Weekend Mashup

It's been a random, yet eventful weekend. The weather has been completely unpredictable with downpours popping up when the forecast calls for no chance of rain, and sunny skies when thunderstorms have been all but guaranteed. We've done our best to make the most of our time with Jason home for the weekend, regardless of the weather.

Friday, Fiona finally got her one wish for our time in Japan - to go to a swimming pool. I don't have many pictures because, you know, pools and phones don't exactly mix, but I have to mention it nonetheless. The most important bit being that I don't know how I'll ever bring myself to go to a pool in the US again. I can't begin to explain how amazingly clean this pool was. It is basically YMCA-like, but is only an indoor pool. When you get there, you use a vending machine to purchase a ticket for one-time use or a month's pass. Elementary aged kids and younger are free and adults must pay a whopping $4.30 for daily entry. Given the entry fee, I wasn't expecting anything too impressive, but boy was I mistaken. The facility had spotlessly clean changing rooms, free lockers, and two pools - a two and a half foot deep kid's pool and a four and a half foot deep lap pool. AND, much to Fiona's delight, there was a water slide component to the kids' pool!

As you can see from the picture, it's not a huge facility, but given that we paid $4.30 in total to use it (and that we were sharing the slide and kids' pool with ONE other kid) I was thoroughly impressed. On top of that, I can't say enough about how spotless this place was. Someone was cleaning the pool deck area the entire time we were there. They'd get to the end and start again.

Thanks to one of the teachers at Fiona's school who is from Japan, we knew in advance that all pools would require swim caps, so we planned accordingly and brought them with us. And that brings up my only real complaint about this pool. Regardless of your child's swimming ability, all elementary aged kids have to be accompanied by a parent IN the two and a half foot deep pool. So, even though Fiona could have cared less about my presence once she laid eyes on that slide, I had to be in the water with her the entire time...with my swim cap on. And let me tell you, those things are UNCOMFORTABLE!! Still, all said, it's a pretty minor gripe for dirt cheap entertainment, right?

After a couple hours of swimming, the life guards finally called for a mandatory ten minute "rest period" for all swimmers. I used this as my escape from pool jail and talked Fiona into heading over to Odori Park to play for a bit before Jason got off work and met us for ice cream. We weren't at the playground long before Fiona had made a new buddy...Brian...from Texas. So much for broadening her cultural perspectives! I'm kidding of course, these random English speaking playmates she's been able to find have been lifesavers for both of us!

Because the sun rises here a few minutes before 4AM, it starts getting dark around 6:30PM. After hanging out in the park and playing for a bit with Jason, we headed over to grab some ice cream before it got too dark out.

(More on Jason's flavor choice in my next post where I'll be talking about some of the delicious and strange foods we've discovered since our arrival.)

It's not that we were in a hurry to get home because we're afraid of the dark; it had more to do with what lies between Odori Park and our apartment. This is the corner that marks the beginning of a Sapporo neighborhood known as Susukino. It's a pretty active "red light district" that (much like Amsterdam's red light district) is totally safe, but also comes alive at night with much more in-your-face advertising. Fiona and I walk through the Susukino most mornings, and what it "is" is pretty innocuous then, but we knew that advertising, etc would be much more present after dark and neither Jason or I felt like answering those questions, so we decided to high-tail it home and avoid the conversation all together.

Saturday morning we woke up and decided to go check out the famous Japanese pancakes we'd heard about prior to coming here. As you can see by the pictures, they did not disappoint!

Her enthusiasm waned three-quarters of the way through her first pancake; "Mommy, my tummy is starting to hurt, can I be done?" I only made it one bite before recognizing that they were too much for me, so she got no argument from me on that!

Next we headed to a huge book store - Sapporo Kinokuniya - where we had it on good authority that we'd find an English language section. What we hadn't accounted for was just how large the children's section of the English language section would be. I'm not even exaggerating a little when I say that Jason and I wandered and did our best to entertain ourselves for 2 HOURS until Fiona had had her fill of reading. I'll be socking that entertainment source away for future use!

We had planned to head to Nakajima Koen (the park across from our apartment) after breakfast to rent a row boat, but the weather forecast was for thunderstorms until later in the afternoon, so we went to the bookstore to allow for the rain to pass before we went rowing. Well, there was nothing but sunshine for our two hours at the bookstore and the forecast was for more of the same throughout the rest of the afternoon, so we set off for the park. About half way there, the skies opened up in a downpour killing all plans of boating, so we ducked into a local grocery to grab dinner and call it a day. While we were there we finally picked up some taiyaki to try. More about these in my food post as well!

After having our evening plans rained out, we had a family movie night and went to bed. I was sound asleep when I suddenly woke to my bed violently shaking. I was so annoyed with Fiona for waking me in such an unpleasant way and sat up ready to tell her as much when I realized I was all alone in my room and my bed was still shaking. Turns out Japan was giving me another first - earthquake! At 11:45PM last night about 50 miles from Sapporo there was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. Apparently this corresponds to an "often felt, but only causes minor damage" classification, which I am grateful for, but regardless, any kind of ground movement when you're in a 34-story high rise is less than comforting. My guess is this is no big deal here as there is no news coverage and everything seems to be business as usual around Sapporo, but I am still hoping that's the first and last earthquake I get the opportunity to experience.  

This morning I woke up excited to ask Jason and Fiona what they thought of the earthquake. Turns out, they were so impressed by it that they slept right through it! 

After a relaxing morning, Fiona and I took some stale bread down to feed the neighborhood koi. She giggled like crazy the entire time. It's shocking to watch them plow into and over each other in an effort to get to the food first. I'd never have imagined so much aggression when it comes to koi!

After breakfast for the koi, Fiona asked if we could go over to the playground across the street at Nakajima Koen. When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to find a huge children's festival going on. We spent the entire day there alternating between craft tents, magic shows, puppet shows, and other performances.

The sweet woman in the right of this picture spotted us not long after we had arrived and, recognizing that we were a little overwhelmed, approached us and was able to get us started at this first tent with some gesturing and a few Japanese phrases we actually understood. It was a puzzle made from a picture of one of the park's sculptures.

These three let Fiona struggle with the puzzle for all of two minutes before all jumping in to help her.

Together, they got it done!

Next it was juggling lessons from the cutest old lady ever:

Then a craft to make a fun little flying stick:

Complete with launching lesions!

This outgoing little girl very patiently walked Fiona through making a monkey with cymbals. Even with a complete lack of a common language, they still got the job done.

Daddy managed to find a science-related tent to explore:

There was a kite made of paper...

...that actually flew better than any kite we have ever bought in a store!

First time jumping rope this way:

I'm sure this kind of bubble blower exists in the US, but why oh why aren't the more prevalent? Quite possibly the first time I haven't despised bubble play!

And making a ring flyer:

This place knows how to put on the entertainment! Do you want to know how much we spent for this four hours of fun? Forty-four cents!

Before leaving the park, we made good on our row boat promise and took a spin around the pond. It was good fun and we'll definitely do it again before we leave.

Here's Mommy working hard...

...while these two ham it up in the back of the boat!

And last, but certainly not least, this weekend we got our first mail in Japan! Earlier in the week, we found this cryptic notice in the mailbox. Having not a clue what it said, we took it to the post office (where they speak no English), and through some guessing and pointing filled out some areas with some answers that we hoped would be right.

Well, I guess we did it correctly because Saturday, we found a package containing these in our mail box. Thank you Zoe, Jenny, and Linda! You made this girl's week!

And now I'm off to make a "Japanese cheese plate" for dinner. Don't worry - I'll be sure to include it on my next post, "All About the Food - Part I."