Hello, everyone! I hope you had a good week. Today I want to talk about the most northern part of Japan. That's Hokkaido!! Have you ever visited it?
Earlier this month, Sapporo (the capital of Hokkaido) had its first snowfall of the season. Where I'm from in Canada, it is normal for snow to start falling sometime in November. It even happens in October, now and then. But in Sendai, snow is not so common. It's still autumn here now. In fact, today was quite warm. The temperature was around 20 degrees Celcius!
Here is a map of Japan, with Hokkaido highlighted in dark pink. As you can probably guess, I like Hokkaido very much. Sendai is often too hot for me in the summer (and sometimes in the fall, too). When I lived in Akita, I visited Hokkaido a few times. It was nice enjoying the cooler temperatures there. I took a fast boat cruise once in Hakodate Bay during the summer. The wind was strong that day, and I got a bit cold when I was in the boat. It felt great to be cold in the summertime!! Ha ha...
Do you recognize this photo?? It's a picture of Hakodate's famous night view. People often climb Mount Hakodate so that they can see the city from the top of the mountain at night. It's really beautiful. But something that you might not know is that southern Hokkaido is home to one of the "Oceans Seven" marathon swimming challenges. There are 7 famous open-water swims in the world which long distance swimmers use to test their skills. Swimming from Aomori to Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait (津軽海峡) is very difficult, but it can be done. The distance is about 20km. Most of the time, the water there is really cold. It's quite a challenge! Some people have done it, though. Here are a few of the other "Oceans Seven" swims: The English Channel, between England and France (that's around 34km); the Mediterranean Sea (地中海), between Spain and Morocco (it's about 16km); and the Cook Strait, between New Zealand's North and South Islands (it's around 26km).
But I can't swim very well, so I prefer to relax when I travel from Honshu to Hokkaido! Here I'm showing you my favorite thing in Hokkaido. It's called "shiroi koibito" and it's a kind of cookie. The name means "white boyfriend (or girlfriend)". It's sooo delicious!!! Have you eaten that before? If not, please go to Hokkaido someday to try it. And please bring me back some, as a souvenir (おみやげ). Thank you!!!!
- Peter 
