Maruyama

I went with my host mom to Maruyama today which is known for a ski jump used in the 1972 Olympics, Hokkaido Jingu (Shrine), and a zoo. First we went to the ski jump and rode the lift up to check out the view from the top.

I'm pretty sure if I went off that I'd die.

While I was there I got a taste of America in the form of an ice cream float, though unfortunately there's no Root Beer here. There is, however, Melon Soda, which tastes a lot like Cream Soda, which I don't like.

It was sunny when we left the house but by the time we were heading back down the lift it was raining so we hurried into the sports museum that was there. They had typical winter sports stuff on display and more interestingly, interactive games/simulations for ski jumps, ice hockey, speed skating, and bobsled.

After that we went to a pretty fancy French restaurant and had some pretty fancy and very delicious food.



After that it had finally stopped raining for the most part so we walked over to Hokkaido Jingu and took some pictures of the pretty trees and shrine interior. It was a pretty standard shrine which had a place to wash your hands and mouth with purifying water before entering (which we didn't do), a place to buy charms for various good luck (in work, health, love, childbirth, exams, +1 resistance against fire, increases special attack vs skeletons, etc.), a place to insert 100 yen to get a fortune on a piece of paper and a corresponding place to tie up your bad fortunes. Also a place for writing your wishes/prayers on a piece of wood and hanging those up and a place for tossing a coin, clapping, and saying a prayer as well. There were quite a lot of things that cost more money that you would think but I guess they probably help pay for the upkeep of the place.



And yeah, that was about it. Here's the album.
Edit: No, I didn't go to the zoo. It was too rainy or something.