Our First Guest

A few months ago Kellyn ran into an old friend from high school at the mall. While talking they discovered they would be in Japan at the same time. They made plans for Sarah to come up to Sapporo and stay with Kellyn and Joe for a few days. We took Sarah through Odori Park and while we were there we noticed a camera crew from a local TV station. They had gathered a bunch of kids from the park and were getting shots of them interacting with the characters. When the crew saw us they decided to gets shots of us as well. They had the characters, Five and Finee, stand behind us while we shouted in unision "We love Hokkaido!" Only we said it in Japanese.
Sarah was with us for two days and three nights. We had such a blast. We took her through Odori park, to see the Eiffel Tower TV Tower, to Ramen Alley, all around Susukino, to the Nijo Fish Market, the Factory Mall, and around our neighborhood.


Probably the most exciting element our her time with us was completely unplanned. The first morning Sarah was here she asked if we could take her to a hospital. Sarah's throat had been sore for a while and now the left side of her neck was a little swollen and sore. Sarah had just come from Thailand where she volunteered for a month. In about a week she would meet up with a friend and they would spend the next three months traveling throughout S.E. Asia. We didn't want her condition to worsen before she left Japan so we went to the hospital that morning. Apparently, hospitals are not "open" on Sundays. They have a limited staff for emergency situations. Thankfully Sarah had travelers insurance and we were able to find a nurse that spoke decent English. In addition, while we were waiting for the doctor to arrive a couple visiting a patient walked through the lobby where we were sitting. All three of them spoke English (although the man had lived in Australia for a while and spoke English fluently). The couple went with Sarah to her appointment and translated between her and the doctor. While we waited the Japanese patient waited with us. Turns out this woman has traveled through the States and attends a Catholic church in Sapporo. She was wonderful! We enjoyed our conversation with her so much we are planning on meeting her at her church next Sunday. She gave us her phone number, directions to the church, and then bought us drinks from the vending machine. The doctor explained Sarah has a viral infection in her lymph nodes and gave her some antibiotics. We returned to the hospital the next day for a check up and the doctor ushered us not to be worried.

We enjoyed having Sarah with us so much. She was the perfect house guest, it was fun taking her around, we loved having someone to talk to, and Kellyn loved having an old friend to catch up with. It's possible we may have smothered her a little, but we were just so excited to have her.