Mid-Year Conference

This week, I headed out from Monbetsu to go to Sapporo for the annual two-day mid-year conference.


From this:



To this:



Mid-year conference (MYC) is a two-day all-prefecture meeting for ALTs. We cover business concerning the prefecture's JETs, like the upcoming establishment of regional advisors to supplement the single prefectural advisor. We also run workshops and discussions of teaching and living matters, which were pretty hit or miss. And of course, there's a great party.

Sapporo is a bit of a hike from Monbetsu, so I don't get out there very often. It's nice to take the opportunity to really enjoy myself; Sapporo is a cool city. I'd like to share some pictures from around town.



This is probably the worst picture that's ever been taken of Sapporo Tower (my camera is broken and I'm relying on my cell phone). This is similar to the famous Tokyo Tower in, uh, Tokyo, but it's smaller and it's in Sapporo. The city is laid out in a grid, with intersections labeled in relation to the tower; for Japan, this is the height of convenience and navigational ease.



Much of downtown Sapporo is connected by a network of underground shopping streets. These areas are meant to keep the city walkable in winter, and are also great parts of the city in their own right; they are always packed with people, and are lined with shops of all kinds. There's a lot of cool things to be found down here, if you can navigate the maze.

Sapporo also contains a large Don Quixote, a store that sells, well...



Just about everything, laid out in a fashion completely incomprehensible to any foreigner. Designer knockoff clothing shares aisles with car stereos, and the grocery section segues directly into the marital aides department. The main Don Quixote in Sapporo is five floors tall, and should be explored simply as an experience unto itself. It also carries a lot of "Cube Mouth Mickey" items, which is a popular franchise in Japan that makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable:



Yeah, I don't really get it.

Sapporo also has great food. Popular among us foreigners is Taj Mahal:



So delicious I ate there two nights in a row and wasn't even ashamed.

That's about it for the pictures - luckily, no pictures exist showing at the party that night, as far as I know. Lets hope it stays that way.