Sightseeing and Shogi

Today prof. Suzuki, who is from Department of Architecture, showed me the northern part of the city. First we went to his house and I finally saw a typical modern japanese family house from inside. Vast majority of these houses have 2 or 3 floors because space is limited and lots are expensive. Felt little claustrophobic at first but you get used to it fast. Houses are kind of boxy but there are lots and lots of different models. Mr. Suzukis house walls were covered by beautiful vine plants (I think those were vines...). I met his wife and son, who was about to return to Tokio but before he left he gave me few tips about playing Shogi.


Typical houses in Sapporo, picture taken from moving train

Shogi is quite similar to normal chess when you first try it, but there are actually quite a few differences in rules of these games. First you will notice that soldiers can only move and eat directly ahead and thus cannot protect each other like they could in normal chess. But the biggest difference is that when you capture an enemy piece, you can return it into the game on your own side! This makes tactics quite different even though the goal is same in both games, namely to checkmate the opposing king.


Shogi board in starting layout.

After playing 4 games we went to ramen restaurant. I had never tried it so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Basically, it is a big bowl of noodles in strong, tasty soup and some vegetables and/or meat. It was good, but I kind of starting to slightly dislike hot noodle soups. It's hard to eat them without burning your lips or tongue after all. :)

Finally, Mr. Suzuki took me to a little sightseeing trip at nearby mountains. We visited largest ski jumping arena in Sapporo, Okurayama. Ride to the top was bit exciting since you go to there by downhill skiing elevator. Wind can blow quite hard at times in Sapporo. View is just magnificent of a bright day like this. You can see most of the city from the tower. I didn't have my camera with me but take a look at the wikipedia page, which has couple nice pictures of the tower itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Okura_Ski_Jump_Stadium

After that we went around the mountain with professor Suzukis car, countryside was full of green color. Mountains are very beautiful this time of year. Roads are pretty thin and winding so it wasn't easy to see far ahead. I can imagine driving here during winter is not much fun.

Now it's time to rest a bit and get ready for a new school week. I'll meet a new faculty member tomorrow who is in charge of this coming week.