We were invited to a house party at Marg's next door. She was throwing a farewell party for Roger and Edna, her long-time friends and world travellers from Australia. Others attending the party were Rod and Annette and Jeannine from Barrhead. Most discussions were about their trips here and there and Rod mentioned the upcoming Twinning Group trip to Japan in August. Barrhead was twinned with a sister town of similar size, Tokoro, in Northern Hokkaido and this year a small delegation was travelling to Japan to celebrate the 20th anniversary. The group included Rod and Annette Fluet, Marg Krell and Jeannine Kowalski, Barrhead Mayor Brian, Lois and Gina Schulz and Wayne Klufas. Unfortunately one couple had just dropped out because of a serious personal injury. Somebody decided to be nice and invited us to join the group to fill the vacancy. The next thing we knew we were updating our passports, visiting a travel agent and attending pre-departure house parties with the group. We left on a two week trip to the Orient less than a month later.
This is our bedroom the day before leaving. We left home at 4 AM for Barrhead where a van was supposedly waiting to take us to the airport. It was and it did.
This is an image on the flight tracker displayed on the seat-back monitor.
I was surprised to see land out of my window almost continuously
as we left Vancouver jetted alongside the Alaskan and Russian coastlines at the
northern edge of the Pacific Rim.
Also, I was surprised at how close Russia is to Alaska.
After landing at Tokyo-Narita we are bussed to the Shinagawa Hotel.
The hotel complex is a maze of restaurants, shops and attractions which includes
a sea-life aquarium and sporting facilities.
We settled into our 35th floor suite.
On the first full day of sightseeing our guide took us to the Tokyo Tower,
Japan's very own version of Eiffel Tower offers a high altitude view of the
city in every direction.
The view from the observation deck was spectacular.
The city of over 14 million is a hodgepodge of old and new as far as the
eye can see. We were amazed at how clean and orderly everything was.
No sirens, smog or street people.
The Sony Tower has 9 floors of high tech gadgetry.
Everything that Sony makes is proudly displayed, plugged in and interactive.
Back on the street, these three Kimono clad cuties were excited we spotted them and were glad to pose.
Lunch and drinks at the Niboshi Soup and Noodle House.
Small restaurant, incredible food.
What is more traditional than a Japanese face mask?
The sign is intended for Chinese visitors, No Standing On The Toilet.
Western toilets can be found everywhere including rural Hokkaido. The alternative
is to squat over a hole in the floor.
Eating was always an adventure. The bowl with the brown cover was the
main course of pork and vegetables, heated by an alcohol burner.
This lunch-for-one was supplied by our guide.
The eyes are still on it! cries Gina.
Brian finds that young girls love the Sumo type.
He was approached by this girl and several others to pose for photographs.
Rod and I find a place to tip a few. Actually, this place was the only restaurant that we found that served western food and English beer. We all had beef and variations thereof.
Our trip included a side trip to Disney Sea. The task was simple, getting there on the subway without a guide and without losing any of our 10 travellers. The map above looks easy to understand. In reality, there are very few english signs once you get into the subway and there are literally thousands of commuters in every station and standing room only once in the subway car.
Somehow we made it to Disney Sea which is located next door to Disneyland Tokyo. Easy to spot from and airplane, not so easy from the underground subway. It was hot and crowded with 2 hr. lineups for most attractions. We opted to walk around and look at the architecture and static displays. We did get into a gondola and enjoyed a rendition of Volare sung by our Japanese Gondolier.
How do you cool down an overheated crowd during 30 degree weather?
Fire hoses.....Everyone expected it.
This re-creation of a pirate ship was complete and functional in every detail.
I kept telling Yvonne, Valen and Atti would be amazed with this!
Finally it was time to leave Tokyo and fly to Memanbetsu. From there we were
transported by tour bus to Tokoro where we met our host families.
Note the Canadian flag.
Our hosts, Shinichi and Yuko Kuroda live in this beautiful home on Lake Saroma
in Tokoro. For the duration of our visit their daughter Maiko visited from Sapporo.
She was our live-in translator, travel companion and designated driver.
We made ourselves at home and slept on comfortable futon mattresses
in a large room normally use as their office.
Shinichi recently retired from his "fisherman" career. This photo shows Shinichi and
the fishing boat he recently sold to a relative. He is also retiring soon from the
Chairman position with the Board of Education.
For the next 7 days we travelled around Hokkaido with our guides and translators returning home each evening for supper with our host families.
Wayne, Gina, Lois, Brian, Yvonne, Robert, Jeannine, Marg, Annette and Rod.
Here we are visiting an active hot spring much like those in Yellowstone.
Boiling hot water flowing from the ground leaving sulphur deposits everywhere.
Not sure where to stand on this porous ground.
These melons are priced to sell at $22.00 CDN each. When Yuko prepared
one for a late-night snack we were indeed surprised.
A group pose at the Kitami City council chambers.
