The Traveller's Typewriter

What a title. And what a song. Today’s post title is a shout out to Airwave, song title above. It really is a relaxing song, rather nice. I think that group/fellow has been making electronic-style music for some time. Since he was a young’n.

But, let’s bring the story back to the point. I did not post yesterday. No, I’m not in the habit of chastising myself for it. Nor publicly, nor infront of you. It’s just fine. Yesterday however, I have news!
Haha. I was supposed to get internet at home. I have been living at home without internet for the duration of my time here abroad. I have been able to access the net while at work. That is considering I arrive early before the bell tolls, or stay late well after I am allotted a ‘get home, go home’ slot. I have been able to use internet only at work if I come early or stay late.

Now that’s all good and fine, mind you. But who wants to sit there browsing yout ube checking out some nostalgic tracks while your coworker in the public health department is plugging away paperwork and case files right next to you?
It doesn’t really jive, does it?

But yesterday evening I had a crew of employee near-friends come over and try to hook up my modem to phone line, to computer. And, well, after nearly two and a half hours, and me having to entertain the latter part of their party -a third friend, we came to naught. No internet. My store of o-sembei and premium (favourite) tea were nearly out of stock and so was my hope on getting internet.

With a few apologies the bunch left and insisted we try again tomorrow. As I sit here and stare at my monitor -at work- I wonder if it will ever happen. I think that I am experiencing that bland, stale, faced-with-a wall or hurdle feeling one has when aiming to establish him/herself in a new culture. Waiting for things to churn along. Namely me getting internet and a proper phone contract set up.

About the phone, I have been driven up on three times by a next door neighbor four towns south to the phone shop to attempt at getting a contract set up. Because as I have been on pre-paid phone usage, if I actually want to call someone I can talk for maybe thirty minutes.. and then I have to spout out another thirty-some dollars for another phone card. You can imagine frusterations, or just bitter resentment at the whole kebable.

But no. Things are bright and clear enough on the inside. On the inside of me. I have, after a brief shopping trip this weekend, acquired a new set of curtains that put a stop on the cold that has been known to creep under my living space windows, and I have a new blanket to nap with on my peep-sized couch. The couch is more like a sample-sized thing someone would give you at say, a furniture party. But it works! And the naps are divine.

SO.
Before you go pointing fingers and nit-picking me for not exciting you with some new jive and jazz about life here, or if you get gritty and wonder why I don’t post on time.. well, it’s because, ‘this ain’t a holiday, Jimmy. This is the world as we know it.’ Work is life, and life is work.

Believe you me, I need no trust fund or donation box to get me through this. But thanks for the thought. In the end, after all the faults and flakes have settled this will all be a right-silly story on which to reflect.
And with that I hope you rightly enjoyed your cereal this morning. My breakfast was toast with katsu-sauce and mayonnaise. Just SO good for the soul. ; )

No. In case you’ve been wondering or have ever wondered about it, the titles of these entries have little to no relevant meaning. Like today’s title, for example. It just sounds right.

Okey-righty. So today’s post is brought to you by a free-internet usage pc smack in the greater part of Sapporo. Here I sit at a designated guest house, where I had quite a noteable rest, typing away updating you on where and what is going on. To my left I have a hardcover, palm-sized anthologized pocket classic of Keats’ poetry. Behind me on the table a cup of microbrew instant coffee. I have to say that compared to staying in a capsule hotel, a horizontal cubicle of a sleeping space before, the luxury of this few thousand yen accommodation sings songs.

Let this brief post provide apt coverage of last night’s events. Well, events not much at all.

Previously I heard it said that when living in Japan you sometimes feel that your Japanese isn’t moving along all that quickly. Well, with the joy of staying at a guest house, and there being three other guests here in the off season my odds of running into someone from another country were quite good. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to the Japanese in a second.

Upon arriving back here after the afternoon of shopping (and not seeing the Sapporo Brewery like I had hoped to) I ran into a fellow from the UK who’s being doing a bit of a tour through a variety of countries. Cheers to him if he reads this.
After saying some hellos this new fellow and I, decidedly hungry, thought to try our hand at one of the local eatery/izakaya-style pubs nearby. We did. And it was good.
After ordering a few plates of sliced meats, namely beef and lamb, we grilled ourselves towards perfection and full-ish bellies.

Our waiter/host, I soon found out, had spent a short while abroad in Canada in fact. After ordering and organizing our meal in Japanese I offered our waiter that we should speak in English -seeing as he had been there in Canada and all.. I don’t think we saw him again after that.

