5/2-3/06 : Golden Week : Abuta

For Golden Week, Stephen, Sara, Erin, Dan, Amanda, and I went on a road trip to visit west Hokkaido. We stayed in Abuta for most of the time, making a day trip t0 Hakodate and stopping by Sapporo on the way home. On the first day, we drove for about 5 hours (we were entertained immensely during the drive by a photo scavenger hunt- awesome) before arriving at Abuta, a city famous for its active volcano and sandwiched between an ocean and a lake. We went to Abuta's beach, which was kind of pretty and kind of being used as a dump with a lot of spherical bobs hanging around.













The next day, we met up with a local Jet named Curt (we hoped his last name was Von Trapp, but it wasn't) who took us to see famous volcanos. The first site was a former part of the city that had been ruined by the volcano in 2000. We took a trail that started at a downed road-turned-lake and led us through the ruined city. It is important to note that at this first volcano, they sold ice cream of ungodly flavors, such as yam, wasabi, and corn. In addition, they had leashed bunnies hopping around in circles across from an egg cart. The second site was essentially a smoking, red mountain next to a shopping strip. It appeared in what was once a farmer's field in about 5 months during WWII. Japan didn't want the US finding out about this, so they kept it secret and did not allow studies to be done on it, although I'm not sure how valuable this information would have been to the States.




















[1. Along the shopping strip, 2. Dan and Amanda outside the first volcano eating eggs, 3. Erin ordering at the raman shop, 4. Downed road-turned-lake, 5. and 6. Walkways along the first volcano site, 7. Stephen, Dan, and Amanda at the second volcano site, 8. Baby at the foot onsen]






After visiting both volcanos, we split into two groups: Stephen, Amanda and I went to the park and Dan, Erin, and Sara paddled swan boats. We met up later for a foot onsen where Sara appalled every Japanese person there by taking a bath in it. They had no idea what hit them [incredible reaction photo to right]. Then, we ate dinner at the Bikkuri Donkey (translated as Surpise Donkey).









Other Pictures from Hidaka, our pit stop on the way to Abuta where we found an enormous bear (2) and Abuta [Beach (3), Volcano sign (note the "totally 9 erruptions in the first line; 1), Glass shop (2), Park (3), and Bikkuri Donkey (1)]:

3/30-4/2-06: Spring Break

During spring break, Stephen and I made our way to Asahikawa, famous for their zoo, and Otaru, famous for their aquarium. Both the zoo and aquarium are supposedly the best in Japan. I was upset to find that their idea of "best" in terms of animal care is quite substandard. However, to be fair, I suppose it should not be expected that Japan be the leader in things that require a great deal of space, or things pertaining to wildlife (as a country who engages in "scientific whaling", claims that whales must be hunted because they are eating their fish, floods school lunches with whale meat to introduce a new wave of whale-eaters, and likes to poke sleeping exhibit animals with canes). But, as sad as it was, I did find some of the Otaru Aquarium exhibits quite fun and hilarious; rather than create exhibits based on fish natural habitat, they based their displays on the fish names (see the cow fish). In all fairness, I'm comparing Otaru to something like the San Diego Zoo, which is top-notch world-wide. The Phoenix Zoo might be just as bad... I stopped going when it started depressing me, seeing animals locked up and all. But watching penguins waddle about is always entertaining. Also, being on the coast, Otaru had one of the best views I've seen so far. And Asahikawa had a great gaijin bar (The Den) owned by a Brit, an Australian, and a Canadian, as well as an amazing Japanese-owned Egyptian restaurant. Amazing... their food was above and beyond... everything. Overall, the trip was a smashing success. I rate the Aquarium and Zoo an arbitrary score of 6 out of 10. I added points to their originally very low animal care score for construction (I assume they are expanding and trying to improve their facilities), the weird ferris wheels at both, and the incredible view.

3/24/06: Taipei, Taiwan

After having visited Cambodia, I, like so many others before me, got sick for about 2 weeks. So unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit that many more places once I got back to Taiwan, except for Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world with the fastest, most amazing elevator (101 floors in ~30 seconds, or the smoothest 1010 meters/minute you'll ever experience that comes with a light show!). [View from Taipei 101: bottom first and last(2), View from plane at Taipei Airport (1), Night View of Taipei 101 from the Grand Hotel (1)]