SNOW FESTIVAL!!

The last one is about winter season in Hokkaido.
At first, what images do you have about winter season in Hokkaido?
It may be the sever coldness, large amount of show and people enjoy skiing or snowboarding. Yes, exactly that!　
In February, the temperature in Hokkaido dropped to nearly -10℃, so the environmental condition is really worse.
It is like in the refrigerator and may be its coldness beyond your imagination. I cannot talk with my friend while we are walking in out-side.
In addition, almost every day in the month, it snows all day and sometimes we must endure sever blizzard.
Sever blizzard and huge amount of snow causes traffic jam and in the high way, serious traffic accident are so many.
On the other hands, we have also good point.Every winter in February, Sapporo city held Snow Festival in Odori Park which is located in the center of Sapporo.
This festival is one of the biggest events in Hokkaido, so many foreigner come to Hokkaido from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Thailand.
Why are many people looking forwards to seeing this festival?
The answer is that Sapporo city comes up with good ideas to enjoy among very young children to adults.
There are about more than 200 statues which are made of snow and ice and one statue forms popular characters for children, but other statue forms famous architectures for adults.
Thanks to abundant snow, many people are interested in Hokkaido and I really appreciate to snow!!

FURANO

Furano and Biei: although its fame is not so high, this is my number one spot to enjoy magnificent and graceful nature in Hokkaido.
Especially from the middle ten days of the June to the first ten days of the July, the ground of Furano and Biei are covered with innumerable colorful flower such as the lavender.It is the representative products in Furano and there are many attractive goods related with the lavender in the souvenir shop.
The chocolate, soft cream and cookie of the lavender’s taste are set at the shelf and also the perfume.
In fact, when I was a young, l really want the lavender’s perfume and my mother bought it for me! Anyway, still now, every year in summer, I go camping to there with my family and enjoy spending a good time there.

KANIYA

We can enjoy fresh fishes in Hokkaido, especially in Hokodade and Kushiro.
In Sapporo, most famous marine product is crab. At the center part of Sapporo city, there is the place to enjoy the taste of various kinds of crabs.
Its name is Kaniya. 5 years ago, my old sister worked in it as the part-time job when she was a high school student. This is the picture of Kaniya. Big three-dimensional crub is hanged on the building.
She said this restaurant took the important part of spreading the seafood dishes in Hokkaido and introducing Japanese traditional food for foreign customers.
Unfortunately, its cost is not so reasonable for student and general people that the opportunity we drop into there is limited. However, the quality of dishes and behavior of the staffs are perfect. If you have a chance to go to Hokkaido and enough money, please visit there at once!!

I❤HOKKAIDO!

April 24th

Next topic is about the nature of Hokkaido.
Camping is the one of my hobby, so I cannot be helped talking about this topic when I explain and tell my friends about the good point in Hokkaido in detail.
Here is my best spots list to command the beautiful view in Hokkaido.

・ Shiretoku; It is also very famous spot because this area was registered as the world heritage in 2005 by IUCN whish is the abbreviation of Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The good point in this sightseeing spot is the grandeur of nature.

Especially the remarkable feature is the corroboration of the ocean and the land. In other words, we can enjoy the food chain in there.
The Shiretoko Peninsula is located in the easternmost tip of Hokkaido.
Besides, in winter, the drift ice floating in the Ohotuku Sea is observed.
The drifts carry into large amount of plankton and red salmon.
Then, these res salmons take part of bait for the brown bears living in near the river.
In conclusion, the carcasses are resolved as the nutrition for various kinds of plans.
Isn’t it interesting?

April 19th

As I said last time, my home town is Sapporo City in Hokkaido.
When I say that I am from Hokkaido, almost every people look at me with curiosity.
Then, they always give me a few words such as Wow! or I really envy you and I want to go to Hokkaido as the sightseeing, then eat good fish food!
If I weren’t from Hokkaido, I would say as well.
Actually, it is famous of fresh fishes, vast nature, the coldest area in Japan and snow festival in February.
On the other hand, Sapporo is the big city. This is the picture of Sapporo Station which is the center part of area in Sapporo City.
Thanks to these reasons, nowadays, it is really popular sightseeing spot for not only Japanese but also many foreign people.



At first, Hokkaido is located in the northern part of Japan.
It is surrounded with the Ohotuku sea, the Japan sea and the Pacific Ocean so that it is inconvenienced location.
However, recent a few decades, public transportation such as air plane and an undersea tunnel were greatly developed, so it is a little bit easy to go there now. Besides, the Shinkansen will be opened to traffic in 2020.
I hope it is complicated soon and I am really looking forward to use it! Now, I sometimes go back to my home town, but not so many times because the airplane is so expensive for me.
Last year, I only go back there twice a year.
The cost of Shinkansen is cheaper than that of airplane, so I believe the complication of Snikansn will bring me more chances to go back to my home town.

Hello!!

April 17th

This is my first journal in this semester.

I hope you will enjoy and continue to read it until the end of the IEⅢ course.
I have stayed in Tokyo for a year and lived in my dormitory which is located in Machida.

It is about 20 minutes to walk from the Machida station, so it takes 40 to 45 minutes to go to the Aoyamagakuin University.

I think it is very conveniently located and is the one of the reason why I have stayed in it for a year.

Other reason is that residents do not need to prepare our own meals. Everyday Varied and delicious breakfast and dinner are served by its staff.

In the morning, we can choose rice or bread freely and also beverages as well. In dinner time, there are always a seafood dish and meat dish.

I really appreciate to the effort of my cooking staffs. Because of my huge number of assignments and part-time job, I am too busy to cook some dishes especially on week day.

So regularly serving well-balanced meals is really helpful for me.

In addition, dormitory life is useful to make many friends.

There are about more than two hundred residents who come from various kinds of local area such as Kyushu, Kansai and Tohoku. Actually, I am also from Hokkaido.

About the detail of my home-town, I will introduce you next time!! Besides, not everyone is the student of Aoyama.

Talking with many kinds of people and other university’s students is fun and very important. Through the last year, I could make the good human relationship with my classmates and also my dormitory friends then spend a really good time in Tokyo.

There are some people who have not talked yet in this class, so I really want to talk my entire classmate and get along with them!!