wild sheep chase, delish tofu and high school friends

lots to post!! it’s been a busy few days. this post will be a long one, but bear with me.

== wild sheep chase ==
have you read haruki murakami’s wild sheep chase? it’s supposed to be either prequel or sequel to his another novel, “dance dance dance”. the book takes place in hokkaido. you should all read it when you get a chance.

after i finished posting my last blog, i headed out to capture some falling leaves around my parents’ house. it is absolutely beautiful around here. i started at a park nearby my parents’ house - the very park i used to go when i was little - and took some pictures.

i then started to head…i think west. but i’m not sure. there’s a huge boulevard called “hitsuji-ga-oka” which means “sheep hill”. so it’s not very surprising when you find something like this while walking around the street:

this made me think of “wild sheep chase” and i thought… i’m going to find some sheep.

so i walked and walked and walked, and after about 2 hours, i found a place called “hitsuji-ga-oka tenbohdai” (direct translation would be sheep hill vista point). i paid my 5 bucks to enter this place and finally found some sheep grazing.

sheep was introduced to hokkaido around meiji-era along with other western agricultural crops and concepts. hokkaido has its own cuisine called “Genghis khan” which is basically BBQ lamb and vegetable. you can enjoy this at many restaurants including sapporo bier garten.

around this time, a professor named william s. clark came to hokkaido from MA, USA, to teach agriculture at Hokkaido Agricultural College (now hokkaido university). during his stay, he left this famous speech, and he said, “boys, be ambitious”. Dr. clark is still remembered by students of hokkaido university as well as in the heart of sapporo residents and built his statue at this vista point:

unfortunately, introduction of farming brought the concept of killing any animals that endanger crop growth and farm animals. due to this, hokkaido wolf became extinct, and it is unfortunate to say that there’s no single animal alive anywhere in the world.

== tofu restaurant ==

after the long walk there and back, my mom and i went to shopping for some present for my grandmother in downtown sapporo, then my mom introduced me to a place called “ume no hana” (plum flower) which is originally from kyoto and provides courses full of small plates containing tofu or tofu-related food. so so so yummy!

though each dish was very small, by the time we left the restaurant we felt very full.
(you might be wondering where my dad was… he had work-related drinking event to attend to, which he really doesn’t mind attending.)

== friends from high school ==

the next day, i had a plan to meet bunch of friends from high school. some, i hadn’t seen since high school graduation! it was pretty weird to see that about half of them are married and with kids. though i personally don’t think of having kids myself, it was still very fun to be around them.

== engrish ==

while taking a shower this morning, i noticed the writing on the bottle of conditioner in the bathroom.
it had some writing about rain, clouds, the sun, and rainbow. they are each pretty funny, but i thought the sun one was the best (and the rain 2nd best):

i am still jet lagged. and i’m pretty tired after these long two days. hopefully i get to rest a bit…