RHS'69
Tomodachi Tour III
October 24 - November 6, 2017
This is the third tour to Japan by some members of the Combined Class of '69.
Thirty-nine alum of RHS'69, Kalani'69 and McKinley'69 are taking in Northern Japan this time.
RHS'69 Reunion Committee chair Vincent Yim is your tour reporter...
October 25 - Day 2
Chitose to Sapporo. Sapporo is the fifth largest city of Japan by population, and the largest city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
If Sapporo sounds familiar, it hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, the first ever held in Asia, and there's the annual Yuki Matsuri. Internationally it's known as the Sapporo Snow Festival and draws millions of tourists from around the world.
Everybody is now 19-hours ahead of Hawaii time which makes for interesting attempts to sleep, phone home and keeping this blog itinerary straight.
Sapporo to Otaru is just a bus ride away for shopping and sightseeing. The big stop has to be the Ishiya Chocolate Factory. After return to Sapporo - the schedule says more shopping.
At the Yuuyoo Terrace.
Bobby Chinen (tour director) checking with Chris Imoto if everyone made it down for breakfast. There must be very 150 varieties to choose from.
Yesterday Bobby warned us that we would wake up at 2:00 am and he was right. Robert Imoto got dressed and walked the streets and found 2 ramen shops opened 24/seven.
Off to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory soon where we will eat some more!
On the way to chocolate delight, we stopped by the Sashiduseso store.
It sells glass stuff.
Before you know it - it's time to eat again.
Why cook when you can have a bonfire?
Here's the hairy crab - before...
And the hairy crab - afterwards.
Go to the next page as the journey continues with Day 3.
After the hotel buffet we went touring to Otaru and stopped by to view the many ski jumps used for the1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics. Then we spent some time to visit the once quaint fishing village. Now is it a must stop tourist trap.
The Fujiis, Nishimotos and Yims found a street vendor offering living hairy crab cooked on the spot. We took him up on it and also ordered scallops and they even had a beer dispenser.
Right after finishing our crabs, we rushed to our bus to have a cook your own BBQ lunch of fish, pork and scallops. Tender, sweet and burp!
Finally.
The end of the rainbow. The goal of the day. The touchdown...
The Chocolate Store.
Lucky we were able to walk off the load at our next stop. Ishiya Chocolate Factory and Shiroi Koibito Park. We saw candy making and even a animated mechanical robot show.
The trees showed off their ruby reds and golden yellow autumm leaves. The evening we were on our own and most of us went to look for something light to eat or nap time
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