Busy October; to think it's almost November.

It's hard to believe that October is almost done. The leaves are still hanging on, but I think most parts of Hokkaido will be without colour after this weekend, at least until the white stuff shows itself.  The highlight of our month was Taiga being able to visit with his cousin; Naoko's youngest brother and his family spent a weekend with us.  Taiga and Lilyka played together as if they were best friends; nice to see them get along so well.

Every time we get the chance to visit the sea or oceanside, I can't help but wish to have had the chance to live near water.  I love our small town of Kamisunagawa, but it always feels great to get out of the inland and see the great expanse of the sea.

A view of the city of Otaru from Mount Tengu 

Otaru Canal

Concert: Yoshida Kyodai

Last night we drove into Sapporo to take in a concert to see Yoshida-Kyodai (Brothers), who are originally from Hokkaido themselves and are very well known all throughout Japan.  They are unique in that their choice of instrument is the shamisen - a traditional three stringed "guitar".  When they perform there's a lot of interplay back and forth, think of it as almost the american equivalent of "dueling banjos".

Click below to see a performance and get a little taste of Yoshida-Kyodai

The duo are known for doing both traditional tunes as well as doing modern renditions and new pieces of their own.  Here's a take on Radiohead's "National Anthem":

I was surprised last night was a fairly, umm geriatric crowd.   I thought there would be a greater mix of ages given their popularity. Regardless, the crowd still rocked out and gave the crew a good response - though, they seemed more receptive when the duo were doing their more traditional themes.  Taiga was by far the youngest and there appeared to be no other school children in the hall.  All the nice senior ladies around us commented on how well behaved Taiga was afterwards.  

Hopefully they'll be some other good acts that will come through Hokkaido; we just bought tickets to see Ryuichi Sakamoto in November - I will do a blog post on him once we see him, but he's basically a more classically trained Japanese version of David Bowie.  In fact, David and Ryuichi starred in a film together entitled "Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence".  Anyways, shall discuss Ryuichi at a later date; he's someone who I am very excited to see!

Ultraman pays a visit to Hokkaido

Taiga's "U-RU-TO-RA-MAN" Collection

So Taiga was one happy camper this past weekend as he saw a live action performance of his favourite super hero Ultraman. The character has been around for almost fifty years and recently was inducted into the Guinness Book records for having the most spin-offs of any other television series - with the current Ultraman Ginga, it is currently on it's 27th spin off.  He is not well known like his other rubber friend Godzilla, but in Japan he definitely holds as much, if not more popularity - Eiji Tsubaraya created both rubber based series.   So if you're a fan of Godzilla and are into rubber monsters then Ultraman will definitely be your man - he will not disappoint!

Check out the official website: Ultraman Live Link - scroll down to September 29, 2013 to see two happy fans!  Also the entry on the link dated September 30th has a bunch of pictures that were drawn by children and sent to Ultraman, Taiga's was selected to be shown on the site - his is the fourth one down.

Taiga star-strucked shaking Ultraman Cosmos' hand!

Picking apples and making apple pie.   

                                         

Here's some pics of Taiga participating in an event that was held in the neighbouring town of Sunagawa where he got to pick some apples and then make some apple pie with the "fruits" of his labour.

Top of Japan

45°31′22″N 141°56′11″E

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Cape Soya: The Northern Most Tip of Japan

We made it to the very tip of Japan this past weekend and the weather was phenomenal.  I have not seen such blue skies in my life - it was absolutely gorgeous.   I can say hands down that the Northern most part of Japan has been my favourite place that I have visited thus far on my various journey's around this amazing country.  I am sure the weather had something to do with it, but I am already excited about making another journey up North.

There is of course a McDonald's in Japan's most northern city of Wakkanai.  Here's us enjoying a little respite from our long journey up North with "Donaldo" as he is known in Japan.

This weekend we are staying closer to town.  Taiga's favourite superheroes, Ultraman, will be paying a visit to our neighbouring town and we were fortunate enough to have secured tickets to watch Ultraman do his thing on stage.  Taiga is one excited happy man and has been going crazy over Ultraman since arriving in Japan.  I will have to post Taiga's Ultraman collection one of these days, he hasn't done too bad for a guy who left all his toys back in Whitehorse.   Taiga's also already made the decision for Halloween he will be dressing up as Ultraman.  After this, Naoko signed us up to go apple picking and then making apple pies with a group of local people.

