Rainy day

The wind was kicking and it was pretty cloudy and rainy this morning. Thankfully, the clouds parted enough for us to get to the store and pick up milk (and ice cream!) without getting a drop on us. Yay! It was like a double whammy, Elisabeth fell asleep in the stroller and is continuing her nap as I type.

I'm taking this ice cream challenge seriously and Kevin is jumping on board with it too. Duh, who wouldn't?! 

So amongst our Japanese leek and spinach, Hokkaido milk, and dashi stock sachets, was this little box of heaven. I say that, because it was one of the best green tea ice creams I've ever had. Mind you, I like green tea ice cream! (We've been eating our share of ice cream before it's made its way to the blog...!) 

They're called Parm and made by Morinaga company. (it's a milk company apparently, they make everything from ice cream to formula!) They are also the makers of Pino, which are featured in the link I posted yesterday.

They're also pretty small. Definitely good for portion control. It means I can have one every few hours and not feel bad. ;) Huehuehue.

We also picked up chocolate melon bread. It's a sweet bun with cookie dough on top. You can read a better description here. It didn't taste like melon at all (the name comes from the way it looks), but apparently some do! Kevin's been on a search for melon bread, he had some high hopes for it. We've tried something similar, but with a whipped cream and custard filling. YUM! 

The grocery store by our house, co-op. Not the most flattering angle, but like I told Kevin, it's a phone camera, I'm not trying to win awards with these pictures today.

The view from their parking lot. I love the mountains!

And we've been noticing the attention to detail here. Most of the man holes and little covers on the street and sidewalk have designs on them. I particularly liked this one. :)

The soccer field has pretty much no snow on it. And in general, the streets are more and more bare. I looooove that we're really getting into spring now! The weather next week is supposed to be up to +15C (59F) during the day and sunny!

Speaking of sun, it keeps poking its head out through the clouds. Maybe we'll go for a proper walk when Elisabeth wakes up or if it's still sunny around sunset. :) 

Oh yeah, the translation.

Taisin eilen unohtaa suomentamisen! Hupsista!

Eilen siis aiheena oli rutiinehin asettuminen, kävelystämme kuvia ja jäätelöhaasteesta. 

Tänään siis kokeiltu uusi jäätelö: valkosuklaakuorutteinen vihreä tee-vanilja! 

Melonileipä. Joka ei siis meloneilta maistu, eikä sen välttämättä kuuluisikaan.

Co-op, meidän lähiruokakauppa ja maisema parkkipaikoilta. En kyllästy ikinä näihin vuorimaisemiin.

Täällä on koristeellisia yksityiskohtia joka puolella, jos niitä vain etsii. 

Jalkapallokenttä on sitten virallisesti jo sula. Muutenkin viime viikon lumi, +5-10 C lukemat päivällä ja tämän päiväisen sateet ovat saaneet paljon lunta pois katujen varrelta ym. Ihana kun kevät tulee! 

P.S. forecan mukaan, Tampereen ja Sapporon ilmat on aika samanlaiset tällä viikolla! 

Konnichiwa from Sapporo!

Konnichiwa!

Here we are, happy as can be! 

It was a rough trek to get here. And long. And sleepless. But we made it!

Elisabeth was an awesome little traveler, who barely cried and handled the take-offs and landings like a champ and made friends with everyone she met along the way. Gotta love that little muffin! 

We were met at the Sapporo airport by Kevin's friend, who he met through an exchange in Tampere. We are so grateful he was there to meet us too, as we might still be figuring out how to get to Sapporo via train...and from the train station to our hotel via subway. ;)

After some 30+ hours of being awake, we all passed out once we got to the hotel and showered and ate. Ah, glorious sleep! It actually worked out quite well that we got to the hotel around 5pm local time, since by the time we were ready to sleep, it was 8pm and we were able to get on a decent schedule right away. Hopefully this means that we will have no jet lag? 

This morning we woke up, drank coffee (Juhla Mokka like real Finns) with our French press, and talked on skype with the Nelsons who were still enjoying their Friday night. Time difference will never cease to amaze me! 

After Elisabeth took her nap, we set off to find Odori park, which is the central park avenue here. We set off for a few minutes in the wrong direction (south instead of north) to Nakajima park. I have a feeling I'm going to love that park in the spring, since it impressed me even covered in snow!

We turned around to head in the right direction and walked up the street. It was a pretty crowded street and I'm sure I looked like a smiling fool to the passersby. It's kind of overwhelming all the hustle-bustle and noises (ads through speakers outside), traffic etc. It was like SLAP -- you're in Japan again!! I love it! 

We made it to Odori park in about 20 minutes or so.  The tower in the back is a landmark, so obviously we had to take plenty of tourist photos.

We decided to walk to the other end of the park (some 10-12 blocks) and find some more convenience store snacks along the way.

Right before we were ready to sit down and eat al fresco, my dear fell asleep. 

Kevin has been looking forward immensely to eating these onigiri, which is a rice ball with filling (and often) wrapped in nori (seaweed). 

This one was roe with egg.

I had one without the nori, but there was wasabi-tinted roe in there. Yum. And I don't even like the stuff!

This was dessert. It could be called heaven dessert. Royce apparently, is a big (chocolate) sweets company here and was founded in Sapporo. 

This particular ice cream was white chocolate green tea with nuts, with green tea ice cream and chocolate sauce inside.

Other things we found: green tea kitkats, bacon and asparagus snacks, and pumpkin snacks. 

I also had to have some caffeine, so I had a cold coffee drink. Yummy.

Kevin wanted a hot vending machine coffee. Like a boss. ;)

Here are some other photos from our walk.

 This guy passed us and seemed like an interesting fellow. 

The weather here is brisk, I have no idea how many degrees, but cold enough for there to be snow, but warm enough for bulbs to be rising. 

So there it is, the first day of our spring in Sapporo. :)

Typistetty suomennos:

Pitkän matkan jälkeen saavuttiin erittäin väsyneenä Sapporoon. Meitä vastassa oli jo Tampereelta tuttu vaihto-opiskelija, joka vei meitä junalla ja metrolla hotelliin asti. Onneksi, sillä olisimme luultavasti vielä lentokentällä ihmettelemässä millä junalla mennään ja miten. ;)

Perille kun päästiin nukuimme suihkun ja pienen aterian jälkeen makoisat 12 tuntia. Aamulla juotiin juhla mokkaa, koska eihän suomalainen lähde ulkomaille ilman sitä, heh. 

Iltapäivällä eksyimme vahingossa Nakajima-puistoon, joka oli luminen mutta kaunis.

Käännyimme toiseen suuntaan ja kävelimme Odori-puistoon, joka on Sapporon keskuspaikka. Sen päädyssä oleva torni on eräänlainen maamerkki, joten tietenkin turistikuvia piti ottaa! 

Kävelimme sitten puiston toiselle puolelle, noin 10-12 korttelia. Söimme lopuksi riisipalloja mätitäytteellä ja vihreä tee-jäätelöä. Naposteltiin vihreä tee-suklaata ja pekoni-parsa naksuja. Join ihanaa sokerista jääkahvia, Kevin taas halusi kuuman kahvin automaatista. 

Elisabeth nukkui rattaissa suurin osan lenkistä. Pieni maailman matkaaja. ♥

Täällä on pikkasen kylmempää kuin Tampeerella. Ainakin viima käy ja lunta on paljon. Sulaamassa se on kylläkin. Näkyi myös sipulikukkien nousevat lehdet.

Näin keväämme Sapporossa alkaa! :)