Monday, September 28, 6:00 pm ship time, 5:00 am east coast time
In Muroran yesterday, we took a tour which took us to Sapporo and the Historical Village of Hokkaido, featuring reconstructed buildings from the olden days. The historic village was OK but we preferred the Folk Museum in Oslo. Very short English explanations. We had to remove our shoes to enter the buildings which were sparsely furnished but interesting. The doorways were very low, about eye level for me. I only knocked my head once. There were slippers available if you wanted to use them and my shoes looked comical next to the little slippers.
One thing looked odd: these old structures had little fire pits in each room. I asked a guide how they dealt with the smoke. There was a vent in the roof but no chimney. He said many structures were made of straw and the smoke made the straw stronger but was not too good for people. In one big building used by fishermen, there was loft and the women slept in the loft, men on the first floor. It was probably warmer in the loft. After the women climbed up, they removed the ladder.
Our tour guide passed around her wedding picture while we were on the bus. She is wearing a white hat. The hat is to hide her horns. Women have horns. (Of course) After the wedding the bride discloses her horns. She had been married for 20 years and has no children but her husband is like a child.
I asked our guide to tell me more about the horns because there could be different interpretations. She gave an example: "He comes home late "Grrrr."" Laurie asked if the wedding kimono is handed down from mother to daughter but it is rented for around $2500.
The divorce rate is around 20%. She speculates it is because weddings are so expensive. Arranged marriages now are around 10%.
They do not have a bed in their three room apartment. They have a room with a tatami mat. At night she rolls out bedding on the floor directly. In the morning they roll up the bedding and can use the room for other purposes.
We stopped at a rest stop, the rest room sink was about 4 inches above knee level for me. Then I came across a french fry vending machine which I could not pass by. Fries cost $3.80 and had a salt packet in the box. They were hot and a little soggy but worth it.
At lunch we were offered only water, orange juice or diet coke to drink. Lunch was served in a hotel banquet hall, the best part was that it was fast. The toilet seats in the ladies room were heated and the toilet offered sprays to clean you off after completing your business. (So I was told). The ladies room at the historic village offered a hole in the floor or one "western" toilet. (So I was told). The only unusual thing I noticed in the men's room was knee level sinks. Sorry, no photos.
The Japanese written language is made up from a combination of Chinese and two other language's characters. I was told but could not name the other languages. Some Chinese characters are the same in China and some have different meanings. There are 50,000 characters in the Japanese language but only 3,000 are commonly used. On a keyboard you type a character for a sound and since many characters share that sound you choose the character you want from a list. It is very slow.
Sapporo is a large city with about 1,600,000 residents. Smoking is not allowed on the street.
We visited a big store which was like a department store but the departments were all owned by different companies. By contrast, in a mall each company has it's own store. The Japanese are meticulous dressers, very fashion forward. It was easy to pick out the foreigners. As you can see, we had a spectacular day.
Yom Kippur evening and morning services were very good. Our Rabbi, Harold Kudan, is from Illinois. We have no Torah (or torahnim) on board but do have prayer books. Our congregation is 25 strong and we meet in the wedding chapel. It has been an easy fast but the concluding service is not to be held until sunset (naturally) so moving the clock forward yielded no benefit. We lose another hour tonight.
Tomorrow: Vladivostok
Regards,
Steve & Laurie
PS: I may have missed some email addresses so if you know of anyone who should be receiving these please forward their address to me or refer them to my blog where these may be posted also. http://smillerdadtravels.blogspot.com/
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