Family Visits Down Under

October 2005 - T-chan's family and her Auntie have come down to Australia for a family get-together... it's been some 10 months or so since we left Sapporo in January... T-chan meets up with them in Sydney. They caught up with the family of one of the Aussie student's that they hosted back in Sapporo... one of the many connections that T-chan's family had with Australia.

Adelaide, Things to Do, Sydney,

Then they all came back to Adelaide... quite a bit smaller than Sydney (Adelaide has a population of about 1 million people). Adelaide is actually quite narrow, running parallel north-south to the sea - on a plain between the sea and the lower Adelaide Hills ranges... as seen below from atop the Mount Lofty Summit (approx 760 m high)

One of the good things to do in Adelaide is visit the Cleland Wildlife Park, which is a huge nature reserve that allows you to walk in amongst the native Australian animals. Of course, for a small fee you can  buy the obligatory food... those animals all looked very well-fed.

Lots of kangaroos and wallabies...

And some very cute babies as well!

And yes - you can have your photo taken with the koalas... for an additional fee you can have the koalas perched on top of you... however... koalas are notorious for going "whoopsie" all on your clothes. Be warned. Also - for me, this is about as exploitative of native animals as I can get...

During the trip we also made a return visit to Carrick Hill, where we got married. It was strange to go back there - but very nice. Brought back many fond memories of both our wedding and all of the preparation that went into it.

Of course - it also made me feel young again.

We also discovered Carrick Hill's own Japanese Tie... don't ask me what the connection with Momotaro is... but it appeared to be one of the donated pieces...

There's actually a lot of art works scattered around the grounds... it's well worth a walk around.

Adelaide is a city of living heritage... it's gone to a lot of trouble to try and retain the old style buildings (and sometimes just the frontages) that have been around since the city was first established in 1836. Some argue that this policy of strict building control has limited development in the city - and kept Adelaide with a small country town feel.

Certainly - there's a lot of quaintness about the city... and it's definitely a fairly slowly-paced city compared to Sydney or Melbourne.

But it's a nice place to relax and take in the summer's rays

Or go down to one of the beaches (such as Glenelg) and really enjoy the beach culture.... which whilst not as strong in Adelaide as the Eastern seaboard is still a great way to relax in the city. Unlike in the east, Adelaide sits on a fairly protected peninsula... lowsy surf, but easy family-friendly beaches. And almost no nasties except for the very occasional shark.

Or whilst your in the city, have a nice stroll around the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, or the Adelaide Zoo next door (which has gone Panda crazy since the arrival of Wang-Wang and Funi in late 2009).

There's plenty to see around the city...

Or if you want to get out....

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One of the best places to visit is Victor Harbor, about 80km, or 1h40mins drive from Adelaide to the south. It's a very scenic drive, but be warned - it's also a little dangerous so be careful in the winding roads. "Victor" is a great sea-side escape from Adelaide. It's almost always quite a few degrees cooler than Adelaide, so take some warmer clothes. It's a bit of a throw-back to an earlier tourist era - but is become more modern very quickly.

One of the attractions is taking the horse-drawn train (or walking) to Granite Island. It's a great place to walk around, and there's a fairy penguin colony on the island that you can visit in the evening as part of an organised tour. This is also a great place to go whale watching near metro Adelaide.

There's some nice coastline along Adelaide's southern approaches - so take your time.

The hills are also worth meandering through...

There's a nice little place called Ross Roses Garden.

Stop of for an afternoon or the whole day at the wineries at McLaren Vale... and I'd recommend popping into my favourite winery D'Arenberg! This is one of many 10's of small and large wineries across the valley. Great for a day of tasting - just bring your designated driver.

Otousan has a similar idea of a good afternoon as myself. 

Anyway - this was just a very brief visit to Adelaide... I'll try and do something a little more complete later on. T-chan's family had a great time here, and enjoyed the warm weather immensely (coming out of a cold Sapporo winter). Unfortunately their time finished too quickly and they had to go back home. See you soon!

Ski Jump Re-loaded - Last Days in Sapporo!

15th Jan, 2005 - It's our last hurrah!... our third trip to Japan is coming to a close *sigh* and so we made one last trip to the city to catch up with T2-chan at the Ookurayama Ski Jump... but unlike our trip here in 2003, today was a competition day. The ski jump is a 90 metre jump, and it's high, and it's steep. Better them than me, is what I say!

It's a strange sport where the goal is to jump off a perfectly good hill... which you had to climb in the first place. Yet the ski jump has a very special place in the hearts of Sapporo people, as this was the first place where Japan won medals in the 1972 Winter Olympics.

And the competitors still take it just as seriously - as this is a qualifying competition for the next winter olympics.

The mark to aim for is known as the K line (or calculation line) which sets the par for the jump. In Ookurayama the K line is set at 120 metres. The record on this mountain is 144.5m!

Whilst it's not a sport that I had thought to get into - it's infectious when you're there as the noise and crowd - not to mention the speed and danger - all work on you to get you excited!

And with that, T-chan and I (and T2-chan) took our leave of the cold but fun Ookurayama Hill, and made our way back to Sapporo where we enjoyed one last night out of Karaoke and one of my favourite places to eat - Bikkuri Donkey. This place is great for a saucy hamburg delight... lashings of cheese and 300g of good quality minced beef! How could you go wrong with that?

 After a night of fun and frivolity (thanks T2-chan) we set off home in the early morning... ok... it wasn't so early in the morning. It was a strange but good way to end our trip... and whilst it was a very different trip this time around, I have to say that winter is one of my favourite times to visit Sapporo. It really is a winter wonderland. 

