Canadian Gardening: Trip to Japan, 0 by ViolaAnn

ViolaAnn wrote:
The flight from Vancouver to Kansai took nearly 11 hours and we changed planes for the 2 hour flight to the New Chitose Airport which is about a 30-40 minute train trip form the central Sapporo station, arriving on a Saturday evening. Our hotel was close enough that taxis didn’t want to take us to it and fortunately all our luggage was on wheels, so 10 minutes later we were settling in for the night.

The next day, we met friends who were at the same conference and took the train to a nearby port city of Otaru.
http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/hokkaido/ot...

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6700.html

We spent that last Sunday of the Japanese summer season wandering around in the city center, eating sushi and generally enjoying the atmosphere. Otaru is a centre of glass making. We found this drumming group doing traditional Japanese drumming along a shopping arcade. We were also treated to some drumming at the closing dinner of the conference, but this was a troupe ranging from very small children up to accomplished adults and they were fascinating to watch. At times, they literally danced around the drums and took turns in playing them without missing a beat. For more information, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko