Golden Week: HOKKAIDO!

Golden Week is a cluster of national holidays found at the beginning of May. This is a time when every Japanese person who is not serving hard time attempts to travel. I went to Hokkaido (the northernmost island of Japan) to visit my long-lost Uncle Shigehiko ("Shige") (my Mom's elder brother), Aunt Kyoko, and cousins Yasuhiko ("Yasu"), Wakana, and Natsumi. Unfortunately, Wakana couldn't make it back home for holidays as she is now working in Ibaraki-ken, but 4 out of 5 isn't bad.

Let me first say that I have not seen these people since I was in elementary school. I have vague memories of them but seeing them during Golden Week was like being "back together for the first time, again". I'm sorry. I could not resist.

To "level up" the awesomeness of the trip, my other cousin Taiki (whose mother is my Mom and Shige's youngest sister) was coming up at the same time. Taiki had also not seen these northern relatives since elementary school so it was quite a reunion.

Conveniently, Taiki and I flew into Hokkaido at the same time so we trained into Sapporo together. The first thing we thought when Shige and Yasu pulled up was: "Holy crap. Shige looks exactly like Grandpa!". This is probably exactly what our Grandpa looked like 30 years ago...it was uncanny.

Anyways, here are some pics:


The cousins: Natsumi (21), Taiki (23), Ken (24), Yasu (~27).


Delicious BBQ on the second-story balcony of the Okada's gorgeous log house. I think Shigehiko really loved Canada when he visited many years ago. Short of moving there, the next best thing is to move to Hokkaido and build a log house.


Aunt Kyoko, Natsumi, and Myu.

My Uncle Shigehiko at the underwater penguin tank at Asahiyama Zoo, the best zoo in Japan (more pictures to come).