Japan (日本) Week 3

This week we flew to Hokkaido which is in the far north of Japan. It's where all the farms are at, it's like America's Wisconsin (lots of Dairy Farms & Cheese). It was about 15 degrees colder (which felt Awesome) and the leaves were changing colors - It was beautiful!

In most hospitals, you have to were slippers that they provide for you - all size 6. I will never get a pair in my size, so the smaller the better - then my whole heel can hang off the back. It better than the back of the slipper cutting painfully into the middle of your heel. Check me out, I'm rocking next year's models.

After visiting a Hospital, we went to dinner with our distributor named Yu-to (how ironic, almost sounds like Utah). Two things I keep seeing over and over: First, the guys over here eat A LOT (I think there were about 12 courses - I've got to pace myself, I was full after about the 4th). Secondly, they eat later and longer - we started about 8 pm and finished about 11 pm. But from this dinner I learned one of my favorite (#2) dishes is Yakitori (which is really a chicken Shish kabob with about 8 smaller (1/2 inch) cut pieces of meat. Each skewer had a different kind of meat - some with Beef, others Pork, Chicken or with all kinds of other animal parts. Of course, I sampled them all with mixed results.

I also discovered my favorite (#1) food this week, it's called Yakiniku - Again, no surprise, it's cooking meat of all kinds, but this time you do it yourself on an indoor-like BBQ grill. The smoke is all pulled out from the sides of the grilling surface - It's AWESOME!!

One thing I know we could never have in America, over here, all the GPS devices are also TV's - Here you see us watching a Baseball game.

Also, the hotels all provide Japanese Style robes - again, six 6, but I (of course) had to try it on and snap a photo. Also, in order to get any light to go on in the room, you have to put the key holder in a slot. Fortunately, I was in the dark for only a minute before I figured it out - but there was an awkward (funny) moment there.

The gum BLACK BLACK is extra strong for fresh breath and Kazuyo (My Translator) laughed when I told her they put a bonus pack of post-it notes in mine.

Quick note - Cheese Almonds, not so good!

We drove north into a canyon, and I swore I was in Provo or Big Cottonwood canyon in Utah, it was amazingly close landscape, Beautiful!

The area where I go to church (Hiro-o) is equivalent to a Chinatown in one of our bigger cities. It's where most the expats live, it's not really Americatown, more like EverybodythatsnotJapanesetown. There are a variety of shops and restaurants from all over the world in this area which is kind of neat.

All in all a fun trip to a beautiful place. But came to a big realization that I have a lot of work and training to do over here!