Our Second Week in Sapporo and the Holidays

We've settled into our little sardine can of an apartment nicely.  Warm and cozy, comfortable, and convenient.  We have ventured into the city center several times.  A movie, holiday shopping...finally found that new camera...yippee.  Yesterday we took the regional train down to Otaru on the coast and toured the railroad museum.  We walked over seven miles...good exercise to offset all of the sitting we've been doing. 

We've caught up on a lot of our TV watching...finished off a couple of seasons of new shows, and gotten a few movies in.  All in all the time is passing nicely.

Christmas is upon us and we blew the budget a bit and bought some really nice Black Angus Prime Rib steaks for the big day.  Christmas morning sticking to our imposed gift budget of $10 per person and "consumable" we gift each other with Cheetos, Skippy Crunchy Peanut Butter, and a new traveling water bottle.  LOL.

Our Japanese vocabulary is growing.  We can now count to ten, have mastered about fifteen plesantries, and can say "excuse me" and "you first" as in " take my seat please."  That later always gets a sweet smile on the metro.

New Year Eve is upon us and it appears we will be staying home.  Sapporo does not have a public countdown or outdoor party.  It is a fairly quiet and reverent holiday where folks review the past year, plan for the new and celebrate new beginnings.  It is a cultural thing and quite lovely.  There is the perverbal music and dance at the high end hotels...not for us.

We have been spending our free time online planning out our year...making reservations...and exploring options.  By May all of 2018 will be paid for and that means a whole lot more going into the reserve account for our Africa and South American adventures where purchasing a vehicle may be our best option.