Hokkaido Culture

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Charles Hamel in Hokkaido, Japan, Life in Japan | 1 Comment

statue

This past weekend was spent taking in some Hokkaido Culture as in the form of traditional Japanese dance and singing. My family and I took off for the downtown area around 9:30am to attend a dance performance that I had been invited to by one of my students. I always enjoy walking around the downtown area of Asahikawa (旭川) it’s a relatively small city in the middle of the country.

We arrived at the performance hall just as my friend was starting to dance, I wanted to try out a new iphone application called ustream to stream the dance live on the internet, and I was very pleased with the outcome. My taping abilities leave a lot to be desired but I am learning still how to do this properly. You can watch the videos at my Ustream page which is located at　CharlesHamel.com Ustream.

lunch

The performance was very nice, and I got an immediate response from a friend in Texas that was watching the event live. The app lets you know when and how many people are watching your stream, it also records it, so it can be watched later for those who missed it live.

lunch2

After the dance performance we went to Kaimono Koen (Shopping Park) which is a pedestrian only street that is lined with various shops to eat lunch. We settled upon a small cafe that served up an Italian style menu. My children had Omelet Rice, which is a mound of tomato sauced rice covered by an omelet with a thick rich sauce over the top. I had a Focaccia sandwich filed with smoked salmon, a salad and soup.

church

After lunch we had a wedding to attend. Another one of my students and friend was having their wedding ceremony at a small Christian Church nearby, and had asked us to please come. The small church was new and absolutely beautiful. It is strange to see this type of structure in Japan for me, but also brought back some nostalgia. The ceremony was a good experience and was the first time for me to hear a christian ceremony in Japanese. The bride was beautiful and the bride and groom both looked very happy.

All in all a fun day and outing with the family and friends.