It is getting darn cool now; the temperature was only plus 3 outside.  We are still persevering and we have not yet turned on our heater, but I think we are going to have to give in soon - it was tough coming out of my warm futon this morning.  The meteorological forecasters are predicting a colder than average winter with lots of snow - yep, not quite the beach I was aiming for when I was thinking of returning to Japan!!

Fall Is fast approaching

We're fast approaching our two months mark in Japan already.  Amazing how fast the time has flown.  This past weekend we had the opportunity to visit Shakotan peninsula which is located on the southwestern coast of Hokkaido. 

There was a really beautiful Onsen (Hot Springs) at the tip called Misaki no Yu; the view was amazing and at the time of going in the water we hit the timing just right to see the sunset fall on the Japan sea.  Once snow falls and the blistering cold winds come with winter, the onsens are definitely going to be our favourite retreat.

One thing I am surprised at being in Hokkaido is how fast the temperature has changed over the last two weeks and it truly is feeling like fall has come in - mornings have been in the mid-teens while the rest of Japan continues to be quite hot.  I know everyone in Japan told me that Hokkaido would be cooler, but given that I am from Whitehorse, I didn't put much stock in what the Japanese think of as "cooler".  I was told that first snowfall will probably be at the end of October, so very similar to back home.

This weekend is a long weekend with Monday being a national holiday for Autumn Equinox; we are planning to go to the town of Wakkanai, which is the most northern area of Japan - right at the very tip of Hokkaido.  We figured it's better to check it out before the snow falls and the roads become skating rinks.  We have our tent in tow and plan to camp - everyone tells us camping season is over, but that's fine with us as that means no fighting for a campsites.

The farmers are out in full force harvesting; now that all the golden rice fields are gone, I must admit once snow falls the fields will look beautiful again!

Of note, a severe typhoon hit Japan yesterday, however, we were fortunate here in Hokkaido having no damages or severe rain.  However, in areas of Kyoto it looks as if they were not so lucky.  For most of Japan is has been a  difficult summer it started off with extreme heat waves, then heavy rain, tornados, and now we are into typhoon season; here's hoping that Fall will mean an end to the crazy weather that the majority of Japan has been facing and that we here in Kamisunagawa continue to be lucky with the weather we get.

Settling in well into our new home in Kamisunagawa

So we finally have internet up and running and are connected to the outside world on an ongoing basis at home.  Will try and blog regularly to keep everyone afloat as to where we're visiting and all the fun stuff we're doing.  So far we've done well in settling into our new home; the community has been kind to us and Taiga seems to be doing well at the local play school - Taiga will enter Grade 1 in April 2014.

So far we've done some travels; been to Sapporo for a weekend, visited the biggest mountain (an active volcano - Taisetsuzan), and done a bit of camping.  This weekend I'm entering into a 10km local race; I was doing well in my running up until about three weeks ago and have tapered off a bit... shall see if I finish it or not in one piece. 

Yes we're in Japan alive and well!

Hi everyone.  So we don't quite have internet yet, but I will use my school computer to put up a few pictures.   Hard to believe almost a month has passed since leaving Canada.  Time flies.  So far we've had the opportunity to partake in many local festivals and Taiga started at the pre-school here in town - once we get internet next week shall hopefully catch up on the story of our return to Japan.

At the beginning of our journey, Taiga had a chance to visit his younger cousin in Tokyo.  

It was pretty darn hot when we first arrived in Tokyo.  When you combine heat with having a good time, you get exhaustion.  

Thankfully during the August heatwave, we soon escaped to Hokkaido and only had a few days of really hot weather.

Taiga so far seems to be doing well with adjusting to his new life in Japan.  In a lot of ways it has been "go, go, go" so Taiga and both Naoko and I haven't felt like we've settled in.  As well with getting a car now, we have been exploring lots.  Taiga gets his new bike today which he has been asking for since day one, hopefully the rain gives up so he can try it out - though I am sure, rain or shine he'll be taking it for a spin.

Yes there are bears in Hokkaido, but no signs of live ones yet.  So far for wildlife there has been many bugs and a family of racoons that we needed to slow down for.