August 27, 1941 – Roosevelt Agrees to Summit with Konoe

War in the Pacific had been brewing for years. During the 1930s, Japanese influence into China had increased to all-out war in 1937 and domination of Manchuria. With the fall of France in 1940, Japan stationed troops in French Indochina. Germany's invasion of Russia in 1941 placed Japan in a precarious position: Hitler pressured them to attack north to the Soviet Union, which would have been an easy front; French Indochina stood ready for full occupation with Vichy troops occupied in Europe. Far to the east, the United States rested like a sleeping giant.

Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe was desperate to prevent war with America. Roosevelt routinely demanded removal of Japanese troops from China, which was an impossible agreement since the army and navy had suffered too much to give up conquests. On July 28, 1941, Japan commenced its occupation of French Indochina, and the United States retaliated by freezing Japanese assets and, more importantly, leading Britain and the Dutch East Indies in an oil embargo. Without foreign oil, Japan was stuck; within two years, the entirety of oil stockpiles would be depleted. The military had not anticipated such a rash move by the Americans, and Konoe made a last-ditch effort: a personal summit. He sent notice to Roosevelt that he would soon be arriving in Washington in hope FDR would meet him.

It was a diplomatic gamble, but Konoe's risk-taking paid off. The summit was rushed in preparation, and, on September 5, the Japanese Prime Minister was welcomed to the White House. The talks were primarily a standstill; Roosevelt made demands that Japan leave China and stop its military expansion to the south, something that Konoe could not do. While the meeting essentially gained nothing, Konoe did learn one important point: much of the American public did not want to engage in another “European” war, so the United States would never be the one to strike first.

Under the Tripartite Pact signed among Germany, Italy, and Japan in 1940, the three had agreed to join forces if an unnamed force (the United States) came into the war against them. While, militarily, an immediate strike against the small American Pacific fleet would be advantageous, it could prove costly in the long run. Konoe reported to the other Tripartite nations that the United States must never be assaulted. They could not risk a repeat of even the slightest negative PR move like the sinking of the Lusitania in the first World War.

With pressure from Hitler, the Japanese would begin their plans for war against the Soviet Union. They assured him that, without oil, they would be unable to put their armies into the field effectively. Defeat in 1939 at Khalkhin Gol also showed that Japanese ground forces were not adequate against Soviet heavy tanks, so they focused on devising a defensive war with long-reaching strikes by aircraft. However, as Operation Barbarossa became a logistical quagmire, it was obvious that Hitler had bitten off more than Germany could chew.

The Emperor did not want to be on the losing side of a war with the Soviet Union, but Konoe and his ministers could not break the Tripartite Pact. Instead, they bought time, assuring Hitler that their army would be ready for combat in the summer. On June 28, 1942, Japan launched attacks toward Soviet oil fields north of Manchuria simultaneous with Germany's operation Case Blue. Stalin let the east lose ground with only minor defensive measures, pressing most of his might into the defense of Moscow and the west. Even with two fronts, by the middle of 1943, Russia halted the tide of advance and began to push back.

Japan fell to maintaining position and working with its air force (arguably the best in the world after years of buildup) to spy on troop movements and pin down Russian reserves before they could reach the front. Germany's war with Britain had come to a standstill with Hitler giving up North Africa but holding the Mediterranean. The manpower and materiel did not seem available for an amphibious invasion of Europe until at least 1945 despite the fact that the Blitz had long passed. Instead, they fought Germany's navy while Stalin began to eat away at the back of Hitler's European fortress.

Finally, the end came for Germany with the British landing at Normandy under Operation Overlord in March of 1945. By that time, Stalin was pressing into Germany itself, and the Third Reich faced collapse. On August 14, 1945, the remainders of Hitler's government (Hitler himself had disappeared, presumed dead in his bunker via suicide) sued for peace. Stalin then joined with Britain in pressing toward the east where Japan had stood unquestioned for years. Seeing the vicious defeat of allies, Emperor Hirohito offered terms for peace, but Stalin would not accept anything less than what had been declared at Potsdam: disarmament, reduction of empire, and partial occupation.

