SUOMEKSI

 
Greetings to you from the town of Sobetsu on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. I am Pip Koper and I have been working in Sobetsu, Japan as an AET (Assistant/Alternate English Teacher) for the past two years and I would like to share with you A Pictoral portfolio of my experience...
 ......but first a few words about this site.

    I suppose that I have probably taken several thousand pictures with my digital camera during my stay. I plan to use quite a few of them to tell the story which will make it a fairly large undertaking. I have therefore divided the presentation into two separate threads: First - a time thread that will feature "seasonal activities" and Second - an "interesting things" thread. It appears that this will be an ongoing project (no I'm not blogging -not my style) for a while as I add more "Mini-Sites".

    So lets begin with my location - Hokkaido is the northernmost prefecture of Japan, and it is a separate island, bordered by the Sea of Japan to the west, the Ohotsk Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south and east. Needless to say, fishing is a large scale industry and there are many different types of seafood available in the market place. The town of Sobetsu is located on the eastern shore of Toya Lake (in the southwest of the island) and stretches eastward to contain a portion of the Osaru river valley. It also contains the village of Kubonai, and when combined with the surrounding farmland areas the total population is approximately 3000 inhabitants.
    Sobetsu is noted for having high quality hot springs and two active volcanos; Mt Usuzan and Mt Showashinzan. The latter volcano was created about 60 years ago when it began rising in the middle of a farmer's wheat field. In addition to the onsens (hot spring spas) and the volcano related tourism, the other major industry in Sobetsu is farming. The orchards are famous for their delicious apples, pears, plums and cherries. The "Benkei" greenhouses in Kubonai, are heated during the winter with water from the hot springs and are well known throughout Japan for their high quality winter tomatoes.

When I first arrived, I had some time to walk around and admire the unusual architecture.....

perhaps one of these days I will throw together an architectural "MiniSite"

    this Page and its contents © Ulkuniemen Kalevalan Taidonnäyte and Phillip W. Koper 2003,
unless otherwise noted

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