This trip brought much happiness (Christmas and New Years), but also brought much sadness. One of the differences with visiting a place as a tourist, and travelling to Japan with T-chan is that for her, it's coming home. The ties with family and friends remain even after we come back to Australia.


It's always a sad time to leave - and there's always many tears between T-chan and her parents. It's at times like these that I feel especially the responsibility of sharing my life with T-chan... in Adelaide, Australia.


So ends our third trip to Japan. Little did we know that this was going to be our last trip to Japan alone. But that's a story for a later blog.

To Teine and Back Again

14th Jan, 2005 - We're off to see the wizard... the snow wizard who lives atop Teine-yama. Sapporo people are pretty spoilt when it comes to skiing options. Most Australians would be familiar with Niseko resort, however there's a very good mountain just 20-30 mins from T-chan's house (and that's to the ski-lifts... depending on the weather)... Teine-yama... home of the slalom and bob-sleigh during the 1972 Winter Olympics.



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There are two courses - Olympia (the lower of the two) and Highland.  In summer time, there's also a theme park, and you can try your hand at grass skiing. Personally the though of falling over on the snow is more appealing. Access and parking to the ski runs is free, and ski chair passes start around 3,500yen (4 hours) 3,900 yen (6hours), 4,800 yen (full day). A night ticket costs 1800 yen (4-9pm). The runs cater for all skill levels, but the die-hards will most likely head off to Niseko anyhow.


One of the attractions of Teine ski runs is the view (and the proximity to Sapporo). You get brilliant views across the city plains, out across the bay and to the mountains to the north-east. The view changes subtly throughout the day and into the evening.

We stayed there all day, until the sun had started to well and truly set.

There's plenty of lights around the mountain slopes to keep going well into the night.

Night draws closer - and the last light begins slowly to fade below the distant mountain range across the bay.

You may be wondering - where did I learn to ski? Well... there's a very exclusive teacher in Sapporo (though I've heard that she spends much of her time abroad these days) that can provide personalised lessons... down her street. I was borrowing T-chan's ski's to get a hang of proper ski's (as compared to X-country skis) the day before. Hazukashii! (that's sooo embarrassing).

Actually, whilst we have snow in Australia - there's none around Adelaide. So I'm a complete newbie when it comes to real skiing. My experience was that it's most probably best to spend a few days there - but Teine doesn't tend to cater well for lessons for foreigners. It was exhausting skiing all day (and I admit a little frustrating initially). Actually the skiing is fine, what wore me out was the walking back up the slope to try again.

I can't wait to go back and try and again - and learn how to ski properly.

Jingisukan Time...

13th Jan, 2005 - Sapporo is reasonably famous in Japan for it's Jingisukan, which is a variation on Mongolian BBQ.  The metal "hat" or "helmet" is the central part of the dish - along with the lashings of marinated lamb. Of course beer makes a  very suitable accompaniment! Sapporo beer of course. We've come down to a small local Jigisukan... from memory there were only a couple of large tables and about a dozen couple-sized tables. A very small place; and very unpretentious.


Generally Jingisukan starts off by lashing of lard on the heating plate... that's just to get it started. Then you tend to have the marinated lamb on the middle with an assortment of vegetables such as onion, entoki mushrooms etc around the edge, cooking in the juices.

It may not look that appealing on the hot-plate, and you do have to like lamb - but if you can get past those two things it's incredibly yumm-o! It's also very much a communal dish, the whole family helping out to cook... as they are eating. I'm a big fan of this sort of table-cooking. Feels very inclusive.

Here's T-chan's recipe for Jingisukan sauce... first off, you need some... what was that T-chan? A family secret?.... Ok. Looks like you need to ask for her favourite sauce recipe.

Another Night Out in Suskino... Single Friends

10th Jan, 2005 - T-chan and I head off once more into Sapporo to meet up with another of T-chan's High School friends, S-chan. The subway's a great way to get around in Sapporo, there being three lines, the Tōhō, Tōzai and the Namboku lines which are coloured blue, orange and green respectively. Fares to the city are around 200-250 yen, but it's best to get a mult-fare (you make a very small saving when you buy a 2000 yen ticket). It actually takes longer to get to the city by the subway than it does with the train - but the big advantage is that the subway comes out directly under Odori, and it's just a hop-skip and jump then to Suskino for eating out.


T-chan has four close friends that she's had since high school, T2-chan (I've told a little about her before), S-chan (below), M-chan, and U-chan (I'll tell her story shortly). The last three were her friends in baton-twirling class of all things! It always made me chuckle that I was going out with a Japanese Cheer-leader!


Unlike T2-chan, S-chan doesn't really speak any English, so it's down to my poor Japanese to communicate (when T-chan's not there to translate). I always wondered what they really thought of T-chan going out with (and marrying) a strange gaigokujin (foreigner).


It's a little strange, but S-chan used to work in night-clubs in Suskino (not necessarily a great job). It's hard for me to picture her working at night... what's the attraction? Is it the money, or is it the life-style?

Of all her main friends, T-chan's the only one who's married. And she had to go to Australia to do it! Seriously, there's definitely something strange going on in Japan... Actually (on a slight change of topic)... it was around 2005-2007 that Japan's population peaked, and is indeed now shrinking. One of the downsides of having such a long life expectancy! That, and a population of men that don't want to settle down and have children.

 It's hard however for T-chan to really feel connected, despite the advances of email, messenger, skype - and blogs. It's not easy to share your life as a series of 1's and 0's being transmitted across the world. I'm glad that she can still re-connect when she goes back to Sapporo.