Prime Minister Konoe, who had been in and out of power over the course of the war, approached American President Thomas Dewey for mediation. Dewey agreed, but Stalin and Prime Minister Clement Attlee did not agree to ceasefire until concessions had been made. While battles still roared in Siberia, Mongolia, China, and French Indochina, talks began. When the dust cleared, Japan would maintain Korea as a protectorate, but they would lose all other imperial gains and face limitations on armed forces.

The United States, now economically on its feet with its profitable Lend-Lease program, suddenly faced a world with vaporizing empires and Soviet dominance over almost all of Europe and Asia. Renewed military buildup began through the 1950s, and America found itself trailing distantly behind Russia in missile technology and space development. In 1962, Russia moved ICBMs to its ally Cuba and refused to recognize American requests that they be removed. The successful invasion at Playa Girón and subsequent seizing of those missiles began the Soviet-American War that would last until 1968 with Russian troops marching into Chicago, where the relocated American government had sat after the Bombing of Washington.

–

In reality, Konoe did not make the diplomatic faux pas of forcing discussion, and Roosevelt bought time with the promise of talks as long as possible to better prepare America's military base. The Japanese government realized war was inevitable, and it would fare better if it began sooner rather than later. On December 7, 1941, Japanese woke the slumbering giant with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Source: http://thisdayinalternatehistory.blogspot.com/2010/08/august-27-1941-roosevelt-agrees-to.html

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Teaching Kids English Using Sequential Memory Through Drumming Experiment - VIDEO

For those of you not familiar with my "drum sequencing" experiment, you can read my first blog here - http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/07/teaching-kids-english-using-right-brain.html

We use the right hemisphere of our brains to determine rhythm (other parts too which were discovered more recently). We use mostly our left side for sequential memory. When individuals are preparing to tap out a rhythm of regular intervals (1:2 or 1:3) the left frontal cortex, left parietal cortex, and right cerebellum are all activated. That is why this idea utilizes a childs brain to the maximum! I found out after doing this exercise, after doing some research...that an experiment has already been done using 16 words by a guy named CHAN. Chan’s study controlled for age, grade point average and years of education and found that when given a 16 word memory test, the musicians averaged one to two more words above their non musical counterparts. This however did not test new words in a different language.

Also, realize that this is called RIGHT BRAIN SEQUENCING. The reason is because the grid is given to the children...where concrete answers are visually given. (you could argue left or right here) If this was all auditory, it would be a lot more left brain as we use that for sequence...but realize...that recently...all of this is changing anyway. We are finding out more information everyday about neural science, and realizing that our brains are a lot more complex than we thought. We use many different parts of our brain for each function...contrary to old theories. So using multiple functions of the brain to remember a foreign language may create bolder images in their brains.

Also...working within their short term memory while sequencing these can help to remember weird conjugations...because having to do a little bit of "work-around" on the word rhythmically kind of relates to the "work-around" that is "conjugation". I will later go on to put these to practical use for long term memory...so those of you saying, "They will only remember it when in sequence"....that is not the case. I want to create pathways in their brains to these words - a foundation so to say - then we will make practice use of them in conversation over the next few weeks with activities, drills, and frequent use.

Also...we will be triggering parts of our short-term memory by grouping these words into smaller groups of four...and with the younger children, since I am using opposites, those words break down even smaller into groups of two. This is what short-term memory is defined as by wiki -

