Deluge of Pictures: Flowers, Squids, Sapporo.

First off, the promised deluge of Sapporo pictures!  Minimal typing though, because I'm a bit tired.

Melon Soda floats.

The Pokemon Center.

Baseball!

New Fighter's Hat! 

The Famous Chocolate factory, where they make "White Lover Chocolate."

Here's the assembly line.

The Beer Factory! As a precursor to the following beer-themed pictures, the drinking age in Japan is 20.

Classic Sapporo Beer posters.  I bought a replica of the one in the top middle with the girl wearing the green dress.  I'm excited to put it up in the suite next year! Nothing says classy like vintage Japanese beer posters.

Beer Ice Cream! Surprisingly delicious. The smooth taste of Sapporo beer with the creamy texture of ice cream.

At the end of the tour there is a taste test of three glasses of different Sapporo brewed beers.  My favorite was the classic Black Label that is exported all over the world, although the dark Yebisu beer was amazing.

We passed by a random festival where lots of people dressed up carried this shrine.  Although they should probably invest in some longer clothes...

Jingisukan, or lamb steak grilled at the table.  A specialty of Sapporo.

Now to blitz the past two day's activities.  Yesterday was a class on how to cook squid!  Sortof gross, but I'm now a squid cooking fiend.  I know how to rip off what I call the "squid hat," clean it and fill it with rice to be boiled.  Delicious!

Here's the real squid expert, telling us how to sashimi squid.  You aren't allowed to talk during the process to avoid getting anything on the squid and ruining freshness.  Squid sashimi is quite tasty, and I can now go from the "buy a dead squid at the supermarket" phase to the edible phase fairly problem free.

Wearing mamasan's very manly apron and taking a big bite out of squid tentacles.

Today's class was Kado, or flower arranging! I never knew there was such an art to making an arrangement look nice, but I assure there is a huge process and many styles. For dinner tonight we went to "Bikkuri Donkey" and ate hambagus (different from hamburgers).

Tired! I'll try not to get backed up again so I won't have to do so many days at once!

High: Mamasan trying to say "wool."  I laughed harder than I have in recent memory.  I even took a video about halfway through this moment, I'll maybe post it later.

Low: I went to bed at about 3 yesterday.  More homework than I've ever had here.

Hero: My bed.