As the Apostolic Administrator, I should stay within Sapporo diocese at least once a month for a few days, though there is no such directives from above. Usually, those priests residing in and around Sapporo city area meet on Mondays of the last week of each month. So I have been to Sapporo for 4 days from Sunday evening to Wednesday to join the gathering of priests in Hanakawa, Ishikari city, where Sisters of St.Francis of the Martyr St.George has their house and a retreat facility. Within the same compound, Sisters also run a university, Fuji Women's' University which is known as the Alma mater of a singer, Miyuki Nakajima. This time, the meeting was an occasion for sharing of information and also for studying. Fr.Hamada, OFM, a cannon lawyer, was invited as a guest speaker so that we may learn more about the Church's regulation on Sacrament of Marriage. The cannon law has been revised in 1983 and since then several new revisions have been made. So it was a good occasion also for me to revisit several important points on marriage.
Sapporo area and Hokkaido itself was blanketed by deep snow. It was very cold. After the meeting, in the evening on Monday, in spite of heavy snow, we went out to the Tsubohachi restaurant for a dinner. Though the Tsubohachi is a well-known nation wide chain of casual drinking restaurant, I have never seen such a huge one like this which used to be a supermarket, I heard.
Sapporo is preparing for the Snow Festival in February. It is only a 20-minute walk to reach the site of the festival. Photo above is the one of these snow exhibitions under preparation. Sapporo is very Samui (cold).
No comments:
Post a Comment