Short-term memory allows recall for a period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal. Its capacity is also very limited: George A. Miller (1956), when working at Bell Laboratories, conducted experiments showing that the store of short-term memory was 7±2 items (the title of his famous paper, "The magical number 7±2"). Modern estimates of the capacity of short-term memory are lower, typically on the order of 4–5 items,^[1] however, memory capacity can be increased through a process called chunking.^{[citation needed]} For example, in recalling a ten-digit telephone number, a person could chunk the digits into three groups: first, the area code (such as 215), then a three-digit chunk (123) and lastly a four-digit chunk (4567). This method of remembering telephone numbers is far more effective than attempting to remember a string of 10 digits; this is because we are able to chunk the information into meaningful groups of letters. Herbert Simon showed that the ideal size for chunking letters and numbers, meaningful or not, was three.^{[citation needed]} This may be reflected in some countries in the tendency to remember telephone numbers as several chunks of three numbers with the final four-number groups, generally broken down into two groups of two.
Short-term memory is believed to rely mostly on an acoustic code for storing information, and to a lesser extent a visual code. Conrad (1964)^[2] found that test subjects had more difficulty recalling collections of words that were acoustically similar (e.g. dog, hog, fog, bog, log).
However, some individuals have been reported to be able to remember large amounts of information, quickly, and be able to recall that information in seconds.

So the idea here is to make sequences in small groups of 4...like beats in a measure, and build up to 16.

After getting some requests for videos about this, I decided to try to really explore this idea, and film it all the while. I video taped 5 classes at one of my smaller schools. I thought of this project as a small experiment, where I specifically test different and independent parts of the childrens brains. I specifically change rhythms, tempos, dynamics, & game speed to see if sequential memory can play a role in learning difficult English words. Also, from a musical stand point, I just wanted to see how the children would react to different rhythms. I used youtube annotations to note when some interesting things happened. Here are some notes I noticed overall -

1. The children could hear a woodblock better than the hand drum, and determined the correct number of taps more often. I think this is due to 2 things. One is the fact that the woodblock has a fast attack sound without much sustain. This probably makes a sharper image in the brain and ear. The other is the fact that the woodblock had 2 UNIQUE sounds, that differ in pitch. These are very distinctly unique sounds to the brain. It also gives an "A" "B" sequence to the rhythm, and makes it easier to remember. The hand drum has this too, but depending on WHERE exactly I hit the drum, I can get a little bit of a different sound. Even though it is CLEAR to us musicians that it is different, its not as predictable as the solid sound of the woodblock. Also, the drum resonates and leaves a small rumbling sound over top of the next tap...which could probably lead to confusion when calculating hits quickly by children.

2. Each kid has a different way of playing this game. Its really interesting to see the different styles. One style (and most common for younger kids) is to point and count the squares on the board. This is effective, because the younger kids can retain what they just heard pretty easily...they just cant COUNT fast enough to keep up with the older kids. The board is a much more visual and reliable means to count through the beats.

Another way is counting internally or using fingers. Many of the kids (especially as they start getting to about 8 years old) start counting in their heads. Probably in their native (Japanese) language, but I dont really mind. I want them to be efficient at whatever way they choose.

Some kids will tap the beat out on their legs or hands to mimic it, and count it out. This is really neat, because you can start to see our brains ability to "slow down" or "speed up" rhythms even at a very young age. They will mimic the beat, sometimes slower or faster...with no problem at all. It is amazing how when a sound has an "A" "B" type rhythm, kids naturally go to their legs to mimic it. We have 2 legs, 2 hands, making it only natural to re-drum them out on your thighs.

Some children start to remember the sequence. Young kids will remember the first 4 or 8....but the older kids start to remember all of it. This shows brain growth in older kids ability to remember sequentially. They sometimes dont even need to look at the board to know the answer...and definitely would not need to if there wasnt a difficult English word as a response.

My favorite way that kids were doing this...which was SO AMAZING, was mathematically. A lot of Japanese kids use "soroban"...which is an old fashion calculator used in Asia. So, with my older kids, I started to explain some things out to them -

"If I do a beat of 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5 (all exactly same in rhythm), then 1...then, by understanding multiplication its (3x5)+1."

When I was using the woodblock, I started tapping the "A" "B" rhythms into smaller groups so they could do the math. After explaining this to my older kids, they were MUCH faster. I dont know if it is only Japanese children...which I doubt, but its amazing!!!

