Obihiro, continued

We went to Tokachimura to see the horses at the Banei racecourse.

 This way to the exciting zone!

 "Tokachi, land of beans."

Beeeeeans.

 I bought omiyage here for my BoE, butadon-flavored cookies. Something unique and representative of Obihiro.

 An alphabet of food.

 Thea's rose ice cream! It's like Furano's lavender ice cream. 

...Except rose.

A rare form of legalized gambling in Japan, the horses pull a little chariot behind them with a rider. This originated from farmers who would race their field-plowing horses.

 Honestly, it was sadder than we expected. The horses were a lot slower than normal racehorses because of the chariot, and they would have to stop and rest. The course also included two small hills that the horses visibly struggled to climb.

 We didn't want to place actual bets, but for fun we each chose a horse to root for. Not knowing their names, I chose the best number: #1! And horse #1 actually came in first place! Max later told me that to win a bet, you had to correctly guess first, second, and third place. What a scam!

After that, we made our way back to the center of town. I had some time before the enkai, so I tried out the hotel's onsen. It was more like a normal public bath than an onsen, but it was still very relaxing. Good for sore legs.

At the enkai there was also a costume contest. Here's Ryan, who wound up winning. I thought he was a city mascot at first, but apparently he was a character of his own creation, the embodiment of socialism. Naturally, socialism is an eggplant wearing the Mongolian flag, a scout cap, a tie with penguins on it, and a profane samurai sword.

 Max and Melissa were Dumbledore and Harry Potter!

 They also had a Professor Quirrell to sit with. That's Hussein, who during the workshops showed some very cute videos of cultural exchange between Japanese and Egyptian elementary school children.

In the front there are gender-swapped Kiki and Tombo from the Ghibli film Kiki's Delivery Service.

After the enkai, the nijikai was at Manekineko, a karaoke place. I didn't think there would be a room big enough for all of us, but there was! We started with Never Gonna Give You Up and it went from there. Future karaoke won't be the same without a drunk Dumbledore raising the roof.