Sapporo: Day Two...

Wednesday we  woke early so we could arrive at the temple on time.  Our hotel included a breakfast buffet, but by no means your usual hotel breakfast buffet...  This was amazing.  Such good sausages, Japanese bacon which is light years better than American, eggs, salad bar with my favorite sesame dressing, pastries, juices, white bread toast with chocolate sauce drizzled on it (that was the favorite of the three younger members of our party, not me) and pumpkin croquettes, which turned out to be mashed pumpkin stuff breaded and deep fried.  They tasted like really great hushpuppies.  There was tons of other stuff that looked very different and very Japanese.  I thought I would be brave and try a piece of fish.  And, yes, I still don't like fish.  At all.  And I got a bone stuck in my teeth for my trouble.  

On the way through the train station I saw this beautiful quilt.  I've done a bit of looking since, and this, I think, is an example of Ainu needlework.  I will write more about it when I cover Friday, since we found several more quilts in a different part of the station.  I took about a billion photos of them. But I really love these quilts!  

Getting a man hole cover photo proved difficult...   I actually like that Sapporo accepts that there is just going to be a ton of snow.  I remember when I worked shoveling snow around the skating venue at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.  We had to have every surface coated with icemelt if the temp went below forty degrees (F).  It was so ridiculous!  My German boss just couldn't understand American lack of personal responsibility.  He said in his country, if you slipped on ice it was your fault for not being careful enough, not the shop's fault you slipped in front of.  Anyway, most of the sidewalks and streets in Sapporo are packed snow.  In icy or sloped spots, gravel was usually sprinkled to give a bit of traction.  But we had to walk carefully, and I think that's mostly ok.

We took the bus to the temple, which was about a fifth the cost of the train.  It was cheap, easy, and we got to sit down, which is never a sure thing on a train, especially in the morning.

We arrived at the temple.  I was surprised by how big it is!  And beautiful.  And even though the grounds are covered in several feet of snow, I could see how beautiful the design and care of the gardens are.  I read an article that talks about how temples would someday dot the land of Japan.  It says:  "Yukonobu Sato, a clerical leader in the temple, said members in the temple district have strong faith and commitment.

The size of the temple district is small, especially compared with the size of the temple, he said. “I have thought about why. This is God’s investment. He knows the growth that is possible.”"

 If you are not familiar with our church's temples, here is a page with questions and answers about them.  We believe them to be the House of the Lord, a place where we make saving covenants with Heavenly Father, and the place where families can be sealed together for all eternity.

There are three temples in Japan.  One down south in Fukuoka, this one in Sapporo, and one an hour away from our house in Tokyo.  We were super excited when we got orders to Japan that we would finally live so close to a temple!  The closest temples to our previous home were in Washington DC and Raleigh NC, both about 3.5 hours from our house.  But we have this sort of temple curse... which kicked in, and both of those two closed.  Leaving us 5.5 hours from both Philadelphia PA and Columbia SC.  This temple curse we have has proved quite strong...  We stayed for two weeks this last summer across the street from the Salt Lake temple.  Which was, you guessed it, closed for cleaning.  B's ship even visited Hong Kong, which has a temple.  And yes, that temple was closed while he was in port.  It's getting rather insane...  So yes, the Tokyo temple has been closed the entire time we have been here, and will be until right before we are due to leave.  I am praying the remodeling goes smoothly and ahead of schedule!  But our day here at the temple in Sapporo was amazing.  This temple has housing buildings for visitors and a large kitchen/ dining area.  The girls waited there while B and I went inside.  There was an English ceremony at 11.  The temple workers were beyond nice and helpful.

I didn't take this photo, but wanted to remember how beautiful the temple is inside.  Here is an article with more photos of the inside of the temple.

 

After our session in the temple, we walked to a restaurant for lunch.

We found a true hole in the wall, mom and pop lunch restaurant very close to the temple.  We sat on the floor, which was slightly painful...

But the food was incredible!  And cheap.  Each plate was 500 yen, or less than five dollars.

On our walk back to the temple we let the girls finally be loose in some snow.

They had a fantastic time.  We ate some chocolate bars we had picked up at a "supa," or supermarket, along the way.  We teased the girls about foxes eating them. 

We walked to a nearby shrine, in my quest to collect goshuin stamps.  Sadly, the shrine was closed, so I didn't get one.  But the building was gorgeous!  I want it.  Really.  I like the style.  I like the layout.  I like the guardian dogs.

The front door/porch area.

This part back here would be the family/dining room...  Bedroom off to the right.

While this passageway would connect with the huge garage/shop/craft room over here to the right...  It's perfect!

 

We returned to the temple so B and Miss A could go for her first time to perform baptisms in behalf of those who died without the opportunity to be baptized.  We arrived early, so I enforced on pain of death a twenty minute period with no screens, toys, or books; only breathing and thinking, in hopes that Miss A might fall asleep and be fresh (and not cranky) for the evening.  She really does still benefit from a siesta, although she is 12.  As do I, if we're being honest.  It worked!  She fell right to sleep.  And she loved doing the baptisms.  She had four of her own ancestors' names to be baptized for.  And a Japanese lady with a gorgeous British accent gave them some more names.  She said her husband was given ALL the records of their village.  So he has thousands upon thousands of people going back hundreds of years.  Amazing.  I waited in the other building with the two small girls.  All day at the temple people kept giving us chocolates.  It was great!

We were curious about how you say "temple" in Japanese.  Buddhist temples are called "otera."  But we were told that our temple is called shin-den, which means sacred place, or temple.  When B asked one of his friends who grew up here, he said that he translated the shin kanji as "God," and the kanji for den as "castle."  I thought that was cool.
 

We found a random okonomayaki place on google maps fairly close to the temple.  We got fabulously lucky with restaurants this day, because  this turned out to be another tiny little amazing place to eat.  The food was so cheap that we ordered one for each of us.  But so huge that we couldn't eat it all.The husband cooked the food on a grill right next to us, while the wife sat talking and laughing with some of her friends.  It was fun.  And tasty.

 We had quite a long walk back to a subway station.  I took this picture to illustrate something I have noticed in our months here.  When we first arrived these girls complained, and plodded, and whined about walking...  They hated not having a car.  But after about the first two months, they sped up and shut up.  Now they can walk quickly and far.  Much more quickly than I could on the slippery roads, so I had to keep telling them to wait up for me.

We followed google's advice on the subway back to our hotel, which took us a stop too far.  We were pretty tired by this time, it was almost ten.  But near where we got off we ran into the hugest snow blower ever, and a never ending parade of snow trucks.  Where does Sapporo put all its snow?

We put the girls to bed in their room, then watched a hilarious show about, we think, a really intense realtor girl who learned how to bowl.  Watching Japanese tv and trying to make up what is going on is pretty entertaining.  And that was day two!