August 8

Asahikawa Commercial High School's English Club is having a camp of sorts today and tomorrow. Most of the time will be spent studying for the Commercial High School English Examination. However, tonight they had a little outdoor barbeque and they invited me to join them. Japanese barbeque is always delicious and it involves everyone joining in the cooking process. Other than a few dropped pieces of meat, it all turned out great. Luckily we were under a canopy because it was really raining outside.
We cooked a lot of different types of meat, I forget what most of them were	Cheese!
After the BBQ I went to the Den to hang out with some people. The two new ALTs in town (Bob at my office and Sarah at Kita High School) happened to be there. Lavonda showed up later, and a group of us went out to Karaoke. We all had a good time, although maybe Bob (pictured at right) had too good of a time. :)
Lavonda was decked out in a summer kimono	From left to right: Bob, Natsuko (Bob's girlfriend), and Sarah

August 10

My friend Travis was in Sapporo for the past two weeks at the IAY school, doing a Japanese language study. I went out this weekend to hang out and do some shopping. While walking through the city, I found this structure pictured at the left. Sapporo was the host of the Olympic games in 1972. The torch has been installed in the city near Odori Park. It was kind of nice to see a little piece of Olympic history purely by accident.

August 16

About 16 km West of Asahikawa , just before reaching Fukugawa (the next city along the river towards Sapporo) lies Kamui Kotan - a spot along the river where a long white bridge is located as well as an old train station. There's a nice path along the river from the Asahibashi Bridge in Asahikawa that is suitable for walking or biking. Sarah, Bob, Natsuko, and I decided to take a bike ride out there since it was such a nice day.
Starting Out	During one of our many breaks
The river	Getting there...
Great scenery	At last! Kamui Kotan!
Some rocks nearby	The bridge was blazingly white
Sarah asked me to take this picture, my camera's got a great zoom!	On the bridge
The Three Scooges?	The Sign for the Kamui Kotan Station
One of the old trains at the station	The Wrong Side of the Tracks
This side of the station overlooks the river	Where the conducter would collect your ticket or money
When we got back in the evening, across the river from where the path ends was a small festival. Being summer, this is pretty common and we didn't think much of it at first. However, then we noticed that the people where sending floats down the river. It was an amazing sight and perfect timing that we ended our trip at that exact time. I don't have a tripod, so some of my pictures are blurry, but most of them turned out OK.
The Asahibashi Bridge	People sending out their floats
Sarah	Natsuko and Bob
You know this	The view from the bridge
Down the Ishikari River...

August 18

Today was the first day of the Hokkaido Newcomers' Orientation in Sapporo. I took the day off and went out to say my little piece about teh webpage and listserv, and then stayed for the welcome party afterwards. It was held at the Kirin Beer Garden.