3. It would be nice to let the kids do the drumming. But what I realized after this, is that it is a little bit brain intensive for me. And just because kids can recall or mimic a rhythm, does not mean that they can create it. They just simply do not have the hand-eye motor-skills to do this. So in order for this to work, I need to be able to recall certain beats after mistakes are made. It is actually kind of tough to make a beat, remember it, make sure the kids say the right English, correct it, recall it again exactly if mistakes are made, and keep the tempo of the game going...which is key for little kids.

4. I also realized that my children who take music lessons are MUCH better at this game, and my piano playing little girls could do this whole activity in broken rhythms...meaning just random off timed taps. I didnt make a video of my last student because it was a one-on-one (I wish I would have). She was amazing at this game, and loves playing the piano. So obviously, music education will help sequential memory (but this goes without saying).

5. There is a big difference right around age 6 or 7, where more complicated memory games become more interesting to children. There is a big shift between being a baby or child, into a learning student. So there was an obvious correlation between the "amount of taps that were able to be recalled" and their "age". Again, especially around 6 or 7, when a child has started elementary school and understand what "learning" is. Before that age, everything just seems to "come at" a child rather than be understood for what it is.

6. Swing makes a big difference in younger childrens ability to count them out...especially when using fingers. When a child normally counts, you will notice, they always do it in a rhythmic way where each interval between numbers is evenly spaced. Once you throw a swing into it, they have to do some kind of conversion which they have not developed so well yet. I thought this was really interesting!

7. If you notice, things that have an "A" "B" way to remember them, like opposites or "run - ran"...the pitch of my voice goes from "up" to "down". This is really good for them for many reasons. It makes another small grouping of the words for short term memory. Also, when we speak, and finish with a pitch going up...it is either a question, or an unfinished statement. By hearing the first, you naturally want the second. By giving an "upward" with a "downward", it also helps group the 2 together by pitch.

8. Something else really interesting was when I changed from a "rhythmic" beat to a "stale" beat. By stale, I mean a 1,2,3,4,5,6, etc...flat, same tone, and exactly at the same intervals (like a metronome). When I change from a fast paced game with quick "1s" "2s" or even beats...then change to stale...they must quickly start counting "1, 2 ,3 ,4 etc". The change between these kinds of beats is really weird, and a child must be able to pick up from like "3, or 4"...by the time they realized the next stale rhythm. If the child has to start from 1, they will answer too slowly or be all messed up because there is no way to distinguish the taps from each other (because they all sound the same...just "how many" were there). Its hard to explain exactly what I mean by this...but if you watch the videos, it will make more sense.

5. Oh, and one last thing. When I teach little kids, I realized I am just copying Mario Party (which I play with my wife when relaxing in the evenings). My voice sounds like Luigi! "LETS GO" "HERE WE GO". Actually, my brain kind of goes on autopilot with that stuff...because its really more work than it looks...trying to keep the game going fluidly.

A few of the mistakes I may have made in the experiment are as follows :

1. No control group. But, I want all my kids to stay at the same level so I can use the same lessons...so, sorry, no control group.

2. I didnt use 100% sequential memory. After all, I explained each word clearly to the kids, and usually used a hand gesture or way to remember it (mnemonic device). So, I obviously burned a visual memory image into their brains before doing this. If I wanted to see the results of purely sequential memory, I would have only said the words...or even harder, make them remember them without the grid. This is poor application because in the end, I want my kids to LEARN...and learn quickly. So, I used this method.

3. I started each activity a little late, and ran out of video...so, some of the lessons only go up to 12 words.

4. These kids almost never get candy in class, and I did for this experiment...I know...its not really right...but I LOVE these kids, and it was just extra incentive. It is really good to give REALLY LITTLE kids incentive.

5. I could have tried more variations by removing certain elements independently...but again, the goal was to TEACH the words...and not just experiment on the kids.

