Summer Reflective Thinking and Not-So-Reflective Playing

15th August, 2010 - No... it wasn't the revenge of the killer whales; instead it was one of the great little pools in one of the many good childrens parks in Sapporo. And what better place to spend your summer afternoon (a hot, muggy afternoon at that) than to go splashing in the pool? This wasn't the first time we'd visited here. The park is known as Noushi-Kouen (check the link for a map), and L-kun, T-chan and her parents had visited in 2009. Of course L-kun remembered it very well.

Actually, we were here to meet up with some of T-chan's web-friends (from her blogging days) who lived in Sapporo. Let's just call them G-man (the Aussie) and S-chan (Japanese), with their son S-kun. Actually, it turns out that they were quite good pals of some of our Adelaide Aussie/Japanese couple friends whom had stayed temporarily in Sapporo a few years ago. Talk about a small world! And of course for L-kun and S-kun, none of that mattered. It was just a good excuse to go for a run in the pool.

And lets face it - when you're 3 years old (as L-kun was at this stage), pools are wonderous things.Water... so much water. And you can run around in it without a care in the world. Freedom to do what you want. Free, that is, to stick your head in the pool. Coz that's just the sort of thing that you have to do... though I'm not exactly sure why. In fact, I'm not sure that L-kun knew what he was doing at this point either. Water can be so attractive. Ah, for a child's perspective....

It was interesting to meet this family - for the first time. I have to admit that I'm always envious of people that have had a chance to live in Japan for an extended period (of course, S-chan was a native girl from Sapporo, so she was much more excited about Australia). The longest single stay I've had in Japan was about 2 months. I know it must be a very different experience visiting a city/country with your partner, than living there. And whilst I've spent a good amount of time in Sapporo, I can't claim to really know the city. But it's also a strange environment in Japan for foreigners - especially for mixed families (and mixed, or hafu, children). It sounds like it's a largely un-real experience, which doesn't quite follow the same rules as you would normally expect. And it can be a pretty care-free whirlwind experience indeed. And by the sound of it, after 10 years, it can be very hard to consider leaving. Imagine trying to re-build a normal life after a decade of being abroad without necessarily being able to directly use any of that employment history. It's a hard call - and it sounds like many gaijin in Japan struggle with the both the uncertainty and practicality - and possibly even fear - of returning to the everyday existence in their homelands...

The biggest impediment for us to move to Japan is my career... it's hard to consider putting a career (which you've spent a long time training for) on hold for 12 months - let alone 10 years. Yet, it's a sacrifice my wife made in coming to Australia (and more so, as she left behind her family). International marriages are often built upon such tough choices - where there is more times than not, no one right decision. We each of us have to muddle our way through, not only trying to pick the right course for ourselves, but also for our children. As a I write this, we are expecting our second child in about 5 weeks. More difficult choices are coming our way... but also many more exciting and amazing times. Home, after all, is not just where you hang your hat, but also where you raise a family. Wherever that is... and sometimes, that can be in more than one place....

Sapporo's Gotenzan Park Playground - B&W Style

9th August, 2010 - A return to Gotenzan with Daddy. The thing about our holidays to Japan is that invariably, there's a part that I'm not there. That's generally not a problem, but it does mean that I tend to miss out on a lot of experiences. So there's always an opportunity to catch up when I arrive. Such a case was when we re-visited Gotenzan Kouen; which L-kun had visited with mummy last year. Last time was in colour... this time it's glorious B&W.

The park hadn't changed that much... yes, it was still dominated by the huge pyramidal edifice (Gotenzan). It wasn't such a fine day this time around though.... but at least it had Daddy. And Daddy really enjoyed sharing these play times with L-kun too.

Of course, L-kun is always willing to offer a helping hand. It's amazing to see how readily children offer their hands, both to help others, and to be helped. Where do we lose this skill?

I wonder what L-kun thinks of his parents taking countless photos? I know he loves sitting with Mummy and Daddy nowadays and looking through the photos, so I guess it's also worth it. I know he's one over-photographed child however.

One of the things you get used to in Japan, is that there's an over-abundance of interesting sculptural designs. Even in children's playgrounds. It's a good experience coming across some new weird and wonderful play equipment design, and definitely makes me feel a little disappointed when we go back to Adelaide, with our standard slippery slide, swings etc. Then again, I'm not sure kids really care...

