In which the Traveler goes Some Distance

So, I've been a very bad girl.

I've not updated this blog regularly like I said I would. And a lot has happened.

もうしわけございません。I'm sorry.

Let's see. What can I tell you about that I may or may not have photographic evidence of?

~WARNING~ This chapter will be somewhat photo heavy.~YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED~

Last month I went with Yko-san to Furano for a wine festival. Except we stopped and picked up one of her friends. And then we stopped halfway to Furano to pick up her friend's friend. And it wasn't a wine festival. xD

In any case, it was a three hour drive one way. Furano is in a valley of two mountains and is apparently pretty popular for skiing. I've never been skiing, but maybe this winter I can go with some of my students to Chuuri to learn. Apparently skiing is taught as a gym class, as is speed skating. Use what you have, right?

Anyway, at Furano we went up the "ropeway," like an enclosed ski-lift for people who aren't necessarily wearing skis. If that makes any sense.

We also went to the Wind Garden when we came back down from the mountain. Which sounds awfully cool, for a flower garden. But the flowers were still really pretty. I took some pictures. 

Some early grapes. Or late grapes. Grapes, at any rate.

 A dragonfly landed on Sko-san's iPad! And it stuck around for a few minutes, too.

 I like the close-up focus. Get used to seeing it.

 Yeah... This is supposed to be of the angel Gabriel. Just saying.

There was a little house-like object in the middle of the flower garden. Apparently a drama was filmed here some years ago. Yko-san, Sko-san and Sko-san's friend were really excited about it.

We got ice cream! That's Yko-san, Sko-san's friend, and Sko-san, in clockwise order.

 The obligatory photo of me eating the ice cream.

 A grasshopper on Yko-san's shoulder!

Hello, there...

 These dragonflies were everywhere.

So the wine festival that wasn't. It actually was like a giant flea market with a kiddy amusement area and some food. But it was hosted outside the Prince Hotel, which, if you don't know, is a pretty ritzy hotel. We went up to the top floor to a restaurant for lunch.

Afterwords we went around through this little jungle of tree-house shops to a coffee house hidden away in the middle of nowhere, called 「森の時計」, or Clock of the Forest. Which led to understandable confusion when I realized it was a coffee house. Which was also featured in a drama some years ago. Everyone was really excited about this one. I can't blame them, as I know what I was like when we went to Coffee Prince in Korea. 

This おじさん, gentleman, made drip coffee right in front of us. If you ordered hot coffee (which everyone did but me) you even get to grind your own coffee beans in those cute little wooden grinders on the right. I ordered an iced coffee, so mine came from a pitcher. Still, it was fun to watch, since I was sitting right in front of him. He even talked to us for a while after making our coffees!

Side story, you see that little coaster between the saucers and the grinders? That's the coaster for my iced coffee. If you look closely at it you'll see that it already has water stains, even though there's no glass on it. That's because it's my water coaster, not the fresh one for my coffee. When we sat down, I was seated between Yko-san and Sko-san's friend, right? Sko-san's friend (whose name I swear I should remember, I think she was Jko-san... Well, she is now) really, really, really was excited about being at this coffee house, and she pulled her coaster out from under her water glass and was kinda playing with it, saying how she was going to treasure it always. But it had water stains on it, so I felt kind of bad. So I took away her soiled coaster and swapped it with the fresh one waiting for my iced coffee. Jko-san looked at me like I saved her kitten from drowning or something and started saying how Japanese I was, that I really understood how people felt and payed good attention to everyone around me (よく気をついた). I just kind of shrugged it off and said that it was normal, since we were friends, right?, but really, I'm a pretty damn awesome kid sometimes.

Side-side story, I still think of myself as a kid. When my students talk to me and start sentences with "先生～ Sensei~" I always have to resist the urge to look around to see who they're talking to. It takes a moment sometimes for me to remember that I'm a grownup and a teacher now. It's odd. Anyway.

After a while we packed up and headed back. We dropped Jko-san off first, then Sko-san in Obihiro, then we went home! ^-^

That was Furano's "wine" festival!