6. I also never really scolded wrong answers...which may have made kids answer too quickly. So, maybe if I paced the game slower, and took points from them for wrong answers, they would be more accurate. But, I like the pace and the kids do too.

So here are the videos from the classes. I know they can be long and boring, and it is more of a documentation of what happened...so please dont try to sit through all of them...unless its really your thing. I cant stand my teaching voice for that long! There best parts are the beginnings and endings.

Class 1 - Age 5 & 6

I love this class. These little girls are so cute and ALWAYS laughing. They are very smart. The one little girl just re-joined the class, so she is a little bit behind, but she will catch up.

Class 2 - Age 10-12

 This is a class with 3 of my older kids. They are smart, and one of them is always tapping on things and loves drumming. This experiment had amazing results at the end of the video where I show how speeding up or slowing down a rhythm has no effect on the kids ability to realize it was the SAME rhythm that they had just heard. Also that when adding ONE extra tap to a similar rhythm, kids easily use math to figure out the right square. Watch the ending of this video to see it!

Class 3 - Age 4,6, & 7.

 These are all newer students of mine...less than a year at least. The age gap is a little bit big on the younger child...but hes a smart a cool little guy...and hes becoming a little man! Its great. He tries very hard, and I push him pretty hard. This class, I was working on reading simple words that end with "at". They just started it the week before, and are picking up phonics pretty fast.

Class 4 - Age 5 & 6

This is one of my funnest classes. I have been teaching these kids for 2 1/2 years...since they were very little. They each have such a unique personality. I really started to notice their inability to count out taps when there was a SWING to the rhythm. Chika "kancho'd" me!

Class 5 - Age 8 & 9 

This is another class I have taught for 2 1/2 years. These boys are so funny, and anything related to nasty, "Red & Stimpy" style humor...is right up their alley. They are quick & smart though.

 I will try to update this with result videos and see if they recall them after the next few weeks activities.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!

Source: http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/08/teaching-kids-english-using-sequential.html

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OWS, TOYCON!?

Mikhael in his most TOXIC look ever.. i love!

crushie

put it all in the bag. I wish i had this during highschool. pagandahan ng branded paper bags noon. I'm always proud whenever i use my Guess paper bag. LOL.

the girl reminded me of Toni Gonzaga's sister

Momo Ishihara and her sister. She was so sweet to take a photo of me. She told me she saw me on the internet. I was like: where? di nga? chos...
cute kids! TARTAN unite!

ive always loved Darna's bra

i have one like this. pero this one's way way better

one of the best dressed cosplayer in the night IMO.

This is awesome..

this is made of wood.. and its effin heavy.. kids these days huh?

Noritaka Tatehana?

i want her as my doll! shes seriously pretty

Lady Gaguetta.. chos

toxic and the zombie

i bumped in my college friends.. good thing they still recognized me spite of the piled on make up and piled on outfit. haha

I knew it! Ive seen it coming! The event was a helluva fun activity. Its my first time to attend and Ive been dreaming of attending since I was 12 years old. I love anime! I love toys! I owe everything to anime in fact Ive learned how to draw 'cause of my addiction to Sailormoon. Honestly, it was until I was 13 years old that Ive stopped playing with my immense collection of action figures. Instead of doing my homework , I would play with my Son Goku and Sailormoon toys until 8pm. I'd remember making them french kiss after their bloody fight scene. haha. AAaaahhh the memories of me desperately wanting to be a certified Japanese boy haunted me again.

It would have been more festive if Gelo was there but too bad he was grounded. We miss him. During the whole time, we would catch ourselves talking about him, of his quirkiness, of his love for toys and all.But Gelo was with us in spirit.

I chose the Don Protasio jacket as my focal point since he himself was inspired by NARUTO and Naruto plainly means cosplay material so there. haha. Im too busy to make a costume , ughh.

