WOW! Beautiful pictures and lovely country! And yes, you are a very good girl. Dad said to tell you he's very impressed with both the pictures and your travelogue. He loved your very long hyphenated adjective for usual Japanese social behavior. ^_~ He continues to think you should find a job writing and taking pictures for travel books or National Geographic.

Hope you'll finish the description of the rest of the trip soon. Very nice to hear all about it. The area around Mashu is so very different from anything we saw anywhere around Kyoto or on our way to Nagasaki. And so empty! Sapporo looks like an interesting city. The clapboard building with the clock tower looks so like a traditional New England building... and with the clock from Boston? Do you know what it's used for or what the story is behind it? The last picture, of the house alone on the edge of the fields with the mountains in the background, reminds us very much of one Dad took on our Western trip in 1976 in Colorado on the edge of the plains with the Rockies in the background.

We also enjoyed seeing the pics of the two of you together. I particularly like the one of you in the green shirt and Emilie with her hat dipped over her eye. (Like the hat, too, Emilie!)

Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to seeing/reading more.

{{BIG HUGS}}