Today, on my day off, I went to Sapporo. It was a lot of fun. I never realized how much I am a city boy until I came here to Hokkaido. For those who don't know, I'm in a city of 35,000 people. Now, some of you in the bay area may say, "Oh, 35,000? That's like the size of El Cerrito (maybe?)." The thing about the bay area suburbs is just that... it's a suburb of a fairly large metropolitan area. Basically, if you're driving down I-80... it's hard to tell where one city starts and another begins. Out here, it's very easy to tell where one city starts and another begins. There are stretches of fields that separate our city from its neighbors. So, we get that small town feel. And thus, I realize how much of a city boy I am.

I think I wrote this about Sapporo before, but I find it strange how it seems like the people in Sapporo are like 6 inches taller than the people in Date (where I'm living). Then again, maybe not. Young people live in Sapporo. People in their 20s and 30s are there. Out here, we have more the 50s, 60s, 70s type people. And everybody knows that many Asian people in their 70s are hunched over, pushing some cart or something. And well, people hunched over just aren't as tall as people who are standing up straight.