My point about the Japanese is that after having ordered and deciphered the suggested menu, I never realized how functional my command of the language is. And this is not to fluff my own horn, mind you. It is just to say that what I had spouted to me at my arrival and orientation holds true. When you’re fully immersed in a culture/language, you don’t realize the leaps you are making with speech and study. Assuming that you’re actually studying. Haha.

Well, my words to print here have done nothing to quell the cool drizzle outside. In a matter of minutes I will have to check out of this lovely and comfy wood-laden homey dwelling and subway my way back into the city for more shopping and food-ing before heading back up north to my respective town-place.

Here’s hoping that you are finding good-ish foods with which to fill your belly this Fall season. And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a cup of coffee to finish and a few pages of poetry to copy out of a penny novel. Ciao.

[above, Dorothy tries not to be another Hollywood icon ‘Gone With the Wind’… -don’t worry if you don’t get that one]

No, it didn’t take long. I am definitely famous. At least that’s what I’ve managed to assume following last nights stream of events. Okay, listen in.. last night outside my window there was this lone flash that seemed like it was right adjacent to my flat, rattle-y window pane. There would be a flash or two (most likely from a lone glamour-star magazine photographer snapping pictures of my house), and then a thuderous applause resonated in the distance. After that was a smattering of applause right outside my window again !

Now would you have guessed that I was a celebrity? Me neither. And that’s the beauty of it!

You see, none of the above is actually true. Living out here in the countryside, small town in tow, you have to find ways to invigorate yourself and to spice up your life. Even if that fun means telling yourself that the tearing and streaming rains and the haggard winds slam-rattling your windows and doors are really something that they are not.

But let me get to a point. Let me release you a post. And so !
Today’s fantastic bit of information is not just something to inform you about every detail of information that is going down here in town. Nor to inform you about every last thing that is happening in my life. Today’s post has a little more to do with a Monday than is does with Japanese culture/life. But somehow it is inescapable. Living here in Japan in some small town how can you not encounter something radical and different every day?

Today, Monday, was one of those days. As I had struggled to lift and propel myself up and out of bed and then towards the responsibilites of my day I was not expecting a pleasant surprise. No, there is no whimsy attached to this story as it really is sincere.

My Monday posting was work at the local high school. Today’s order included three classes which were to be taught back-to-back. But how can I complain about this as there very well may be teachers, let alone people who have or know people who are teachers and know how the whole teaching shindig works. So, therefore I hold my tongue about how teaching three classes back to back on a Monday may seem like a lot of work. But again, I have taught for days straight -ESL class after English class in exotic countries like Thailand and Central America. I may just have a leg up on you on that one..

Sorry. Back to the juice.
After I had dove right into and love-taught my way through my three classes with the teacher that I assist, I was plopped down in the teacher’s room just gobbling up some lunch. Lunch, that I might add was a bento-box from the nearby market costing me only four and three pence (okay, okay, like four dollars or soemthing like that).

While chomping a mouthful of rice and pickled plum dusted with black sesame seeds, the all too familiar ‘pardon meeee’ of a student entering the teacher’s room astounded my silent chomping.

One of the students from my third year class (that would be grade twelve equivalent) had brought in a steaming tray of cheese gratin for the staff to sample. It wasn’t before the student shuffled over to the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) that I teach with and practiced the proper English phrasing for, ‘Please have some’, that I was soon chomping down some cheesy mash of Japanese-style gratin along with my lunch.

This surprise to the normal melodrama of any Monday shook my day right up. From there on I had no problem parading my way through town back to my home-base office to finish off the rest of the day writing a short children’s story for my Friday kindergarten class (yes, I happen to have a few creative freedoms regarding my work..).

So. That was my Monday. However I still have to trek back home -I can hear the wind howling like a banshee craving a Starbuck s latte outside my office window even now- and figure out what dinner will be. Heaven help me if I actually have to leave my house to pick up some groceries and enter this wild wind just one more time today. Gosh.

Here’s hoping that your Monday(s) are, if not filled with cheesy goodness of any sort, are well enough for you to look brightly at the rest of the week. More cheesy goodness to follow soon. Maybe even this week I can manage another post.. if I’m not blown over to Russia from my little seaside town by this Wizard of Oz-like wind.

So here we are then. It has been a long last few days since we last met, wouldn’t you agree? Gosh and how am I supposed to get to posting and telling about it all with internet only being available here at work? Golly, what a predicament. But let’s not sew old buttons on to new clothing.

Right !
So keeping all the necessary bits of personal informations in the proper light -that being me not telling all and every last thing to you- the last weekend was good. I was not off of work on Friday. The cold that I had was working full-time.
Anyways, on to the good stuff.

