Laying Low

After a busy start to the week and a big weekend ahead of us, Fiona and I have been laying low the last few days. Yesterday, at Fiona's prodding, we finally made it to the west end of Odori Park and discovered a beautiful manor house with rose gardens and fountains leading the way to its front door. She was insistent that we needed to go inside and check it out. All the signage was in Japanese and I honestly had no idea if we were walking into some office buildings or a tourist site. As luck would have it, the house seems to have been converted to a museum of sorts. Several of the rooms within were dedicated to the history of Sapporo, and the rest were each host to a local artist's work.

As we walked through the garden, Fiona asked if we could take a picture of us with the house in the back ground. Can you tell she's been closely studying and has now started mimicking her Japanese counterparts? She's borrowed both her new favorite hair style and her new posing techniques from kids she's encountered since we got here. Now if I could just get her to focus a little more on their language!

When we were out with Yoko, she asked if we had being trying any of the local sweets or breads. Because of Hokkaido's large dairy industry, the butter and cream here are of very high quality leading the region to be well known for it's delicious sweets. I'm not a huge dessert eater, but Yoko's question motivated me to pick some up for us to try. Fiona got this slice of cake with fresh berries and whipped cream frosting. My selection (at the far left of the picture) was significantly less enticing. I thought it was a chocolate bunt cake of sorts, but it turned out to be brown because of the slight burnt quality to the outside of the otherwise off-white cake-y bread interior.

Today, after a lazy morning around the apartment, we finally got focused and made it to the zoo after an onigiri lunch on the walk over. As far as zoos go, it was impressive, but nonetheless not all that different than US zoos, so I won't go into our outing much except to point out a couple highlights. The first? The admission fee! Kids are free! And guess how much I paid? $6!! 

The animals were pretty similar to those we've seen in other zoos with the exception of this large (by comparison to others) enclosure of...

...squirrels! Fiona and I couldn't stop giggling. I'm sure there are parallels oddities found in our zoos, but nonetheless, I can I go about donating the squirrels from my neighborhood to this zoo? They can have them all! 

There was also this adorable guy who took one look at Fiona and ran up to the window wanting (I think) a kiss!

Fiona wasn't having it and wouldn't reciprocate the love. Her new friend was less than impressed with her standofish nature:

Also, my favorite sign from the zoo (seen in the monkey house):

And finally, another run-in with the terrifying Hokkaido brown bear. I had to put an end to this stare off pretty quickly; Fiona insisted they were friends, but I wasn't so sure the bear's thoughts were so pure...

And one last standoff on our way out of the zoo. Fiona wanted to get past this sheep to go see the horses, but he was NOT going to step aside and let her through - no matter how much she baa-d at him. Pretty entertaining.

After closing down the zoo, we made our way to our favorite fountain at our favorite park for dinner. It was the perfect summer night for an outdoor dinner in the park. I mention this because I feel like I need to make a confession to you all. We found a really awesome burger joint here in Sapporo and this is the third time we've eaten there. It's criminal! Somebody hurry up and shame me so I don't end up there again next week!

With that, I'm off to bed. Fiona and I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Rusutsu Resort - a local ski resort that offers all kinds of outdoor adventures once summer arrives. We're planning a river rafting adventure, some hiking, and likely, lots of time in the pool!