The Sapporo Tower

The Sapporo TV tower was designed in 1957 by Tachu Naito, the same architect of the Tokyo tower. It stands on one side of Odori Park in the center of the city. We took the stairs to reach the third floor where we hopped on a glass elevator to the observation room. All along the stairway were posters with Tawakkie, the cartoon mascot of the tower. There were comic strips of Tawakkie eating a hot dog at the Statue of Liberty and a baguette at the Eiffel Tower, but the children in Sapporo were crying with no TV tower so he returned. The entire tower family of Tawakkie greeted us in English!

The observation floor was a simple room with huge windows and stunning views. The sun was already beginning to set by 4pm, and with all the sunlight streaming in the room grew very warm. We only stayed long enough for Matt to snap some shots of the city before we descended in the elevator to explore more of Odori Park. 

We found the theater!

The Sapporo Overview

For our third anniversary Matt insisted we travel to Sapporo, Japan. He selected a hotel overlooking the Toyohira River and a short walk from the subway system. I booked the flights while he was training in a foreign country, and waited anxiously for him to return so we could begin our trip! And waited...and waited... Matt's return was delayed by several days and we cut it close. He got home only 36 hours before our flight left for Sapporo. He had no time to unpack his gear before we were on our way!

Sapporo is the largest city of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and the site of the 1976 winter olympics. It is surrounded by mountains, and a popular location for skiing. We planned our trip for before the snow started falling. We had to take two different flights with a layover in Tokyo as well as a half hour train ride into the city center, so we arrived after dark with no time or energy to sight-see the first night. We woke up the next morning delighted to see trees changing color! I finally got to experience autumn! I drank hot coffee in the crisp morning and wore sweaters and boots. I really enjoyed the change in temperature from Okinawa which is still in the balmy 80's every day. Matt figured out the subway system so we got to explore different parts of the city.

My necessary hot beverage!

I found colorful trees!

Odori Park

A whole restaurant devoted to pancakes! Breakfast food for lunch!!!

Matt's savory pancakes with "Mint" stamped on one.

We toured a chocolate factory!

My favorite part of the whole trip had to be Matt's gift: tickets to see Phantom of the Opera! It is my most loved musical, and I was afraid while living overseas I would not have any musicals in my life. The lyrics were in Japanese, but since I have every word memorized already I did not miss any of the plot. While the props and special effects were the same, the theater itself sat much fewer people than the theaters in the states. The theater was probably the same size of my high school auditorium. I had more leg room and felt so close to the action!

I had a wonderful trip to Sapporo with my husband of three years. More blog posts to come with descriptions of some more sites of Sapporo!

The Breakfast for Lunch

When new friends ask for my hobbies while living in Okinawa, I have to admit my favorite activity is eating out. The food in Okinawa is fresh and different, and tiny cafes can be found around every street corner. I love seeking out a new cafe and trying new food. However, Matt has been gone to foreign lands with work and only recently returned. Without Matt I usually stick to restaurants within my comfort zone, and as a result I had not explored any new eateries for several weeks. I am so glad my friend Victoria got me out of the house and invited me to a pedicure and lunch on the Sunabe seawall. 

Masterpieces as always!

After I had flowers painted on my toes by the artists at Cocok's, Victoria took me to the family-owned Seaside Terrace. They serve breakfast all day! Breakfast foods are a very Western concept, so finding a place that serves a traditional breakfast spread is very rare and exciting. 

Our cafe latte designs!

I ordered french toast with bananas and chocolate AND eggs scrambled with cheese AND sausage AND hash browns AND a cafe latte. I was really excited about breakfast food, can you tell? Thanks Victoria for helping me with my favorite Okinawa hobby: eating! 

The Osaka Castle

Hello world! This is Matt. I'm taking this last post from Amanda because it is about our last stop on our Osaka trip and one of my favorite parts of Japan so far- Osaka castle!

I've has an affinity for castles ever since I was a kid. One of the coolest things about Okinawa is that it is home to twenty castle ruins. My inner ten year old comes out when I get to explore one of them. When we planned our trip to Osaka I found out that it was home to a castle, and I told Amanda that we were going. Not that I would like to go. We were going.

Osaka-jo was easily one of the coolest and most striking things I've ever seen. When you approach it the first thing you see are the sixty foot stone walls that were placed by hand. Some of the stones were as tall as I am. The next thing you see is the moat, and that is followed by audible squealing on certain castle enthusiast's part.

The castle had two walls and two moats. They were both imposing and beautiful at the same time. 

As we wove our way around the castle walls to get to the inner bailey, we entered the main gate. 

And just inside was the biggest stone I've ever seen. 

No, but really. Hand placed. One stone block.

A sign next to it explained that it weighed 108 tons and was so big it had a name- the Octopus Stone. I would have gone with the "you're-pretty-much-screwed, welcome-to-Osaka" stone since it guards the front door, but Japanese culture is all about subtlety. Again, hand placed, people. No trucks. No heavy equipment.

After reeling from analyzing the defenses and the building techniques, we rounded the wall and the castle came into view. 

