Life as a Lutz: The City of Sapporo

Thursday, June 26, 2014

I decided to go on the road with Zach and his team for 10 days. I had to dress nice for the flight, so I decided to wear heels. Honestly, next time I am wearing socks with them! I now have 4 huge blisters on my feet. The plane was so hot we were all sweating and the hour flight to Sapporo felt longer than the flight to Japan. When we got to Sapporo, we had to take a 45 minute taxi ride to our hotel. I am surprised I am alive right now. The taxi driver went 143 kph, which is equal to 89 mph. We rode so close to a tractor trailer that I was able to see the tread on the tires. No joke. Then, the taxi driver decided to pass him. When we got over in the other lane to pass, there was a car coming head on. Zach, Shu (team translator), and I all screamed. I saw my life flash before my eyes. We passed the tractor trailer and got back over in our lane just in time. It was the scariest ride of my life. I got out of the taxi at the hotel and wanted to kiss the ground! We took our stuff up to the room and freshened up for dinner.
Shu made a dinner reservation at a seafood restaurant. Let me tell you about this experience. It was the 4 foreign players, myself, the 2 translators, and the trainer. We had to take our shoes off before we could sit down. It wasn't like a normal table. We climbed down into our seats like we were sitting on the ground. All of us had to wear an apron.

When Shu made the reservation, he told them that I do not eat seafood. They made a few special plates for me. The guys had the appetizer in the first picture and I had the salad in the second picture. I was so happy for that salad! Zach looked over at my plate with sad puppy eyes, so of course I had to share!

The guys decided to play with the knife before dinner.

The reason the knife is so big and so sharp is because the owner cuts apart the live crab at the dinner table. Yes, you read that right. HE CUTS THE LIVE CRAB AT THE TABLE! This was the crab's home before...

And this was the crab's home after...

I could not believe my eyes. This poor crab was about to be dinner. No, not my dinner. They had a plate of meat for me. When I got there they asked "Is this lamb okay?" Um, excuse me? Lamb? Gulp. Sure. I leaned over to Zach and said "Well, looks like you are getting crab and lamb!" I decided to try the lamb since they made it special for me and it actually wasn't bad. Then, I thought about Mary and her little lamb and just about barfed right there.
Back to the crab. The owner just set him on the table and chop, chop, chop. It made me think of The Little Mermaid when Sebastian escapes from the hot pot and runs around the kitchen. I was so hoping this crab would make a run for it. No chance. Once he was all chopped up, the guys slurped it down. Slurped. YUCK! I was gagging. Some pieces were raw, some were partially cooked, and some were cooked all the way.

I asked for a lemonade, which they didn't have. The owner, who had just cut up the crab, said he would make me fresh squeezed lemonade. Uh huh, made it right there on the table. With the hands he just used to cut the crab. Lovely.