I had a friend come up from Sapporo. With great success we departed from here in town to Wakkanai, the northermost town in Japan. From Wakkanai we, two, drove to the northernmost point in Japan. It is a tiny peninsula-like place with a monument and a statue. And, well, it’s really far north.. in Japan anyways.
It was a blast. After that outset we had fresh-fresh sashimi at an izakaya recommended by some friends and then made our way to another kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi spot to eat some sea urchin. The sea urchin was really the reason we came to Wakkanai. The northernmost point of Japan just happened to be convenient to visit. Including the fact that my friend had never been that far north in Japan before.

Okay ! From there we graduated to our next destination. Over the next few days there was a lot of driving and a lot of things going on. The weather was fair as we drove along the coast. And here is the fun bit, I was doing a lot of the driving. It seems to have paid off, having brought an international driving permit here to Japan. With all things and travellings safe -all I really had to remember was to stick to the left side of the road and to be cautious. The rest was cakework.

Our travels took us to Furano. This place is literally dab in the center of Hokkaido. We met up with another friend, our party now totalling three, and we began our quest anew. Our first stop was a famous curry shop. And I use this word ‘shop’ in the fullest sense. Between a few trees in the farm-ish location of Furano, which has been compared to the south of France for its sweeping hill-ish location and wines (wines which really don’t compare to France, in my opinion) lo! there was located between some few trees a tree house sort of building. This spot resembled something like a settler’s shack in New Canada so many Hudson’s Bay Company years ago. After waiting in queue for minutes on end we entered inside and dined on brilliant roux. The curry at this shop was just about right packing enough spice to make you realize what you were eating. I ordered a mushroom variety with a cheese topping. If you’ll be so kind to wait I will attach a photo oh so soon..

From this place we hurried on to the wine factory. I would like to call it a winery but most of the tourism literature said it was a factory. Tours were self-guided and the view was free. Nestled high atop the hills that wrap around the basin-like city of Furano we stared at dusty barrels and gazed over the city from outside the factory. The wine tasting was surprising -and self serve. No. This is not the kind of ‘all inclusive deal’ that you would be hoping for. You know the tiny cups that they serve pills to you in when you stay at the hospital or visit a clinic? Well, a cup just like that but with enough room for a penny to lie full-flat in was what we sipped wine from.
I think I’ve had more juice from a communion glass than I did wine at the facotry that day.
I’m not complaining I just think that I had something different in mind having come from a town in Canada surrounded by towns that boast wine sipping and place-viewing at a premium. This was a new experience and I walked away with a glass of grape juice for my vitamin-C needing body and a wooden box for wines with which I intend to decorate my home.

Next on we pressed on to a sweets factory that pureed the finest puddings that remind me of something that my grandmother and mum used to often make over a boisterous Hungarian stove, and next an Ice Milk Factory. Yes, I loved the location as much as I love the name of the place.
First on, the puddings were beautiful at our first location. Line ups ensued and we waited to make our purchase along with the the other children, parents, and tv cameras that were filming a tv spot on location. I really have to talk about the television here sometime. It’s just banging.

The Ice Milk Factory led me to experience my first flavoring of cheese ice cream. It tasted just like ice cream made with Hokkaido’s fresh-fresh milk only with little slivets of cheese mixed in for good measure.
I will tell you now that although you may think that chomping down raw fish sashimi and eating things like cheese ice cream is O so foreign and Japanese food is so out of reach for you.. I will tell you this,
Food here has been perfected to an art. Along with coffees, cafes, pastries, breads and convenience stores. I have had the pleasure to travel to an array of countries, even European ones. But Japan does food well. And I am yet to be pressed by a slew of poor experiences when it comes to food. Although I have been shocked a few times -namely when my meal was microwaved in front of me in a ziploc container by microwave. But I don’t need to think about that.

After having my picture taken with a plastic cow with udders that didn’t move our group of three set out to buy ingredients for our sukiyaki (or simmer what you wish) dish for dinner. And again we afterward set out to drive another two hours to the next few towns over to join our last friend for the meal.

Keeping to the story and longing to keep this post readable I will tell all in part.
Dinner was a blast. Dipping simmered onions, pork, tofu and things into raw egg and sucking it back over a tipper of steaming rice never tasted soo good. Even being surrounded by friends. The lot of us toppled all over the floor on our respective futons for the night and then awoke with surprise the next day.
One of our few had a reaction to some meds that were being taken for a cold. So in the bright and cool hours of the morning we nixed our plans to sink into an onsen and visit a fairy village (for real), and we drove instead another three and four hours about to a hospital for check up.