Yvonne and Marg enjoy a Bento Box lunch courtesy of the Kitami City Council.
We stopped to visit the Kitami Area Fire Station. We were met by the Chief, shown here shaking hands with Brian, and all the available Emergency Response personnel which includes Paramedics too.
This room serves as a control room for 911 calls, ambulance and fire/rescue missions.
Outside, they were quick to pull out the ladder truck and set it up for display and offered rides for
anyone wishing to get harnessed in. Only Wayne and I volunteered.
That little red and white object in the centre of the picture is the firetruck as seen
from 150 feet up in the man-basket at the top end of the fully extended ladder. The breeze
made the ladder sway a bit but otherwise it felt somewhat safe. Well, the
paramedics were close by.
We were treated to authentic music and singing at the 20th Anniversary banquet.
Marg in her kimono, Yvonne in her "happy coat" ready to hit the streets of Tokoro.
Annette and Rod ready for a night on the town.
Alex, on left, is from Winnipeg and has teaching english in Tokoro for four years.
However, this week she is our interpreter. Maiko, Shinichi's daughter, is on Yvonne's left.
Annette and Jeannine enjoy a laugh at the Tokoro street party.
Another day trip and we find ourselves visiting a pottery school facility.
We all made hand plaques commemorating our 2012 visit to Tokoro.
Bill and Carol Lee visited Tokoro in 2005 as documented on two plaques on the
upper left. Once fired, ours will be placed on this wall with the handprints of
other previous Barrhead visitors.
We all made coffee cups. Some nice, some artsy. They will be fired and shipped
to us in Barrhead.
Shinichi, Robert, Yvonne and Yuko in the living room.
Yvonne and Maiko in their Yukatas (summer kimonos).
Yuko, Maiko, Yvonne and Annette on the second night of the Tokoro Festival street party.
This tour boat took us to the Shiretoko World Heritage Site along the isolated
Northern coastline of Hakkaido.
The Northern Hakkaido coastline as viewed from our tour boat.
Although we didn't see any Grizzly Bears from this elevated and electrified boardwalk there are apparently plenty of them in these parts. We did see a cute little fox that posed for us and likely wondered what all the fuss was about.
Our 30+ passenger bus was air conditioned and comfortable.
The Abashiri Prison was not the place to be in the early 1900's. It is now a museum
having been replaced by a new modern facility in 1996. The only occupants today
were mannequins depicting life and hardships in the northernmost prison in Japan.
Mayor Brian, Lois and Gina come for supper at the Kuroda household.
Shinichi shows us the proper way to slurp noodles. Apparently the more noise
you make, the more you show the host how much you like them. It became
a slurping contest after a few glasses of Sake.
At 4AM the next morning Brian and I were treated to a fishing excursion with
Shinichi and his cousin. Dressed in rubber suits we boarded a 30 ft boat with
3 crew members. We didn't actually do any fishing. We watched as Shinichi and
the 3 others pulled in a net filled with salmon. We were suddenly surrounded with fish
as the net was dumped into the boat. The catch was examined and sorted and within
the hour we were back on shore. We also saw another group of fishermen sorting
and cleaning three containers (4 tons) of freshly harvested scallops.
We visited the Tokoro Jr. High School and while there we were invited to have lunch
with the staff and students. This was the meal brought in that day. Like the students,
we were expected to eat everything and clean and stack our plates and trays when finished.
A traditional tea ceremony at the Tokoro town office was a special treat.
We enjoyed Japanese music, pretty girls, pastries and a great cup of green tea.
Yvonne and I pose with the Tea Party girls.
On our last full day in Tokoro we played 18 holes of Park Golf. It's similar to
regular golf except it's played with a single shorter club, a larger ball, shorter
fairways, usually par 3 or 4, and a 6 inch diameter cup that rings like a bell
when the ball drops in. The greens are not manicured like regular golf.
Park golf is comparable to regular Golf like Pickle ball is comparable to Tennis.
Veteran golfer Annette shows us how it's done.
No, not a peace sign, my score on a par 4 hole.
Marg, another veteran golfer shows her form. Fore!
Maiko makes Yvonne an origami bird.
Korea style Bar-B-Q'd scallops on the half shell. Tokoro supplies the world with
scallops and here, they know how to eat them.
The inevitable Farewell Party.
Just when we thought it was all over, one more party. The Mayor of Kitami and his entourage are invited by Shinichi to his (our) home for late-night snacks and, you guessed it, more Sake.
And in the blink of a teary eye it's over. We all vow to keep in touch and almost instantly we are on our way back to Canada.
It was extremely hard to leave Tokoro and especially our host family Shinichi, Yuko and Maiko. We can only hope that they come to visit in Canada or our place in Arizona in the future.
We will keep in touch.
Back home in Barrhead we unpack our treasures.
This was from our host family in Tokoro, the Kurodas.
Pottery and change purses that Yvonne purchased. Two of our bowls broke in transit.
Other gifts of tea, soups and snacks.
