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Sapporo Diaries: Pancakes and (Not!) Izakayas
We were going to go out this weekend to Sapporo mainly to do some winter-ish shopping, particularly for my boyfriend who needed to get some snow boots. He ended up getting boots locally in town, so it turned into more of a food day (which was already planned anyway), plus some spontaneous shopping, some needs,…
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A Newfound Appreciation for Japanese Teishoku
The other day when I was ordering and eating at a local restaurant, I recently realized that I found comfort and a sense of normalcy in Japanese teishoku meals. What’s teishoku? Teishoku (定食) is essentially a Japanese “set meal” supposed to reflect what Japanese people traditionally eat with nutritional balance. A normal set would have…
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Sapporo Diaries: Seeing my Dad on a Holiday!
My dad’s in Taiwan for work, and since I had a holiday on November 23 (Labor Appreciation Day), we took the opportunity to meet up in Sapporo for a day or so since I had the day off. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen any of my family, and I get to hand…
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Otaru Diaries: Walking Along the Canal on a Rainy Day
My birthday was a couple weeks ago, and one of my new friends here, who has a birthday close to mine, wanted to plan a party celebration of sorts on November 19, the weekend closest to my birthday, since mine was on a weekday. According to the weather, it was going to just be cloudy,…
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Sapporo Diaries: Special Guest and First Long Stay!
I normally go to Sapporo on day trips on a weekend day so I don’t have to worry about staying too late and overnight, but this weekend was an exception, because my boyfriend is coming to visit me! The plan was to meet up with him in Sapporo Friday evening since he would land earlier…
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Sorting Trash in Japan
You may or may not have heard, but Japan sorts its trash. And not just recyclebles and non-recyclebles, but more thorough than that. I believe the specificity of categories also depends on the region and city! When I moved to my town, I was given a booklet specifically on how to sort trash and a…
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Sapporo Diaries: Chatting with Strangers, Sweets Galore, and Early Christmas Shopping?
Here’s the next edition of a new series I’m dubbing Sapporo Diaries, because whenever I go out it’s really a Sapporo day trip. I really should explore more of the smaller cities or even Otaru, the next big city over, but Sapporo just has that big city vibe that nothing else really has, plus all…
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Sapporo Diaries: Beef Tongue, Retro Window Shopping, and Winter Prep-ish
A few weeks ago, specifically October 16, I went out to Sapporo to get out of my place, eat some good food and do some shopping. It was honestly mostly centered around Sapporo station, but really, Sapporo station itself is endless and there’s already plenty to do there anyway. I might have mentioned this previously,…
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Japanese Elementary Schools
Rural Hokkaido public school, as opposed to my experience growing up in an American (more specifcally Southern Californian) public school. In my time working here, I’ve noticed some perculiar small things, and I though I’d collect these thoughts into a post because I found the cultural differences interesting. Of course, this is comparing working in…
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On Kyushoku (Japanese School Lunch)
Kyushoku, or 給食, is what I believe a popular-ish topic among the working in Japan world. It’s basically school provided lunch. As I am not a student, I am not entirely sure if the families pay for the kids’ food, but in any case, everyone at school eats this supposedly nutritionally balanced meal at lunch.…
Annie's Excursions
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