Hospitals here double as clinics and walk-in centers. That is how I seem to understand it now. So there is no need to worry. The friend, now, is fine so far as I know. From our hospital location after our friend was given an injection that compares to something prepared by ACME from a Looney Tunes show -we ate ramen at a place that sells, ahem* two kilogram bowls of the stuff and then we browesed a video, game, and book shop for the remainder of our time. From there I popped on to a train, transferred to a bus and then rode my way some four hours back to my assigned town. Can you say, tired?

Not to mention the conference I had to attend the next morning waking at six thirty only to drive another hour or so back to the northernmost town that I visited only days before. Only this time no sea urchin.

I want to thank you for hanging in there and reading.
I feel only a little ashamed that I am not more well sorted and better written on this whole account. Even now as I close off my thoughts little pops of ideas about the weekend are hovering near me.
Like how the last friend’s home we were at is a bit of a dj. That is he mixes music for little shows that he may or may not do from time to time. At one point when the girls stepped out for a chat he and I listened to dance music and mixed our way deep into the evening. Oh, and I won’t mention the one friend’s little pet bird that travelled with us by pet-keep cage all the way back to square one. It really was a good time.

Right then. With internet soon on its way to my prying fingers and weary mind I close by saying this,
The leaves are changing color here and we are coming on to one of the most revelling seasons in this part of Japan -all of Japan in fact. It is now Fall.

Eat something warm and toasty and I’ll be sipping back my favoured ramen noodles. All my best to you and let’s connect soon. Maybe in a few days’ time.

Happy Fall and greetings to you.

And I hope this post was everything you were waiting for, and more.

(above, Tim Allen and his son ‘Charlie’ look for a way out of their winter work in The Santa Clause, 1994)

Okay, so let me get right to that good bit of information. The story that I promised you last time..

Did you know that thunderstorms have fingers? Let alone that they are ambidexterous?

Okay, well that’s not really true. I am still at mystery as to what happened that lone night in my tiny house !
I was fast asleep well past mid-night. I had not a care in the world, having fallen asleep to the pattering of the rain on my roof and windown outside.
It was then arose such a clatter !

Okay, not the Christmas ‘there arose such a clatter’ (though I had a Tim Allen, The Santa Clause moment) -it was a bright light !

Now I have always considered myself to be a rather holy and saintly person, one destined for brighter places.. *ahem* but I awoke to a bright light.
Somehow something had turned on the light in my main living space just outside the sliding door to my tatmi room (that is, Japanese-style room) !

I sat up in bed in a hurry. And then, about three a.m. it was, my brain started to whirr. What could have turned on the light? I know that I don’t really have bolt locks on the doors but maybe someone, something wandered in and was having a look around in my fridge !

No. That wasn’t the case at all. There was nothing there. I used the handy single-button remote to turn off the room light and fell fast asleep. Only, it happened again, and again (can you blame me? I was tired ) ! The light turned on and sure enough the thunder was bumbling outside and the lightning was flashing outside my cellophane-pane of a window.

It took my a few tries but I figured that something to do with something’s static electricity in the room and house and etc. was triggering the remote and turning on my main light.
I fumbled with the batteries and surgically, and rather exhasperatedly removed them from the remote -cursed at the lightning for having played so crude a trick on me and then I fell back to sleep.

Wasn’t that a great story?
Now how about something relaxing?

This last weekend I joined the aged community here in town and hopped onto our local onsen/spa shuttle. That’s right folks, we have a shuttle dedicated solely to transporting the faithful residents of our town(or anybody else for that matter) the thirteen-some kilometers to our local onsen.

I am usually the only young’n to board and ride the shuttle. Well, the only one that I’ve seen so far. I have graduated from collecting a few odd looks from people wandering whether I’ve lost myself as I board the bus, to people nodding in hello as we ride to our respiteful location (ten points if you just read that word as ‘respiteful’ and not ‘respectful’).

Really, just a few weeks ago on the ride back home from the onsen, I had a nice chat with a ninety-three year old lady that asked if we could be friends. Heartwarming indeed !

Now. I have been to a few onsens (or naturally, well, mostly naturally occurring hot springs here in Japan) but this one here in town is one of the best.
The water of our onsen boasts a deep black. The water is an almost noxious-looking color that can be compared to the character of Hexus from the Disney film ‘Fern Gully’ (1992).

And no. There is nothing wrong with the water. These are all naturally occurring pools that boast natural elements such as irons and phosphorous, etc. that heal the body and soul ! (Well, maybe they do..)

