Omurice in Sapporo

The seminars on the second day of SDC were better! These were electives, so we got to choose more specific topics. I went to one about phonics which was really interesting.

I didn't end up taking a lot of pictures today. We went to an omurice restaurant for lunch.

Plastic food! There are even fabric omurices on the sides.

Some of the art on the walls was a little strange.

Here's our food.

And here's an ad in a store we went to. Look at this girl using the product to safely eat potato sticks while reading manga and playing video games. I like her cat with its paw on her hand. 

"It's time to stop."

My BOE only booked me for one night, but I thought I might as well spend part of my weekend in Sapporo too, since I'm here. I was going to look for another hotel (the one I was at was fully booked for tonight) but Gloria told me I could stay at her place.

Her apartment is really nice. It actually feels like a home! It's even bigger then my place, not counting my empty rooms I don't use. I'm kind of jealous. She even has another ALT right next door.

I really need to work on my place if I'm ever going to have people over.

Sapporo SDC

The annual Skills Development Conference is happening. Attendence is mandatory. Honestly, the seminars feels kind of repetitive. During the Tokyo orientation seminars I thought, "Some of these might be more helpful after I've actually been to classes and seen what the work is like." But I didn't mean I wanted to get basically the same seminars three months later.

But anyway, Sapporo is nice!

I went out with Carmen, Javin, Sophia, and Sophia's senpai, Michelle, to Jacksonville to get some burgers. 

 Like, real burgers! The inside of the restaurant was done up like a Portland hole-in-the-wall kind of place. (I say Portland specifically because of the wooden letters that spelled out "Portland".) 

It was a very nice change from the usual.

A bunch of plastic food.

After the seminars, Carmen left to meet her friend, and Gloria and Natalie joined our group.

For dinner we got soup curry. Nice and hearty, with thick pork belly.

Watch your step. Or foot attention, that works too.

 We went to check out a dessert buffet that Gloria is interested in visiting sometime. There are a lot of seasonal menus. Too bad we missed Alice in Harajuku.

 More plastic food. So many kinds of desserts.

No buffet, no life.

This is a sign for a fashion line directed at nurses for some reason.

Javin, Sophia, and Michelle left to their hotels, while I walked with Natalie and Gloria to the station. On the way Gloria's attention was caught by a parfait display. She said "Are we doing this?" and once she made it a thing we just had no other choice.

 A girls' bonding experience.

Performance art recital

On Sunday there were a bunch of music, song, and dance performances at the public hall in town.

I saw traditional dance, singing, taiko drumming, and taishōgoto performances.

The taiko was very energetic!

 The kids were drumming left and right and all over the place.

 A taiko group from Kenbuchi also came to perform. Queena joined this group, and it's giving her some serious biceps.

Here she is in her drumming outfit. That's Mark on the right, an ALT from another nearby town.

The taishōgoto performance was somewhat eerie. Here's an example of what this thing sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOnAkLnhoQ
There were about ten of them going at once.

That was a pretty short post, so here's a worksheet photo from Joyce. This kid is a genius.

Duolingo what are you doing

Higashikagura group photo

Here's everybody! 

We had 13 Japanese volunteers, 29 non-Japanese volunteers, and 195 participants in total!

Carving punkins

Today when biking over to the grocery store, I saw the Nishikawas out in front of the community centre. (The same family that had the pizza-making party at their house.)

Since September 29th, the carved pumpkins from the town Halloween event have been sitting out in front of the community centre rotting, along with uncarved ones that were still firm. The Nishikawas were getting rid of the rotten ones and carving new ones to refresh the display now that the actual Halloween is approaching.

They asked me to help out, so I wound up carving a bunch.

 

 It had gotten dark by the time I carved those five.

After seeing my cat pumpkin, Saki wanted to make one. It was very cute.

I don't know who carved all these other pumpkins, but they made for a nice display all lit up.

I'm missing Jason's annual pumpkin party, so it was nice to get my carve on here.

Higashikagura Halloween Party

On Saturday I volunteered for a spoopy event down in Higashikagura.

Here are some of the games we had for the kids. I have some experience in running events like these thanks to my dad.

The kids were all so cute in their costumes! There were a lot of cat ears and witch hats.

 Look at that one kid in the shaggy camouflage with the huge gun.

I was manning the crafts table.

 The kids could make these paper lanterns,

 or these broomsticks.

I didn't have a costume of my own, but there was a box of costume pieces available. Some weren't that great, like the multiple Mickey Mouse ears, or the jangly Christmas elf costume. But I got myself a pretty good ensemble of a tiny hat, white angel/fairy wings, red bowtie, and maid apron.

I heard some little girls call me きもい, but my costume was a big hit for the most part.

I was hoping there would be pictures of the other volunteers up, but not yet. I'll post them when they show up.