The Surprise Waiting For Us in Otaru! #HogsAbroad in Japan
The “grand day-by-day” that Stapp wrote out before we got to
Japan is what we all treat as our guide to the JSAP program. But today
it was blank and we were left without any idea of what was happening,
just the name of the town, Otaru. We caught a pretty early train this
morning, and as we closed in on Otaru we found out that it was a smaller
town on the coast that is famous for stained glass and music boxes.
Leaving
the train station Stapp marched us down the coastal streets towards our
destination, a glass blowing studio! When we finally found out the
day’s activity I was so excited. I’m not very good at art but I really
enjoy it, and this was something that I had never done. In groups of
three they took us back to make our glassware. It was quite a process
and the entire time I was nervous that I was going to screw it all up.
But I am proud to say that I made a beautiful bud vase.
Otaru
was a fun little town to walk through. We wound through the streets
looking in on little shops every here and there. It was such a cute
little town and felt so different from everywhere else we had traveled.
Lots of the shops featured blown glass art and I was sad that I knew it
would most likely break if I tried to get it home. At one point Kimber
pointed out a coffee shop that she saw and we broke off from the group
and had a cup. It’s nice every once in a while to just sit down with one
or two people and not the entire group; a nice minute of quiet.
After
finishing out our walk through Otaru, we caught a train bound for
Sapporo. I was pretty excited to get back because David was in town and
Sam and I were going out for dinner with him. It was fun to see a friend
not on the program. We all walked around downtown Sapporo looking for a
restaurant and unlike usual when we got lost we didn’t have to just
wander around because David could speak to people and ask for help.
Having a person who spoke Japanese was extremely handy and a nice treat.
We ended up at a smallish restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel.
It
wasn’t too late when Sam and I got back to the hotel so I packed my
luggage for the next day. At midnight Maddi and Kimber took me to get
ice cream across the street for my birthday! It was fun until we woke
Stapp up…
