A bit more of Hokkaido

We took a boat ride out toward Russia a little way, and the seagulls chased us closely.  It reminded me of "All the Diamonds" by Bruce Cockburn.  I sang it to myself on the boat.  

Hokkaido is a very different Japan than where we currently live.  There is a lot of space, wilderness, varied geography, and not many people.  The villages and towns are generally quiet and peaceful.  From our reactions, i think we're country folk after all.  
We were closer to Russia than to Tokyo, and i found it interesting that the signs were sometimes in Cyrillic and English letters.  There is tension between Russia and Japan over 4 little rocky outcrops in the ocean somewhere.  Big island dispute.  
We visited a botanical garden in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido.  Remember "Sapporo Ichiban" noodles?  Well, this is the home of those.  They cheapened ramen noodles and sold them to the world, and there were many imitators.   

The above photo is taken at the "Canadian Rock Garden".  Doesn't it look like everybody's back yard in Canada?  There were lots of rocks and scrub trees and pines.  I'm not sure how representative of Canadian flora this selection is, but i didn't really feel at home.  ...well, a little.  I thought that maybe a giant, freshly planted cutblock would make me feel more at home.
Hokkaido is famous for its flowers and red fields and lavender and such.  We were a couple months too early to catch the majority of the flowers, but we did manage to see a beautiful magnolia tree in bloom.  It was breathtaking!  You can't really tell by the photos, but it was quite amazing to see these giant, stark blooms all reaching for the sun.  
Here's something i never thought i would lay eyes on.  Actually, i never knew they existed.  They're not in my version of the Bible, anyway.  But there they are, plain as day.  

The Ainu people hold a place in Japanese society similar to that held by the Indigenous people of Canada.  They have been oppressed by the general population, and now marketed as a kind of novelty.  There are Ainu villages, restored to look original, and 'God's Chopsticks' were in an Ainu museum that we visited in the botanical garden.  

Please remember my family these days, we are mourning the loss of my Uncle Mel.  We are mourning from afar, and the rest of my family are up close.