Bikes!

The last exchange professor (and his high school age daughter?) left two nice bikes for us with wire baskets in the front. People ride all over Sapporo on bikes, on the sidewalks, usually, which is a little dangerous for three kids who have never walked in a straight line in their lives. John and I have only used the bikes on solo missions... until now. Yesterday, after a quick trip to Victoria park...

...we stopped by the swing (with Katie in the red)...











... she has finally gotten over her fear of swinging and goes "high in the sky"....











...and Jack going in the most dangerous way possible, of course...


















...and Liv climbing up, slowly but surely...


















...and Katie riding a plane...












we went to the Home Store, which has just about anything a person could use in the home. So we picked up a spatula, some lightbulbs, paper towels, and most exciting of all. bike seats for the girls (just 2,000 yen, or $20, each!).

They are VERY cool -- lightweight and fairly comfortable and they don't even mess with your sense of balance and gravity on the bike. We are glad we threw in the bike helmets (I debated at length over the value of bringing them, as I wasn't sure what we'd end up doing for bikes).

And then, after everyone had naps, we went to the used bike shop (Katie and I rode there, and John and Jack walked with Liv), where we picked up a new bike for Jack -- also 2,000 yen ($20) with a basket and bell (which were essentials for Jack).

There was a bit of debate as the bike is QUITE pink and sparkly (with fancy doo-dads on the spokes), but Jack thought it was great, and we said we could put stickers on it if he'd like.

He didn't want us to get training wheels so we will be limiting most of our riding to a trail by a river that we have heard of (as the sidewalks are very crowded and he is still fairly new to riding with just two wheels).

We got home just in time to get dinner ready for Shinya and Yuki. Shinya was a student from HGU who attended the University of Lethbridge four years ago. He played basketball with John and a group of professors, and we enjoyed spending quite a bit of time with him (Halloween, Christmas tree decorating, etc.).

He now teachers junior high English on one of Japan's northernmost islands. He and his girlfriend, Yuki, were our first real guests... so we folded up the futons and tucked them away, brought the "fancy" dining room table out, and had a simple meal (with delicious cheesecake from Shinya and Yuki). We hope to see them again in November.

In the midst of taking all these bike photos, I got a few of the Guest House as well.

We live on the first level, and another exchange professor sometimes lives upstairs (not this semester, though). Maybe they knew three noisy kids would be living below?

This is the view from the street -- more like an alley off a major street and near the university's baseball diamond (we get to hear baseball at all hours of the day!)

Going out of the alley, this is what it looks like to the right, looking toward the university.






And this is the view to the left, toward Victoria park, which is where we are heading right now! Then we're off to a brunch at a professor's house, and John will need to write the next week's lecture sometime (he needs to hand it out one week in advance)!