The other pools are of a cakey-looking brown water that make skin feel smooth and sticky-clean. I will not in any way fail to mention our most heavenly outdoor bath or ‘rotenburo’. With of course a private division between the men/women baths you can sit outside in the small but scantily warm pool and stare into the trees and surrounding forest.

This is where I make my point.
The music gently tumbling out of the tiny speakers both indoors and outdoors play melodical variations (music only) of popular songs like ‘No Matter What’ by the hip group Boyzone or other really, REALLY soothing and relaxing tracks that just melt into the greenery behind the bath.
Steam escapes off the top of the lapping water and you are left to hug the stones, watch birds fly overhead, and focus on the dripping of water tumbling or bubbling beside you.

Yes, this place is very real. It is small enough to accomodate about a handfull and a half of persons who should find it. And the bath house/onsen is located deep in the woods off a road adjacent to our ever-tumbling ocean here in northern Hokkaido.

If you are interested, or if you come and visit I promise I’ll point you in the right direction on how to get to our onsen.
All that and a massage chair following your soothing soak for only about five dollars. No, I’m not trying to sell you anything. I am wondering myself every time I board that bus on how come this most amazing experience is nearly free..

With that being said I hope I have made clear another of the anchors driven so deeply into my being as to why I love it here in Japan. Onsens heal the soul. And I have seen not even a sliver of them all. One of my greatest ambitions is to yet escape into a hillside inn and stay away for a day or two and just sit, soak, and sip tea while staring at the Fall leaves.
And wouldn’t that be nice ?

Snap. Back to work.
My thanks for reading and I hope that you are being met with most success at your jobs and doings. Keep on and don’t forget, if you don’t soak in a Japanese spring, you can always simmer in a hot tub on the golden peaks of whatever winter resort is near you. Or maybe you are fond of other pleasures this Fall season. Whatever it be, indulge. And I’ll catch you next week.

ps. a tiny comment here, as next Monday is a holiday and I have travel plans, I may not be posting on time next week. Forgive me now and I’ll reward you. Lol. That being said, my excuse is that I still don’t have internet at home, just at the office. Pardon !

I want to say more about these things. I want to say more about all the things that I am seeing and doing here. But I will not submit.
I don’t and won’t take up instant message-something posting. Even blogging is something different compared to letter-writing. I mean the real slow thing that they call ‘snail mail’ these days. I will stick to blogging. And I will fare my share of letter writing.

I would love to tell you about how I took part in our elementary school’s annual window cleaning day. Yes. The mothers of most of the students came today -near the end of the day. We were divided up and every faction went to a different part of our two-storey school and we.. cleaned the windows.

An aside,
For your, and my, information -the students are the ones responsible for cleaning the school. Every day. They are assigned tasks monthly and they do them. They do them whether they like it or not. That is my understanding of it. That is how I think it works.

And you will no doubt find this amusing, we used a window cleaner called ‘my pet’. At least that’s what the katakana lettering spells out when you read it. And that is what the students were yelling around the school in Japanese when they need a splash of cleaner for their window. ‘Give me my pet!’ You’re allowed to laugh, I think.

I had a bottle of the home-use version of the stuff and I kid you not, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it.

It wasn’t until during the classroom cleaning (classroom cleaning happens at the end of the day along with a brief spot clean of each class after lunch) that I asked the second year or grade two teacher what the bottle of ‘my pet’ was. Now I know.
And now after today, all the windows in our school are glistening. I wish you could see it.

Moving on..
Yesterday I discovered さんま, or Sanma.. that is Saury (a fish) that is for sale at our makets now. Because it is Fall we can enjoy several seasonal specialties including, chestnuts, mushrooms of the sort, Sanma (fish -they look like long silver arrows with ballpoint pens for noses), Nabe (a pot-cooked soup-y dish)and stuff like that !

I grilled and ate my first Sanma at home yesterday. The friend that I ran into the supermarket yesterday told me the simple recipe for the fish. Just add salt, he said. And just add salt -I did.
The fish tasted good and I am satisfied knowing that I am not only continuing to enculturate myself here in Japan, but that I am eating fresh, fresh fish coming from the ocean right next to me.

I still have a hankering to re-visit the sushi shop down the street from my place. Well, that would be the sushi shop that is around the corner and past all the construction happening to the main road-ish/highway that runs through town.
Did I mention that I live in a small town ? Well, I live in a small town.

Thanks for listening.
And if you behave and read well, then the next time I’ll tell you about the thunderstorm that turned on my living room light about three or four times in the middle of the night.

..but that’s only if you behave.
Pictures to follow !

