Last winter in Hokkaido

As we move ever closer to our move to Tokyo next spring, a lot of things are being done 'for the last time'.  One such experience is our 'last winter in Hokkaido'.  Certainly this year the snow has been full on.  Already it is piled up way higher than it normally is at this time of year (or perhaps it is just that recent years have seen less snow than normal in this part of Sapporo).  And there are still three more months to go.  With Christmas over and all the boys back in one place for now, we thought we would enjoy one of our favourite things to do in Hokkaido.  It is a treat so not often we can do it but we love the experience of spending a night away at a hot spring hotel.  This is one of the first times we have done this in winter.  We had a great drive there along snow-covered (and often icy) roads, passing one of Hokkaido's largest lakes on the way and some majestic scenery as we crossed some tree-lined mountain passes.  Our destination was a place where we had stayed before as a family, but many years ago.  This place has a heated swimming pool inside but also some heated pools and jacuzzis outside where you can both swim and just chill.  It was fun to be outside with the snow falling overhead.  As we moved from one hot pool to another we had to walk over the snow and be fairly swift too as the temperatures were well below freezing.  The trees on the mountains surrounding the outside pool area looked amazing covered in pure white snow.  As well as the pools, there is a whole complex of hot spring baths too.  There is nothing better than sitting outside in a steaming bath with snow gently falling on your head!

 

The whole experience is one many Japanese enjoy.  Just one night away makes for a really relaxing break.  Outside clothes are swapped for a 'yukata' (a kind of loose-fitting gown) which is worn with slippers around the hotel, not only when going to the baths but when eating and sleeping too.  Dinner is always an amazing selection of all sorts of food and breakfast is great too.  All of us slept in the one room, two beds for Mum and Dad, four futons on the tatami area for the boys (set out for you when you go to eat dinner).  We enjoyed our time away - a great family memory of our last Hokkaido winter.

Church in the Swimming Pool

This blog has been somewhat silent of late.  It's not that nothing has been happening in Hiragishi.  Rather things have been such for us that there has been no time to pen the latest news.  One of the challenges for the church as we look ahead to next year is to find a venue suitable for holding our worship services after we move out of our house in March.  That is easier said than done.  We have shared before that Hiragishi is an area which has many associations with the dead.  There is a very large cemetery opposite our house.  There are a number of temples.  And such halls as there are tend to be used for funerals.  So there are few suitable places to rent as a space for a worship service.  Even the crematorium used to be located in Hiragishi.  And that, believe it or not, has a connection with a place we used for our service the other Sunday. 

 

What was once the crematorium is now the local swimming pool - a great place, with both a 50m and 25 pool.  When we first moved to Hiragishi we noticed that there were a couple of meeting rooms but at the time we had decided to use our house for the worship service so did not need to investigate using one of these rooms for that purpose.  Also, we were not sure how people would feel meeting at the swimming pool!  But now as we think about next year, we thought it would be good to experiment with some places as a one-off to see how they are.  We rented one of the rooms at the pool.  They had no problems with us having singing.  In fact they were very helpful.  It seemed to work well as a venue (if a little hot inside the room!)  Comments have already been passed that we are well set up for an impromptu baptism were we to meet there.  The room was located quite far away from other parts of the pool complex so we did not feel in any way that we were having a worship service at the pool.  We will try some other possible venues too over coming weeks and trust that in time we will be led to the right place for the church.