http://www.goodfishies.com Kevin & Cathy. Traveling. Living in Takikawa. Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:42:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We spent 10 days in South Korea visiting with our good friends Song & Joe, from Vancouver. It was a short 3-hour flight from Chitose airport to Incheon, in Seoul. We met happily in the airport, and spent our first night together in Seoul. We hopped a ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/09/19/korea/ Eastern Hokkaido Roadtrip - Akanko, Kussharoko, Abashiri, Shiretoko We took a camping/onsening/feasting roadtrip through eastern Hokkaido- known to have absolutely nothing to offer but breathtakingly beautiful scenery. We took along with us our friend Michael Tripp who also is a former Hokkaidoite. Our final destination was Shiretoko but we planned on stopping ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/08/01/eastern-hokkaido-roadtrip/ Along with our camping trip to Toya Lake last month, we also visited Hakodate. We enjoyed the freshest (wiggling on our plate) squid that was perfectly clear in color and tasted like heaven. We also had uni (sea urchin) for breakfast. Such a luxury! It was ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/07/28/hakodate/ ....Oh yea! In case you hadn't picked up on the dwindling frequency of our blog updates, we completely forgot to mention our recent trip down to Kyoto, Osaka & Tokyo AS WELL AS our recent Vietnam trip!! Kevin's parents, Barb & Harry came to visit us in Takikawa for a few days. ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/06/29/kyoto-osaka-tokyo-vietnam/ Have you heard of the g8 summit? Well, this year it's happening in Hokkaido at Toya lake. We took a camping trip to Toyako (which is Toya lake in Japanese in case you haven't figured that out already..) last week. Aside from the super high security highway checks, it was ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/06/23/camping-at-toya-lake-hokkaido/ This Sunday was the annual Healthy Marathon (ヘルシ　マラソン) in the nearby town of Biei. Biei is about 120km away from Takikawa, and is known for its annual marathon as well as its beautiful flower gardens spread over vast rolling hillsides. The Biei marathon attracts thousands of competitors and spectators ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/06/10/biei-marathon/ We spent the last Saturday in town being very big Barbies, but more in the sense of a Japanese dress-up doll instead of the blond and pink. We were invited to go for dinner with the Takikawa Soroptimist group, for a formal Kimono dress-up session, make-up, hair, and dinner. It ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/03/04/kimono-dinner-with-the-soroptimists-in-takikawa/ Of all the things that you have heard about Hokkaido, they are probably all true, but really, Hokkaido is all about its winter. There might be delicious diary products and ice creams here, but nothing beats the powdery fluffy snow. To keep warm in this kind of weather, we have ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/01/30/our-winter-in-hokkaido/ After waking up in a strange McDonalds in Ueno and finding it much busier than when we had decided to nap quietly in the corner, we headed to Asakusa to drop our bags off at the hotel. Cathy had found us a series of great hotels over the next ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/01/13/happy-new-year-2008-from-tokyo/ 16. Cathy and I had been tossing around the idea of where to go for Christmas / New Years for a few weeks. We had considered going down to the tropical southern part of Japan, Okinawa, or maybe driving around Hokkaido, soaking in the wintery goodness. We ended up ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2008/01/05/how-many-trains-does-it-take-to-get-to-tokyo/ Konnichiwa! We took a trip to Sapporo last weekend with our gaijin friend Matt (We've only known Matt for a few weeks, but he's been around to help us with many things, as he is the only foreigner who A) works at city hall B) is fluent with both English and ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/12/05/sapporo-white-illumination-festival/ Samantha & Rafael were the teachers here before us. We spent 2 short weeks together learning our way around Takikawa and the ins & outs of the job. Sam & Raf left for Vancouver on November 25th: Hey peeps! How are things? Is everything OK, are you guys still confident about everything ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/11/28/goodbye-sam-raf/ One of our classes every week is at the Takikawa Kindergarden. We play with the kids in the morning and "try" to teach them English in the afternoon. They are the most adorable things ever but it can be quite exhausting at times. The kindergarden is right beside a temple ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/11/24/takikawa-kindergarden/ Takikawa is expecting a colder winter this year http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/11/22/8/ Well- we made it! After more than 6 months of planning, freaking, packing and stressing, we finally made it to Japan! (On top of that, we flew business class from Taiwan to Japan... in case you are wondering) If we've kept you horribly out of the loop, we are living in a ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/11/19/we-live-in-japan/ Saturday - Kenting - 墾丁 Kenting is small, sunny surfing town on the southern-most point of the island. White sandy beaches, beautiful rolling waves, high wind and SUN. Its the end of October and its hotter than it's ever been in Vancouver in July. We stayed in a small, funky, down-to-earth ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/31/southern-sun/ Ni Hao! We haven't had much luck finding reliable internet lately, so we've been quite behind in posting. Or rather, we have been having too much fun traveling that we are ignoring our blog. Most buildings here are built with steel, concrete & plaster, so hotel wireless is often flakey. It ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/30/taroko-and-chihpen/ Our trip around Taiwan started on Wednesday. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on a car from Cathy's dad's company. It's a Corolla just like Cathy's old car, but much cooler equipped with a GPS system. (and automatic side mirror closing device) We started driving from Taipei down the ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/25/on-our-way-to-taroko/ We leave tomorrow for our around-island trip of awesomeness. (you do know Taiwan is an island, right?) We start by heading down the east coast towards Hualien. The next morning we drive through the Taroko gorge (pronounced tie-roo-guh) before staying at a five star resort in the heart of the ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/23/circumference/ Well, we got our GPS logger figured out! Our Globalsat DG-100 Data Logger records our GPS position every 10 seconds as we walk around Taipei (or bus, or train). After a few days, we can download the data, map it and link it with the photos we've taken so we know exactly ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/22/gps-online/ Rumor has it that Taipei has 5 million scooters riding around every day. (By rumor, I mean, Cathy's dad said that.) This is the intersection right by the MRT station where we get off all the time. It's on he ping east road. (和平東路) http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/20/5-million-scooters/ Taiwan is filled with people. Everywhere. All the time. We visited the morning market. Think of it as a night market, but in the morning, and with more groceries. It is called 菜市場. (The direct translation would be grocery / vegetable market). If you think this is crazy, just wait till we ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/20/5/ Okay- So! We have been in Taipei, Taiwan for a week. It has been a blast. (for those of you who are geographically challenged, here is a map of Taiwan.) We recorded a first "hello" video for people who might be missing us. (or people who we think should be missing us) ... http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/18/kevin-cathys-first-post-in-taipei-taiwan/ This is the default wordpress first post. We like it. http://www.goodfishies.com/2007/10/16/hello-world/