Week 14: More Beer and Mountains!

This week we went back to the beer garden!! There is an intern student visiting our lab for two weeks, so to welcome her, on Tuesday we went back to the beer garden! When the beer garden closed (at 9pm?!) we moved on to a bar in Susukino, the nightlife district. The bar turned out to be owned by an Australian, and there were actually several foreigners there, but the bar was so busy and I was close to the exit so I didn't get to chat with anyone other than the people in our group.

On Saturday I went to Mt. Moiwa with my labmate and her family. Mt. Moiwa is a smallish (just over 500 m) mountain at the edge of the city. We took the ropeway up to the top of the mountain, which is famous for offering a beautiful view of the city. To get there, we had to take the Sapporo Streetcar!! I don't know if I've ever taken a street car before. It was very exciting.

When we reached the mountain, we decided to take the ropeway to the top; it is possible to hike the mountain in a few hours, but when we arrived it was already past noon and it was another incredibly hot day, so we decided to be lazy. 

At the top of the mountain there was a gift store and a little shrine.

I think this picture also does a good job of showing how Sapporo is located approximately 1 km FROM THE SURFACE OF THE SUN.

There was also an intriguing restaurant at the top of the mountain. I was tempted to visit to see if I could get a free meal ;)

The view from the mountain really was beautiful; it was another sunny and clear day, so you could actually see all the way to the Sea of Japan, ~30 km away! 

The other mountains surrounding Sapporo.

I guess because I am used to the tectonic Rocky Moutnains, I was really amazed at the shape of these mountains (which I assume were formed volcanically??) 

I never realized what a huge city Sapporo is..

The Sea of Japan is the dark blue streak!

 On the way back, I made an amazing discovery: I saw the Love Neko cat cafe!!!!! I had previously tried to find it on google street view and had failed miserably, so I was really excited when I saw it from the street car!! Now that I know where it is I will definitely be paying them a visit in the near future!

I realize that it's been a while since I updated my critter list. I have seen a lot of critters! I have now seen both of the feral cats who live in the research station. Obviously I have tried to lure them into my home (to eat one of the MANY MANY spiders that I have now caught in my apartment ;_____;), but so far no luck; both of them COMPLETELY ignored me when I tried to get their attention by making cat-attracting sounds at them. That usually never fails! At home I'm pretty good at getting random cats to come up to me but these ones really gave me the cold shoulder. I was offended. I saw some deer in the research station, and the other day when I was biking home in the evening, my friend and I saw something that was either a cat, a fox, or a raccoon! I really think it actually was a raccoon because it was too big for a cat and too fat for a fox :p

I also saw a snake this weekend!! I didn't take a picture, because sadly he was lying dead in the street (mysteriously dead, since he wasn't run over, but definitely dead because he was being eaten by ants..), but I am pretty sure that it was a Japanese striped snake. Maybe if I can't catch a cat I can catch a snake to eat my spiders.

Finally, my brother sent me some great pictures from home!

Apparently there was a cold snap, which is why Jim is wrapped in blankets.

Since Jim is swathed in blankets, Luke has taken over Jim's usual bed... a suitcase on top of a dresser in my old bedroom!