Everyone was an eyecandy. Most of the time , i was like "Hey , wait, I wanna take a picture of that pretty geisha and the cute chinese looking guy in his Son Goku costume!"
Every single cosplayer came in their custom-made outfit. I can tell. Some have fabric problems and fitting issues but this isnt fashion week and its all for fun kaya keme lang! This is a celebration of creativity among the young and young at heart. Honestly, madami ang young at heart lol

I feel sorry for myself for not being familiar with the recent Animes. The last anime Ive seen was Tenchi and Saber Marionette and the anime magic was gone gone gone.. boo! I was literally disappointed and dumbfounded to be still expecting that there'll be a girl who'll dress up as Sailormoon that day. I even searched for Sailormoon toys. Its unfair! How come there are still Dragon Ball Z toys around and no Sailormoon in sight?

Anyhow, this was a great experience since I felt like my young version again... It was nice rekindling with my virgin state of mind. not really.

Too bad, Ows , Tokyo?! wasn't there. hay nako haha.. sila na lang ang kulang, Japan na talaga.

Source: http://totallyinkarlcerating.blogspot.com/2010/06/ows-toycon.html

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Hokaido, Japan, August 2010

My dreams finally came true, always wish to go to Hokaido. Took Japan Airlines night flight to Narita. Arrived Narita in the morning and then took 2 hours bus jouney to Haneda, domestic airport. Landed on Hakodate which is of one of the most beautiful port cities of Japan and one of the first three ports in Japan opened for foreign trade in 1859. 

Visited the Motomachi Roman Catholic Church and the white Russian Orthodox Church is Japan's first Greek Orthodox Church.  (renovating when we were there). 

On the way we bought melon and mix ice cream and grilled squid to eat.

We visited Mt. Hakodate and took the cable car to have a panoroma view of the city and the fine natural harbour.  Great view!!

We stay in tatame and the bathroom are really small. Weather is really hot and hokaido people don't practice switching on air-conditioned. This year the weather changed and it was 35C. Normally summer in hokkaido the weather is between 17-26C.  We booked a private room for hotspring and the cost for 1 hour is only RM37.

Next day, we visited the Assaichi Hakodate Morning Market, Japan's biggest seafood wholesale market.
We had grilled scallop and abalone. It was ok, nothing spectacular. It is really fresh.

Sea Unchin

Then on our way to Lake Toya we stopped by at Seaweed Museum to buy seaweed and biscuits. The journey took us 3 hours to reach Lake Toya for lunch.

Our lunch are steamboat with prawns, scallops, salmons, chinese cabbage and pork.  Very healthy food and no oil.

Visit to Mt. Uzuzan and took a ropeway to view the active volcano rising from the valley.

At the same time, visited the Bear Ranch which has 102m long brown bears. The bears are so adorable, waiting to be feed with biscuits. You can purchase the biscuits from the vending machine, each packet cost 100 yen which is RM3.70.The bear will do all kinds of action just to get the biscuits. Make sure you save the biscuits for the last group of bears which are cage at the end of the ranch. 

After that we  visited Jigokudani (Hell Valley) at Noboribetsu.  Jigokudani is a part of an old crater. We did not walk all the way in to see the crater and the hot water bubbles.  The sulfur smells are too strong.

We check in to our hotel and the guide advise us to wear Yakuta for dinner. gosh, it was so hot and no air-conditioned in the restaurant. Some more we are eating hot pot. It is buffet style therefore you can eat fresh salmon, squid, scallops and etc.  

We are so lucky that we are able to see the Ghost Festival where there are fire crackers and ghost performance.  The shows starts at 8.30pm and is just walking distance from our hotel.  The guide ask us to wear Yakuta to join the festival unfortunately weather is too hot, so all of us change into our tshirts and shorts.  On our way back, we stopped by at Panchinko outlet to check out the place and see how to play. Panchinko is a japanese gaming device use in the amusement and gambling area, similar to pinball machines.

The guide took us to cherry plucking. Have you ever eat cherry from the tree? It was fresh and yummy. We had cherry feast..ha!ha!

