Club Activities

  I belong to a circle. My circle is outdoor circle. We climb mountains, go for drives, and do many seasonal events. Today I am going to introduce you about my circle because I like my circle and members.

   I participated in the club activities since this April. For the first time I met my circle’s member, they came to talk me and were very kind. I was happy because I was little nervous. Since I had wanted to go around Hokkaido, the outdoor circle which goes many places in Hokkaido seemed very attractive. I decided to belong to it soon.

  Our circle’s main activity is done mainly summer. One of it is to climb mountains. You don’t have to be worried, because beginners can climb since my circle climb mountains which we can climb easy. I was beginner, too. But my seniors taught me how to climb mountains carefully. I learn what clothes I should wear, and things I have to bring. Our circle’s members climb mountains unhurriedly and we can enjoy plants and flowers. Luckily we can see animals sometimes. I saw deer and a squirrel and many birds. Climbing mountains is very wonderful. We can see grateful scenery of nature. In addition, we camp at tents on the previous day. We make dinner by everyone. We cook rice by pots. Popular menu of camp is stew or curry. Whatever the meal is, it is delicious. When I eat under the sky, every thing seems very good. After we climbed, we always went to hot spots. I talk with members a lot and laugh a lot. I had nice times with members. I climbed Apoi Mountain and Shioya Mountain, Kamui Mountain this year. Next year, I want to climb more.

 Second, we go for drives. I am favorite them, too. The end of summer, we drove to the east of Hokkaido. If I do not belong to my circle, I never have chance to go there during I am student. We drove to east and stay in cottage, and next day, we drove to east more and go Shiretoko. We also went to Hamanaka city and saw wetland. Wetland is very open and my mind was refreshed. I can saw Tanchou (crane). They were smart and so beautiful. I want to be crane, I thought then. There are many places that have wonderful scenes. Sky always showed me different view. We went hot spots many times. In Hokkaido, there are many hot spots and you can relax in it.

  All season we enjoy events. In spring, we go to see cherry blossoms. We hold a welcoming camp for new member. In the camp, we enjoy BBQ and have pleasant time. In summer, we climb mountains and go for drive. Some of my members go Sarobetsu wetland and stay there for about a week, work as guide. I also participated in it. I learned many names of plants, made display of the visitor center, and guided tourists around the wetland. Guiding is not easy, but I could get precious experience. Tourists said me thank you and I was very glad. In autumn, we hold a baked sweet potato BBQ. We can feel t change of the season. We went to fruits gathering, too. In winter we go skiing and make rice cake as New Year. Every season have happy events. I am glad to have nice time with my circle member.

Lastly, I am looking forward to see you again.

Thank you for your reading.

Hoshiimo

Dou you know “Hoshiimo”? Hoshiimo is dried sweet potato. It is called Kansouimo in other word. I love Hoshiimo, so I wrote about this.

 You can find Hoshiimo in Sapporo. Many supermarkets sell them. For my surprise, many convenience stores sell them, too. When I find them in the shops, I become glad.

 Hoshiimo is a special product of my home town, Ibaraki. Many people may think that the most special product in Ibaraki is fermented soybeans (nattou). But, I want you to not forget Hoshiimo is also speciallity. Ibaraki produces Hoshiimo the best in Japan. In winter, there are many sweet potatoes which are dried. You can see them in my home town.

  Hoshiimo is made of only sweet potato. Sweet potato which becomes Hoshiimo is not the sweet potato which you usually eat. We use special sweet potato to make Hoshiimo. Its peel is not red. Its peel is white. This sweet potato is suitable for making Hoshiimo. It has more water in it, so if you dry usual sweet potato, it will become tough.

 Let’s see about how to make Hoshiimo. At first, we grow sweet potato. After we harvest them, we store the sweet potatoes in dark storage. During the potatoes are stored, the sweet potatoes become sweeter. Because it becomes sweeter with the time, Hoshiimo which made in February is sweeter than one which made December.

 After the potatoes become sweet, we process it. Sweet potato is steamed and become soft. Then we peal them by work using the hands. Steamed potatoes are very hot but the pealing is easy. The hot sweet potato is yellow and looks so good. After it become not hot, we slice them by exclusive slicer. We place the sliced potato side by side. Potatoes are on nets. This net is suitable to dry potatoes. Finally, we put the nets under winds and the sun. Winds are cold and dry, so they can dry sliced sweet potatoes in a week. The winds are sea breeze. My home town is near the sea and it suitable to making Hoshiimo. My home town had fishing village. There are many people making dried fish, so there are nets to dry fish. At the first, dried sweet potato got an idea from those nets.

Hoshiimo is made by hands, so it can not be made by machine. In addition, we can not control weather. It is difficult to make same taste Hoshiimo. I love the simplicity taste of Hoshiimo.