Enjoy your Fall wherever you’re at !

(above, Schwarzenegger on how to make a cold place cold in Batman & Robin)

Yup, no doubts there, it is definitely becoming a colder and colder place yet ! Just a few weeks ago I remember thinking to myself, well, gosh, it really might be getting cold here.. Well, it is. It is !

So with everything being cold and getting colder I took advantage of the good weather that we had at the start of the weekend and tripped my way off to the second largest city in Hokkaido. Out there in Asahikawa, I and a good friend made our way in and out of a few stores in search of everything from clothing, to book accessories, to bookstores, and even designer belt shops?
Well, no doubts there. There is everything imaginable available here in Japan. And if you happen to think that they don’t have quite what you’re looking for than maybe you’re just not looking for the right thing. Whatever that may be..

In Asahikawa I had the divine opportunity to try two very new dishes. My menu of foods, let alone Japanese foods has been ever expanded ! I will of course try to attach both photos for your own viewing and future/present dining pleasure !

The first of the dishes was enjoyed with a glass of cold milk. In my glass of cold milk I was supplied no less than three ice cubes. I don’t know what side of the North Pole I grew up on but I can’t really recall being served ice with milk before. Maybe milk in a frosty glass? Anyways..

The dish was soup curry.

No, this is not a misspell. Soup curry is a rather tasty and savoury application of the Japanese favourite of curry rice. Curry rice also has its origins elsewhere I’m sure, but it has been made a unique and delicious favourite here in Japan. The soup curry variety is just that. Soup + curry. But the soup is really a curry which has been mixed, melded and blended somehow enough to make a curry that is a lot like a soup. Is that confusing?

Well, it should be. Because I wouldn’t be sure how to explain in right the dish itself. It is a mystery to me -but was topped with delicious veggies.
Plopped right in the middle of my dish was a croquet that was plumped full of cheese rice. That is, cheese and rice. My goodness do they know how to get creative with food here. Or maybe that’s just Asahikawa. Or maybe I just haven’t dined extravagantly enough yet.
Hmm.

Finally, at the end of our shopping day I enjoyed a pot of Kama-meishi. This dish is pronounced with the ‘awww’ of ‘Kharma’, but without the ‘R’. Does that one make sense? Don’t worry about it, just eat it if you can !

This very traditional and supremely subtle and satisfying pot of rice was sublime. No, not slimy. The flavours were, well.. they were ‘just’. Just right. I ordered the Japanese scallop variety. Inside the tiny cast iron urn in which the rice was served was a concoction of greens and the heavenly shellfish. The pot was lidded with a sort of Japanese pine traditional-style wooden cover.

Beside the dish we enjoyed a true dashi, or Japanese fish broth soup topped with nothing but a few green onion slivers. The color was of a caramel melt that shone like glazed butter. Throw in a few Japanese pickles in some tiny plates and you had you a meal. And that meal was right good.

One last note. About the weather, that is. I don’t know if it’s because we live so close to the continent of Europe or something that could be called the Torrid zone -not really sure, but we had a flash thunderstorm last night. It was just about ten p.m. and what I happened to think was the neighbor crawling in and out of our communal garbadge bin, I was instead surprised to find flashing lights, and pounding rains. Upon peeking outside my single-pane window and affording a deep sigh, I went to make some tea and sat and waited the weather out before going to bed.
At least the tea was good.

No, it’s not that I don’t like poor weather, it’s just that when you were enjoyed a rather modestly sunny day, you usually expect that your day will end just the same -a modestly sunny day. But, that’s okay. Maybe I was too vegged out and relaxed by that time to really notice what was going on outside.

Next time.. more on Japan to follow.
Comments appreciated.
Hope your adventure and Fall is swingin’ too !

(soup curry and Kama-meishi/pot-cured rice. Can you guess which is which?)

I have to apologize if you’ve waited this long for another post/update. Somehow I have the creeping feeling that this might happen more than once. That is me missing a post due to a busy work lifestyle. But hey, who isn’t busy, right?

And again, I tumble back to the internet situation. That is something that is crawling along at a very slow pace.
Nearly two months here abroad and still the unctuous machine that is setting my internet up is creaking, working slowly. Too slow.
But excuses aside !

I have been collecting morsels of ideas, things that I want to share with you. So, if you like salad and all the random bits of things that are found in salad, so you may enjoy the random bits of this post.

First and most importantly, I made it to the beginnings of the Sapporo Ramen Festival 2011. Now the large park that the central hub of Sapporo plays host to is big. I mean this park spans city blocks and just lolls along in one straight, well-defined meandering plot. This straight long line of a park was full of autumn vendors selling lacquerware, snacks and coffees, foodstuffs and beers, wines, juices galore !

