I can see Russia!!

October 24th

So I`m now on a quest to look for caramel in packages that I can melt to make caramel apples for my teachers and the BOE, but apparently there`s no such thing here. Well, there is, but not for sale in bulk for making these things since there are no caramel apples here. Boo....Maybe I`ll just make little meringue ghosts or something. hehe. =P

This day Sakurai-san from the junior high decided to take me and Iwata-sensei around the northern peninsula of Hokkaido!! WOo! He`s so awesome. Actually the trip was supposed to be for viewing the swans as they have migrated here now. But yesterday Sakurai-san was like "I was thinking, and well, you have three courses to choose from. There`s the Daimyo/Tono course where we leave at 7:30am and drive to see the swans and then tour the entire northern peninsula. Then there`s the Ojou-sama course where we leave at noon to go see the swans and go the western side of the northern peninsula where Wakkanai city is. And then there`s the ______course (I don`t remember what the name was) where we go to see the swans and then come back." Both Iwata-sensei and I chose the Daimyo course. lol

So at 7:30 in the morning Sakurai-san came to pick us up and we were on our way to see the swans. The swans all flock to the little river that is in the countryside area of the next city (but then again the entire island is countryside-like, even in the cities) and just chill there with the ducks. And they`re totally not afraid of humans. Especially the ducks! There were a couple that just walked right up to me and stood next to my feet for the longest time. I really wanted to pet them, but I didn`t want to get some kind of disease especially since the Influenza has already been going around. So we fed the swans chips and stuff we bought from Seico-mart (the local conbini) which was probably terrible for them. I even told that to Sakurai-san and he just told me "yeah, these things aren`t exactly the best foods for them, but I`m gonna give it to them anyways." LOL I was like, okay. =P

So after we fed them we went up Monbetsu and followed the road up the northern peninsula and over to SoyaMisaki which is the northern most point in Japan. And there, on a fine day, you can actually see the outline of the Russian continent!!! I saw silhouettes of mountains and stuff from where we were. It was soooooo cool! I was like dude, we`re so close to Russia this is so exciting! I`ve never been, so at the moment that`s the closest it`ll be for me to go. lol Oh, btw, on our drive up we would drive next to the ocean and it was just sooo beautiful! And it reminded me of the OC area, specifically Irvine, and I miss it terribly. I miss being seaside. But, I love Kenbuchi, so it`s okay. So, at Soyamisaki, we got hungry and decided to eat at the little Ramen shop that`s perched on top of the hill there. Because it was next to the sea and this area is special for its scallops the ramen special was Scallop ramen. So freakin amazingly good! And this shop was pretty packed with people. And then these super hot gyaru-o guys came in and I was like WHA? Gyaru-o guys here in this lil place? But I was happy to see them. It`s been a little while since I`ve seen them besides on TV. haha.

After that, we went to Wakkanai city. And when I went through the city I almost had tears because I terribly missed the big city life. Wakkanai was kinda like Irvine. Actually, it really really was like Irvine. I felt so refreshed being there and was wondering what would it be like if I lived here. It was just so great looking! I think I prefer it over Asahikawa. It`s got the big city feel without being overcrowded and noisy. So after visiting some seafood places where they sold amazing hairy crabs that ranged from $30 to $90 each and there I bought some very interesting caramels. They had the normal caramel, then sea salt and butter caramels, then sweet milk caramel, and then there was melon caramel, and corn caramel. I bought the corn one, the sea salt one, and the sweet milk one. And the corn one really tasted like corn! But then again, the corn here in Hokkaido is naturally ridiculously yummily sweet so i guess it worked. Oh, on our way here we stopped off at the Bifuka rest station where they were selling foods and other souvenirs. Iwata-sensei bought croquettes and I bought the karaage. And I have to say, the karaage was the best i`ve tasted ever! So damn good and soft and juicy but crunchy on the outside since it`s been fried. I loved it. And Sakurai-san bought us corn to eat. AAhhh, I melted when I ate that corn. It was seriously the best tasting corn EVER!! SOOO DAMN GOOD HERE!! The corn, the tomatos...man, I just never knew veggies could taste so good. lol

After that we Wakkanai we wound down the western side of the northern peninsula, saw some more fat and funny swans that we had given names to, and made ridilous pathetic puns on our drive down. The puns we made were so pathetic that it was funny. For example: 稚内＝わっかんない　the city name Wakkani= Wakkannai which means I don`t understand. しんご町＝信号を待ち Shingo town= Shingo wo Machi which means waiting for the traffic light to turn green. lol They were so dumb, but it was fun. It was really dark on our way back and we took all the country roads where there were barely any lights whatsoever. So we almost ran over a fox and almost ran into a deer. It was dangerous to say the least. haha. Around 6:30-7pm we got home. And I took a nice long sleep. haha Thank you so much for today Sakurai-san! I really appreciate it!

Otsukare-sama for reading all!