In the wake of midterms, here's another post.

A little break from the travel posts, I wanted to talk about Sapporo, happenings and general life. Still cannot believe there's only about 10 weeks before I'm probably back at home, lazying around the house instead of in Japan. How time has flown. I wanna be home but I still wanna see more of Japan. What is with this attachment.. gosh.



This semester, I decided to try something a little different in terms of classes. Nothing related to Japanese unfortunately, but culturally relevant? That's what I said in my final year report anyway. It's the 'Agriculture in Hokkaido' class. One of the few things I did in preparation for coming to this island is watch Gin no Saji, which is an anime based on the manga of the same name about a group of students in an agriculture school in Hokkaido. Which, I can assume to be based on the Sapporo Agricultural College, which incidentally is the current Hokkaido University. So of course, when I had the chance to recreate anything close to anime, I took it.
The classes themselves are alright and I'm definitely learning things I never knew before. Although I'm unlikely to suddenly change my studies (again?) to become a farmer, I think it's quite interesting. Plus, we get to do field trips!

Such a pretty cow.

Dairy farm. We were asked 'How many male cows do you think are here?' I'm not sure if they were patronising us or what..

They were HUGE. And stinky. But one shouldn't judge when you're visiting someone's place, right.

Methane reactor.

Boys, be jingisukan!

One time we also went to the University's berry farm and just picked a few berries and ate them. I mean, how can you not enjoy this class. This week though, we went to the Hokkaido Botanical Garden which despite being only 20 minutes away from our dorm, I had never been to until now. Pretty sure it's free for Hokudai students too.

Rock Garden. I liked that there was an area called 'Canadian Rock Garden' which just made me think, is there any famous Canadian rock artists?

One of the first things we were told upon arrival was: Do not touch any of the plants, they might harm you. Wow, is it too late to back out of this potentially deadly tour? Thankfully despite being touched by the plants, there were no major injuries. Or any injuries for that matter. Only an incident of someone dropping a piece of paper on the pond. I wish I'd visited this place during Spring since it looks like it would have looked much better during that time. There were very few flowers in bloom by the time we visited. Still worth a visit though.

次に、a few weeks ago was our university's yearly festival Hokudai Sai (北大祭). It was a 4 day event where food stalls and other events were held in campus, and so I heard, in other areas of the city too. Naturally, everyone was looking forward to it because of the festival and also we had Thursday and Friday off to celebrate the event. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our favour for the first half of the event. Didn't seem to stop people from going though!
As for me, I helped out in the Filipino booth to sell Filipino goodies. We sold turon (banana wrapped in spring roll wrapper and deep fried), adobo aka the Filipino dish, chicken barbeque, and buko pie (coconut pie--which I am still so gutted not to have tasted). The turon were a hit but unfortunately, we had limited supply. The food was pretty great if I say so myself;I did actually buy some too. Being in the tent for hours meant that my clothes had that amazing barbeque smoke smell even after washing. Worth it.

The only photo I have. *sobs*

There were a lot of international food stalls and Japanese food stalls too. Lots of deep fried things, grilled things, takoyaki, waffles, etc. Honestly didn't try any of the Japanese food just because there's always a long queue and generally too many people around. I did try some tandoori chicken and cheese pie from some of the international booths. Soo good.

Last week there was another major event, this time a dance festival in the city. The Yosakoi Soran Festival (よさこいソーラン祭) which is essentially a big event of energetic and colourful choreographed dancers performing in the streets and various venues around the city. (If I remember correctly, the Japanese Society performed something similar back in UEA when they did the soran bushi dance, advertised as some sort of fisherman dance. With the taiko drums and everything, I can still remember the rush of watching it!) Again, I didn't see much of it and actually only managed to because we were on our way for our long overdue dinner and drinks night.

Just imagine something like that but louder, more energetic, more colourful and generally much more intense. It felt like a major shounen battle scene is about to happen when I heard the music. (My video does it NO justice)
The weather here is finally becoming summer-y which is both lovely and unbearable because what is this heat. But then I think how mild this weather must be compared to my Honshu counterparts. You guys over there enjoy your humidity and infamous Japanese summers.

You will be pleased to hear though that in an attempt to see more of Hokkaido and be outside in general, I signed up for an overnight trip to Hidaka to experience and learn about Ainu culture. Woo. Actually quite excited despite the whole 'you will experience Japanese-style bath'. Uh, right, I can get away with not washing for a day right. I've lasted longer without a shower..*ahem*
I am also slowly trying to eat all the food I still haven't eaten and checking out restaurants and places I've yet to try. I just need to bring myself to get out of my cool room and out in the sun and the heat. Need to have more content to write in this blog too. You can do this, Sheila!

Because sometimes you're Dory, and sometimes you're Marlin.