfully navigated the whole in the floor toilet, and got on with our afternoon of fun in the park. We stopped for a quick picture in front of one of Sapporo's most famous landmarks - the Sapporo TV Tower - which we'll one day take the elevator to to top of, but didn't on this outing.

Finally, we made it back to the sculpture playground where Fiona played with local kids for a couple of hours. It was so fun to watch them interact. Most of them were much younger than her because school is still in session here, but she didn't mind. All afternoon she had at least one (if not more!) kids following her around the playground mimicking everything she did and chatting her ear off even though she had no idea what they were saying. She of course loved it!

And now it's time to get focused for another day of adventure. Until next time!