There was also a smattering of people left, right, up and down enjoying all of it. Let’s just say that if you like meandering, looking lost, and shopping for nice quality aesthetics and tasty things, this would have been your scene. And it still could be if you come to Sapporo before October second !

Now the ramen was disappointing in slight. I have been slurping steamy streams of noodles for just a handfull of years but I have a few observations about the makings of this festival. The ramen festival vendors, I think, put in a lot of energy to make up authentic samplings of their region’s ramen. They sell this ramen to people with pre-purchased tickets.
I think if you have a craving for ramen, or an insatiable hunger this might not be the space for you.

I did however, try a tasty bowl of salt-based (SH-ee-yoh) ramen. So good. So good. You stand eating this lump of steaming soup at upright stands with other people dressed to look good for the weekend while beading sweat on their foreheads from slurping down hot noodles a little too fast. Hot noodles, cold weekend. What can I say? It’s getting cold here.
I did eat some more ramen from the vendors a few blocks down. The block of the park where they were selling everything from glistening skewered meats on the stick, to grilled sea urchin in-the-shell. Yes. I ate that, too. So good !

In case you are wondering, most if not all of my food experiences in this culturally quaint and food-saintly country have been smashing.

Carrying on with foodstuffs then, I also made it out to another part of Hokkaido nearby the main city to visit a friend. A few friends in fact. On the evening that we were preparing to make takoyaki -that is fried and batter-coated octopus balls to you- we made our most important stop at the local market. Well, let me tell you that I wasn’t helping my friends shop for very long before I was distracted and lulling around the store gazing at everything.

If you know me then you know that I like to -don’t laugh- look inside people’s fridges. Once I figure out why I can let you know. It might have something to do with the love of food and the accessibility of what you find in the well-stocked or non-stocked fridge. This supermarket was like a big fridge of a good friend. And I got lost in it.

One of the things that I found in this amazing space was the fresh and frozen fishes and seafoods. Along with the simply radiant and glistening fresh fish on ice that you serve up and bag yourself was a sample tray.
Now what I am about to share with you might make North American grocers a little loopy. There was fresh cubed and marinated tuna under a bowlish cover for self-serve sampling. I stood there for not too long catching my breath and counting my amazement before I took a tooth pick (yes, they have tooth picks here in Japan, too) and pierced for myself a juicy sample of tuna and chomped it down while walking in the cracker and tea aisle.
It wasn’t long until my friends found me gazing at the stacks and chomping on seafood that they pulled me along and we went to pay for our fare at the counter.
Note to self. Eat more fresh seafood in the store. Bacteria not included.

By the way, if you fear for my health, don’t. I have been to just a few countries where dining from street vendors while elephants are walking the dusky city streets beside you as you sit and eat from plastic chairs is the norm. I have survived those experiences along with schucking fresh oysters with fisherman at a schoolside wharf in southern Thailand. And hey, I’m still here. I’m not free and cured of everything but some of the best experiences are the ones you don’t read about in the travel books. Just a thought.

Now before I ramble on forever -and not out of guilt for not having posted for a few days- I will close in saying that last minute plans to travel out of town this last weekend paid off big. The big payment included dark, rich and piping hot coffee, a car ride into the biggest city in Hokkaido, sleeping on a friend’s floor with newly made friends (who are nice people and are all teachers here in the local school system), and taking a shower in a bathroom that is far nicer than mine.
I discovered this weekend that I really do live in the countryside. That is no real city-like resemblance of anything one could call a metropolis where I live.
My friend’s place is like a castle compared to my humble home. But I love my humble home and you, too, are more than welcome to visit my cozy space anytime.

As for this post’s photo I have done some pondering over which I will publish, but if you will allow me this as well the photo is of ramen that I had just before catching the last bus back up to, well, the oceanside town I now call home. The ramen shop was a store bursting with other ramen stores surrounding it -Sapporo’s own ramen museum found on the top floors of the lux department store turned train station. We’re talking about twelve floors here. And yes, the restaurants are located above the arcade and game center floor that houses an official Pokemon Center and goods shop.
You just gotta love it.

Thank you for hanging in there and I hope that you are enjoying, in your own and fantastically special way, the comings of Autumn. Because if you haven’t noticed.. baby, it’s cold outside.

p.s. this ramen is miso ramen. Miso ramen is who and what I love. This miso ramen is served with a lump of Hokkaido’s freshest butter. Beside the ramen is a bowl of hott-ish rice topped with lumps of char sui (you need to look that one up unless you’ve watched Anthony Bouradin’s Hokkaido travel special show; or unless you cook a lot)and mayonnaise. We love mayo here. And I love it here.