 There is many kind of Hoshiimo now. The most popular one is simple sliced Hoshiimo. For example, Maruboshiimo is made from sweet potato whole. It uses small potato. When make Maruboshiimo, it takes a month to dry it. It is soft and very sweet. Murasakiimo is made from purple sweet potato. This Hoshiimo looks dark purple. Its taste is plain and not so sweet. I like Murasakiimo very much. Ninjinhoshiimo tastes like carrot. It is orange and contains carotene a lot. There are many other Hoshiimo. They are all delicious.

Four Seasons of Hokkaido University

 As you know, there are four seasons in Japan. They are clearly different. I am going to write about the seasons of our university. What season do you like best? I like spring and summer, autumn, winter. I love all season of Hokkaido University because they show us different scenes and some time they impress me.

 This spring, I came to Sapporo and I entered to this university. In my home town, April is warm and cherry blossoms are out. However, there is no cherry blossom in campus. I was surprised. I walked on roads which covered with snow for the first time in April. When I went to entrance ceremony, I wore coat. It was impressive day.

 But, when the trees and plants began to bud, spring has come. It was late April. And then, greens covered the campus soon. Cherry blossoms came to be full about the beginning of May. It was pinker than I thought. I taught by my friend that the cherry blossoms of Hokkaido are most wild cherry tree. I found that spring in Sapporo come about one month later than my home town. Seeing growth of plants, I could felt power of them.

Summer has come. The trees become greener. It was hot in Sapporo than I expected. I think main street of our campus is very nice. For the most, the time when I rode on my bicycle is wonderful. I love shiny day in summer. There are many students and people in the campus. Some people were reading books under the tree, and some people lay down on the grass and were sleeping. Little children were playing in the small river and many students spent their time with friends. Our beautiful campus attracts many people, of course me, too. Avenue lined with poplar trees in Hokudai is at their best in summer.

In addition, there was school festival. Many food wagons lined at both sides of the main street. The street was covered with people. At the festival day, I enjoyed mood of it. My university seemed different place.

  When our classes begin, autumn come soon. In October, leaves had turned red and yellow. We wore clothes with long sleeves. Autumn is colorful. I love fallen leaves. Red and yellow and brown leaves were falling like snow. I forget the time. I also like to step on the fallen leaves. There were many acorns on the road. There were mushrooms in campus, too. Avenue lined with gingko tree turned bright yellow in the end of October. Many tourist came to see them. The road covered with yellow gingko leaves is limited scenery and so beautiful.

  This year, it snowed in the last of October for the first time. But the snow melted soon, and when it snowed a lot was later. I could not use my favorite bicycle since it snowed. At first I felt it is little inconvenience. The main street of our campus was completely covered with snow now. There is big snow mountain between roads. It is cold but I can enjoy white world every day.

You must be able to see beautiful scenery whenever you come to our campus.   

Prepare for the New Year

 How do you spend your year-end holidays?  Many Japanese gather in their home. Also many students in Hokudai back to home too. I hope all of you to have happy winter vacation.

I came back to my home town a week ago. Today, I am going to write about a holiday in my home. I and my family make mochi (rice cake) yesterday. I write this event because I like making rice cake. Of course I like eating it. My family makes it by us in recent years. When I was child, my parents were busy and we bought rice cakes from shop. Last year I could not help to make it because I was preparing for entrance examination. Because I did not help making rice cake, I felt sad a little last year.
 

Way of making a rice cake is simple. First, put glutinous rice in water for a night. Next day we can make it in rice cake. After it is steamed, the rice become soft and like gluey. We put the hot steamed rice in mortar. At first we crushed it by a mallet. My father said that crushing the rise is important process. When it became more like rice cake, we pounded it. The mallet is heavy, so pounding the rice many times is hard work. After pounded well and the rice become gluey rice cake, making process is finished. The hot rice cake is put into a big tub. Then I made it into small balls. We put it in square case to make big square rice cake.

We pounded rice cake three times. This year, the glutinous rice was so tough. It had been so hot in this summer, the rice had less water and less gluier. We pounded the tough rice with trouble. I pounded too. But it need power and I could not pounded well.

There were big one and small one. We also made kagamimochi. It is big a pair rice cakes. One of them is larger than another and the smaller one is put on big one. My family put it on several place in my house. This picture is these kagamimochi. My brother piled up all of them and named the piled rice cake “Mochi Tower”.

 After finished making rice cakes we ate it. I ate kinako mochi (sweet soybean flour) and anko mochi (bean jam). Both of them were delicious. I am looking forward to eat them in the New Year again. Pounding rice cake is fun. And it is nice event for me.

 

  In addition, there is my favorite event on the last day in year. We went to a small shrine at midnight. The shrine is near my house, so we walk to there. This year, my father and my mother went with me. I am glad. At the small shrine, there are many people and welcome us. There are many paper lanterns and red light is illusory. I like this scene. It suits New Year’s Day very much.

Well, I wish you a happy New Year!