The five story tower has beautiful oxidized copper shingles and gold leaf decorations. It was breathtaking and a wonderful last stop before heading home to Okinawa.

The Owl Family Cafe

My friends Victoria and Kacey had already traveled to Osaka and came back with pictures and stories of an owl cafe, so while we were in the city we researched the address and took the railway followed by the subway in order to reach the location. While it took time and effort to take multiple public transit systems to find a small cafe, the experience was so novel and exciting I am glad we made the trip.

The owl cafe was similar in structure to the cat cafe I had already visited in Okinawa. You pay around ten dollars for an hour with the animals and a small drink. While you simply read the rules for the cat cafe (for example: don't pick up the cats, don't let the cats drink from your glass), there was a presentation for the proper handling of owls. The rules were given in Japanese, but the instructor used a stuffed owl for visual purposes. I therefore had a pretty good idea of the etiquette of introducing yourself to owls. You let them see the back of your had before you pet them on the back. If they try to fly away while on your arm you raise your hand high and hold on tight to their lead. There were also multiple women there to pass the owl from one person to the next and make sure everything went smoothly. I asked about our camera, and they assured me pictures were acceptable as long as no flash was used. So...here are the owl pictures!

This guy was huge! Too big to be held, so I just pet his back.

This is Tubu. It means "minimized" because he is the smallest in the cafe.

The resting area for owls on break. They took naps.

David and Beverly looking classy.

I'm holding Kome, and Matt has Bei. 

We had so much fun interacting with owls from all over the world....even though Kome pooped down the back of my dress as he sat on my shoulder. This was before lunch, so I had to go the rest of the day before I could change into clean clothes. I was so glad I packed an extra outfit!

The Japanese Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I grew up reading Harry Potter. I read the first three books in elementary school as I patiently waited for my owl to arrive. Even after I resigned myself to a muggle middle and high school education I would read the newest installment of the series every summer that one was released. As a family we would ride the golf cart to the local bookstore for the midnight premiere. I was able to grow up with Harry and his friends as I received the final book for a high school graduation gift. I always wanted to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, but despite the fact I was only one state away I never did.  When I discovered the opening of the same park at Universal Studios Osaka I had to see it for myself. I was able to convince Matt and our Harry Potter-obsessed friends to come along!

The park in Osaka had many of the same attractions as the park in Orlando: the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster, Hogsmeade shops, the Three Broomsticks restaurant, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey located inside Hogwarts Castle. Even though we were in Japan, I assumed that, based on the British location and original actors, most things would be in English. I assumed incorrectly. We went to see Ollivander in his wand shop. While he was a Western actor who delivered half of his lines with a British accent, when he asked direct questions to the audience he did so in Japanese. The ride inside Hogwarts featured the actors from the movie, but their lines were dubbed over in Japanese. The attendants in the gift shop spoke Japanese, and they were thrilled with our attempts to communicate. They complimented us on our few words. 

We were the only Westerners in sight other than the hired characters. We were stared at quite a bit while waiting in line. Speaking of lines, there was a line for EVERYTHING. We had to obtain a ticket for a specific time to simply enter the park. We waited in line to enter Ollivander's wand shop, waited in line to enter the Three Broomsticks to order food, and then waited in some more lines to ride the rides. There were lots and LOTS of people. Luckily the day was overcast so we were not dying in the sun as we waited. It was all worth the wait! I had so much fun experiencing the fantasy of the world created by J.K. Rowling. 

The Mirror of Erised in a gift shop! We saw ourselves at Harry Potter World!

Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks

And my pumpkin juice!

The Hogwarts Express in Hogsmeade

The entry to Hogwarts Castle

Hogwarts over the Black Lake

The Osaka Overview

Over Labor Day weekend Matt and I took our first vacation to mainland Japan. We traveled with our friends to the beautiful city of Osaka. We used the agency IACE Travel to book our trip, and the whole experience was easy peasy. They booked the flights, the airport transfers, and the hotel for us in advance. The main attraction for our group was the newly opened Wizarding World of Harry Potter inside the Universal Osaka theme park, so the travel agency reserved a hotel within a five minute walk of the theme park and included a ticket as well. The entire hotel had a Jurassic Park theme to match the ride inside the park.

The view from our room. I can see Hogwarts Castle!

The screen in the lobby that reports on wait times for every ride.

The animatronic dinosaur in the lobby! It moved!

The first night we explored the shops and restaurants of Universal City Walk right outside the theme park and hotel. We ate American food at Hard Rock Cafe Osaka. The second day was spent at the park riding rides and immersing ourself in wizard culture! The last day we took the train into the city and visited an owl cafe and Osaka Castle. 

Burgers and BBQ ribs, yum!

At the park!

Jurassic Park was Matt's favorite movie growing up.

He's happy. Can you tell?

Green tea ice cream in Osaka!

Owl Family Cafe

Osaka Castle

This was only our second vacation while living in Japan, and it was SO FUN! More details to come in following posts about places to see and things to do in the city of Osaka.