And here's a cheeky T-chan shot.. The umbrella's there against the heat, not the threat of rain. It's hard to gain a feel in these pictures just how hot it was... but it would have been in the mid 30's with high humidity. Very strange for a Sapporo summer. Or so I'm told... 

Well, this has been a bit of a different post. I promise I won't do too many of these B&W specials... but every now and again doesn't hurt.

On Top Of The World (Unlike Sapporo's Soccer Team)

2nd June, 2010 - Today's post is a continuation of the survey of playground in Sapporo. OK, it's not like we're trying to go to every single playground in Sapporo (though sometimes it feels that way), it's just that if we go somewhere, we tend to look around to see if there's a good playground around the area. How useful is this to you, the 0.75 readers of this blog? Perhaps only marginally more useful than knowing the stock levels of the local drink vending machine.. However, it's perhaps not a side of Sapporo (or Japan) you might have seen that often. And if you have children, and you're thinking of moving to Sapporo (the odds of this being my 0.75th reader are astronomical), then perhaps it's sort of interesting.

Enough of the verbage. Let's get on with it.

Today, I'm writing about a small playground that T-chan took our son L-kun to. Not an overly remarkable playground (but not bad either). The playground is just across the road from the Ishiya Chocolate factory (hmmm - did I mention having a good reason to be somewhere?) and right behind the Consadole Soccer Club rooms (and pitch). 

View Sapporo

Now the Consadole Soccer Team is Sapporo's black sheep (or is that prodigal son?) that is still at centre of Sapporo's other sports dreams (the Sapporo Nippon-Ham Fighter Baseball team is the number one attraction). Now whether you call it Soccer or Football, it's a universal game. And Sapporo's Consadole's team is an almost universal constant in terms or relegation to the 2nd division from the 1st division. You gotta give it to them, even though they've been relegated three times since it's inception in 1996, they still keep plugging away (and of course, being relegated that many times also means they've been promoted that many times as well... taking the glass half full view).

Consadole club rooms

Consadole, as a name, comes from a very bizarre (alchhemist-like) formula where they took the name of the iconic Hokkaido draft horse (known as the dosanko), and reversed the Japanese syllables (do-sa-n-ko = ko-n-sa-do) and added a bit of Spanish exclamation (ole!) to the end. And all of that turned into Consadole. A word of advice... keep it simple, stupid. Sapporo's baseball team, the Nippon-Ham Fighters might be an odd name, but it at least well reflects their team sponsors, Nippon-Ham.

Enough about soccer. And baseball.

The thing I like about Japanese playgrounds (a clue, it isn't the ground cover) is the variety of play equipment. Back here in Adelaide, Australia, there's a certain... hmmm... predictability of the equipment you'll find. In Sapporo, there seems to be (outside the very small local suburban playgrounds) something equating to pride at the uniqueness or variety of their playgrounds.

There also seems an infinite variety of contraptions that make up the play equipment... and whilst some of it sometimes seems to have come from an SAS training course, I always feel impressed at the imagination. And the proof is in the pudding... or more precisely the eating of the pudding (what happens after that is perhaps best not discussed on this blog). L-kun loves playgrounds in Japan. Ok, he loves playgrounds everywhere, but he seems to love them particularly in Sapporo.

There's always a slightly different challenge, or skill to master. After all, there's only so many slippery slides you can go down... hold on... they have them too (but the in thing in Japan is the roller slide). L-kun's quite partial to those as well.

Neighbourhood playgrounds tend to (strangely enough) have neighbourhood children... and that means there's a certain degree of calm, or community and of camaraderie amongst the children. As a case in point, T-chan told me a story about this particular playground where L-kun was playing. L-kun's always a bit nervous in a new environment, but two older children decided to take him under their wing and look after him. It was nice to see children being so supportive of each other (and not just hitting one another).

But at the end of the day - it's all about having fun. After all... shouldn't that be what life's about (when you strip away all of the social convention, mortgage stress, peer pressure, and all sorts of other largely self-induced angst and anxiety). As we get older, we just seem to forget it, wrapped up in our own social balance statement.

Ok - I know that I most probably should rely on L-kun to pay for our house back in Adelaide, but I often wish I could take up a few more of his other skills. Like seeing the world for what it is. Naturally wonderful.

Now if only Consadole can show a little bit of wonderful as well!