We stopped by at Furano Cheese Factory and we tried their milk and it was so nice. Must try their milk!!.We stopped by at one of the restaurant for lunch and we were given one slice of melon. Melon are very expensive in Hokaido, one melon can cost RM129. After lunch we visited lavender shop where you can buy lots of lavender product such as pillow, lavender skin lotions, soap and etc. The driver and guide took us to additional farm so that we could see different views and flowers. The flowers are so beautiful and the view are magnificient, exactly what you see in the emails or postcards.

Then we reached Tomita Farm and we saw lavender and the smell are so nice.Tomita farm is one of the famous lavender farm in Furano. It started to rain heavily therefore we left the place and went to Biei, another magnificient view of the hill where you can see wheats, an ingredient for SOBA.

We reached Sounkyo and stay over night, The hotel is build behind the ravine. After breakfast, visited Sounkyo Gorge, is a giant gorge consisting of 100m cliffs formed by the erosion of tuff, and forms the center of the Daisetsuzan National park. Saw Ryusei-no-taki Falls (shooting star falls) and Ginga-no-taki Falls (milky way falls), great view and must see it.

We travel to Otaru. Otaru renown as "foreign country in the north".  Visited Otari Canal, Ishiya Chocolate Factory famous for its white chocolcate. Visited the Otaru Handicraft Street where famous for glass handicraft and musical box. Bought a cow musical box to add in to my cow collections.

Most Expensive Musical Box in the world

We drove to Sapporo where is the capital of Hokaido.We had our King Crab Buffet in Sapporo. All you can eat long leg crab and hairy crab. The hairy crab really not nice, not much meat. The long leg crab is salty. This is because there is no fresh long leg crab during this period. The fishermen catches the long leg crab in October, and then cooked the crab and freeze it. That's why the crab is salty.  We also order Kobe beed and the cost is RM300++ which is 9000 yen for 200gm.  The Kobe beef really melt in your mouth. Must try!!  Shops closes at 8pm. Rush to Daimaru Departmental store to shop for toys unfortunately can't find any toy shop.

Beef, Lamb, Hairy Crab, Long Leg Crab - unlimited refew

Long Leg Crab

Hairy Crab

After breakfast, visited Hokaido Shrine to make pray and make wishes. Then went to Tanukikoji Underground Shopping Street and were given only 1 hour. Therefore very rush and also cannot find toys like Gundam here.

Lunch we had RAMEN, no words can describe the bowl of ramen. It was so delicious. Consist of 3 big scallops, 2 pieces of pork meat and also we are given 3 pieces of Gyoza to eat. I could not finish the bowl of ramen cos too big bowl. Really wasted...but this ramen is alot better than those we ate in Tokyo.

Went to Sapporo Factory Outlet to shop, we only given 2 hours here and the outlets are huge. Nike, Addidas, Rockport are really cheap.

Time to said goodbye to Sapporo and we headed to Narita by flight. Stay overnight and after breakfast we flew back to Malaysia.   So sad and now back in to reality.  Overall Hokaido is good for sightseeing and hotspring. Yeap I miss out the hot spring section, i did try the hot springs....it was nice and really an experience.  We did went for the private and the public hot springs. Both experience are different.

I highly recommend you to book your tour with Ming Ming Travel Services Sdn Bhd from Kuching.

Tel : 082-419953 or email to mingtrvl@tm.net.my

My local guide name is Felicia. She is really good and also a great friend of us. Our japanese tour guide known as Polly. She is really great and she got everything in her bag and we told her tat she owns an doreamon bag. She teaches us how to use the lavender skin lotion and highly recommend you to buy it cos you can't get this in Malaysia.  The most important thing that i left out, Polly took us to cherry plucking which is not in our itinery. We pluck cherry and ate on the spot. Really cherry feast. In KL, one cherry cost 90 cents. 

Hokaido is famous for hot springs, melon, scallops, long leg crabs and sightseeing.  Tokyo and Hokaido are two different world.

Source: http://nutcow.blogspot.com/2010/08/hokaido-japan-august-2010.html

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