Wildlife

To say Hokkaido has some wildlife is like saying Antarctica is a bit chilly.

Animals are everywhere in this northenmost island of Japan. In truth the only regret was that of not bringing my telephoto lens.

We ventured to find firefly and met one. Raft trip rewarded us with chance to meet all kinds of birds: white-tailed eagles and red-crowned crane. A ferry ride on Lake Akan ended up with meeting a yezo sika deer and a kingfisher.

What else can I complain about?

Garden

Before my current trip, I didn’t realise the route aptly named “Hokkaido Garden Path”, spanning 200 kilometres all the way to Tokachi and Rokka no Mori at the southern end. 

Taking Hokkaido Garden Path is many things: a way to feel the summer flavour of Hokkaido, to stop every few feet to press my camera’s shutter, the excuse we all need to slow down and touch the nature. 

But most of all, it’s just beautiful.

Glamping

For a long time I have wished to have camping in Japan. Now we know it’s more comfy and is named glamping. 

That’s glamourous. Less hassles and more civilised with car park within a stone’s throw. Simple as that.  

Turns out it’s like observing a digital Sabbath. We didn’t even have power socket within the camp. 

It’s literally like keeping our phones away or turning off notifications. We could hardly survived without two portable power banks. 

Next time I should have got a solar energy digital device. 

That’s how bad our addiction to electronics can go, I know.

Hokkaido

Hokkaido often reminds us of winter visit and festivals, none more famous than the Sapporo Snow Festival.

That being said, summer vacation at Hokkaido can be equally, if not more, thrilling than winter time.

Teens, parents, and those who aren’t afraid to get their hands a little dirty should have agreed with our pick on the first day of our Hokkaido summer trip. We first experienced forest adventure by pulleys and carabiners. Zigzagging our way on the rope ladder near treetop, we made turn after turn until the best part, when we flew like a flying squirrel on zipline.

Another real start to our adventure is sitting crisscross applesauce in an animal cafe where teacup pigs learn to socialise with humans. We touched them, cuddled them, and took selfies with them. These pigs, also known as MiPig, are cleaner, smaller, more friendly and beautiful all at once, unlike those we found in filthy sty. The MiPigs are smart. So much so that they can be toilet trained to pee in designated spot. Looking back, it should have been we who are learning to socialise with pigs, and not the other way round.

Email

It's hard to say whether technology has made our lives easier or harder.

Email is one of the conundrums. Why does such communication technology make Yuval Noah Harari, author of his megahit Sapiens, lament over the illusion of progress in humanity?

Hasn't email make our lives more relaxed?

"Sadly not," Yuval wrote.

Now that I'm packing before my departure for my summer vacation, I don't struggle with what to bring but whether I should set up an "out-of-office" message. Yet such auto-reply is useless to resist hundreds of coomunications flooding my inbox. 

"We thought we were saving time; instead we revved up the treadmill of life to ten times its former speed and made our days more anixous and agitated."

I couldn't have agreed more with Yuval.  

Goodreads

There is no right or wrong way to catalogue the books we have read, or to keep a running list of books we'd like to read.

It's sort of like personal habit of organizing clothes in the closet. Some keep the book list in their heads. My daughter used to draw a bookshelf in her notebook, and add one book after another. That's her hieroglyph system of pictorial writing book spines - not the book covers.

Keeping future reading list of books, as I have learned from educational consultant Phillip Done and reading expert Nancie Atwell, is authentic catalyst for strong readers. After I shared my habit of logging books digitally with my daughter this week, she became a big fan of Goodreads within seconds. She downloaded Goodreads and declared, "Impressive."

And it is. An impressive Facebook with books. And a social network which my daughter won't mind her dad to be follower.