(note - we'd actually been to Ishiya and the Consadole club rooms on our first trip to Sapporo in 2003 - but then it was covered in snow, and snowmen... and where we went into the Guinness Book of Records).

Beam Me Down Scotty - Into Tonden Kouen

7th May, 2009 - This is without doubt one of L-kun's favourite parks in Sapporo. Tonden Kouen (park), which is some 10km drive north of Sapporo's city centre. If you haven't worked it out yet - the Japanese love the roller-slides. They're every where, and I have to say they look a hoot. Now - you may also worked out that with the coming of Spring, and my return to Adelaide, there was lots of opportunities to go out and have fun in playgrounds. So there are a lot of posts about parks. I hope that this is useful for people coming to Sapporo with young (and not so young) families. 

View Sapporo Map in a larger map

The park's main attraction is the slide... and T-chan keeps telling me that it was SCARY to go up the top (then again, she's got less of a head for heights than I do). Still, she was very proud of L-kun's courage to go up to the top and slide down by himself.

Just how tall is it?... VERY according to T-chan. I am very proud of T-chan for braving her own fear of heights to join L-kun. Well done. I can't even tell that the camera was shaking in this photo.

There are lots of other things to climb up, walk across, dangle down from etc etc. There's also no doubt that Japanese playgrounds, whilst they suffer from generally grey-ish sand, more than make up for it with brightly coloured equipment.

L-kun had a full afternoon at the park - and it has the advantage of being right next door to a very large home-centre. I would not however advise using the park as a creche. That would be wrong.

The park does however exercise just about every part of a young child... and I think that the Japanese should be very proud of their efforts to create engaging and yet challenging parks for their children. And of course - to be fair, there are also so very sad, depressing neighbourhood parks as well. But where they do it well, they do it brilliantly.

Including a little construction work for the upper-body strength.

And you can sometimes feel a little lost as to what to do next. 

I have to admit that every time we go back to Sapporo we discover new playgrounds, and each time T-chan turns to me with that wistful look, as if to say "see how much fun Sapporo is!" And indeed, she follows up that look with the words "see how much fun Sapporo is!". She's an open book, is my T-chan. Still she's right. I really have to admit that there's so many great playgrounds in Sapporo... and we haven't covered hardly any of them as yet.

It's enough to make you want to have a sit down and reflect upon things... it's been a good day. I hope however that L-kun was secretly wishing that Daddy was here to share it with him...

 On the way home... Teine-yama stands in the distance. I love Sapporo's surrounding mountains. They're not too imposing, but they embrace the city like a protective blanket.

Gotenzan Kouen - Sapporo's Mountain Playground

5th April, 2009 - Well, it's not exactly a mountain playground - but it is pretty scenic. This is Gotenzan (五天山) Park in Nishi-ku Ward - and it is one of L-kun's favourite parks. It's not that it has a lot of great equipment, or other attractions...

View Sapporo Map in a larger map

But it does have lots of very scenic backdrops...

And on a fine Spring day, the light is quite beautiful. Ok - it's a bit of a drive from Sapporo, but if you like heading out for a sunday drive (with the kids) then there's lots of room to run around, and you'll often find some cuddly animals (like rabbits) to feed - and in summer the park is also a great place to have a barbecue.

And if you really want to you can climb all the way to the top of Gotenzan.... 

But the real reason why L-kun loves it so much is simple... it's got roller slides! And it's great to play with ojiichan, even if it's a bit of tight squeeze.

He's a simple soul with simple needs.

I often wish that our own lives could be so simple.

Having a Whale of a Time... Noushi-Kouen

30th April, 2009 - This is just a quick post to highlight some more of the parks around Sapporo... and the sort of variety you get here. Noushi-Kouen is a nice small park with some really interesting features. The most obvious attraction in this park is the pool with it's huge whales with water fountains. Come summer this park is  a great place for children to take their bathers and go for a splash.

View Sapporo Map in a larger map

There's a lot of different things to do here... and whilst there's a preponderance for concrete the great thing is that there's a lot of different sorts of spaces available. We came back here last year, and I'll post about this park again.

The park's quite large and there's plenty of running room - and despite appearances, there's also plenty of grass to play on as well. Overall, this is one of L-kun's favourite parks during the hotter months. During April it was too cool to go for a splash however.