The weekend of June 23rd started off in 'Brian Brew' in Susukino when Sapporo's Irish bar celebrated it's 2nd anniversary with cheap pints of Guinness and a bag pipes player from Wakkanai (Japan's most nothern city). Many of us ALTs had just been released from our work at a 2 day 'All English' seminar for high school students. After 2 days of teaching statistics, teaching 'small talk' and survival English to students in preparation to their upcoming school trip to Australia, I was skipping in the door of Brian Brew for to share the fun!

Saturday morning dawned sunny, making a nice change from the previous rainy days and so Ireland, Scotland and England united forces and myself, Ben and Ed headed for Lake Shikotsu for some bbq'ing, camping and hiking.

A good bbq requires... a stop at Seiyu on the way out of the city, some 'scran' shopping followed by a sashimi lunch in Seiyu's car park...
(Ben enjoying a 'Katsuo' feast in Seiyu Car park). It means finding the lake and setting up camp for the night and so we opted for Marapppu camping grounds on the southside of the lake.
A good bbq also requires some good Yakitori and with some time at the cooler with Chicken and Onions, Pork and Negi and Sticks...a feast fit for a king and 12 ALTs magically appeared. A good bbq also requires a good crew... and later we were joined by 2 more car loads. The first, piloted by Sappors's very own Miss Laura Spiegel and her 6 year old son Calvin. The second, headed up by the beautiful Biratori's (Hidaka- East of Sapporo) JET representative Mr. Michael Blaskowsky who promptly took charge of the campfire side of things. Later we were joined by some of the Niseko crew and lashings of Yakitori, Saba, Anma, burgers, beer and Shouchu were enjoyed under a blanket of stars by the lake.