I think I am having one of those days, times, moments where I have totally lost track of what I wanted to talk about and/or say here.
But that’s okay. Nothing’s worth worrying about after all. It’s all just small stuff (props goes out to Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for that quote).

Okay, but seriously I had this quaint little mention about something going on here in town. But I’m sure I’ll come back to it later.

In the meantime don’t be too surprised or upset by the blandness of this post.
Okay, let me begin by saying this, I wish I had a better camera.

Over the last several weeks I have been compiling lists and making notes of things that I would wish-want, or want to have.
One of those things would be a new camera. Now sure I’ve heard that it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer, etc., etc. BUT, be warned, I think that majestic images/times/happenings/places deserve a quality instrument. Just as a majestic scape or moment ought be taken in or drawn up by say, a Michelangelo or a Dali. Paint me wrong, I could be off about that.

Would you disagree?

Anyways, when I leave work the sun is usually going down. Setting. ‘You-yak-hey’ -ing. That is ‘sunset’ in Japanese. 夕焼け.

So let me say just this, yesterday, the sun was climbing down out of it’s high stead lowly down towards its resting place near and below the ocean horizon (yes, as it always does). And, my goodness was I taken aback.

There was a fire set to the sky like I’ve never seen. Even the photo cannot do it justice (below). In fact, while I stood and stared -and I am yet to see someone else do the same here in town- I was in awe. I stooped and stopped, and then I turned to go, but I turned back a second time and just as when an artist lifts brush from painting and then breathes a slow sigh of satisfaction upon his picture giving it a second life, so was I taken by surprise a second time.
The colors were like rolling waves of fire upon the ocean horizon. Oranges and pinks, with tones of a ‘heart-like’ red that I have never seen.

What am I trying to say by this? Well, for one, travel. Go somehwere you haven’t been before and stare at something that is so simple. You might be taken by surprise. But, you know what? I’ve stopped and stared so many times at a leaf on the road or a sewer grate and was awestruck -even in Canada. Maybe you don’t have to go anywhere.

Maybe I’m just sentimental because there are a lot of viewable television dramas I’ve been watching lately. Maybe that’s why I’m so mushy about this sunset thing. Or maybe, just maybe, nature is truly a majestic thing and in the words of R.M. Rilke,

‘Things aren’t all so tangible and sayable as people would have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, whose life endures beyond our own small, transitory life.’

This sunset was just that.

I used to both fear and dread Mondays. When I was working part-time back at home I would have to either wake up extremely early to get primped and ready to serve coffee to caffeine-needy people, or just.. well, work.

That has changed. I no longer dread nor even fear Mondays. I suppose that is one of the benefits of up-and-going somehwere new to work and live.
But Mondays can still mean preparation. And today I had to prepare to teach and assist at our local agricultural high school.
What is an agricultural high school, you might ask?
Well, let me tell you..

At our agricultural high school here in town, yes, we have only one high school. Our students study the fine arts of whatever high school students tend to study in Japan along with gardening, growing corn, raising livestock, and caring for plants and foliage. It is really rather exciting.
And the school grounds are very new, very lavish and everything is tastefully painted a nice almond yellow. No, I’m not being sarcastic. The yellow is nice!

It was at this school today that I taught the third year class for the first time. And thus, first times teaching means first time introductions.
Thank you for wondering, yes, everything went well and fine. I have to say though that showing the students a shopping flyer from a local food store back home, or say, a pizza menu brings about some startled reactions. Reactions including, ‘why are your pizzas so big in Canada?’
And have you thought about it? Are our portion sizes ‘that’ much bigger in Canada?

Anyways,
During the lunch our on Mondays I am often invited to play indoor soccer with the students during the forty-some minute lunch break.
I have to say, plaing soccer in slacks and a dress shirt is new to me, but it doesn’t take me long to get into the game. I really enjoy soccer.
Language barriers fade to a near zero and everyone ends up running around the gym passing and dodging ill shots that are aimed for the net but often fly at one’s piece de resistance, or face.
Today one of those very ‘shots’ or flying soccer balls came for me. It’s just that it wasnt’t my face..

Infront of a mix of students and other teachers I neatly took a soccer ball to one of the more delicate areas of the male anatomy. That’s about all the ‘spelling out’ of it I will do.
Needless to say I was in a heap on the floor for a split second. There was a gasp of silence for a moment as one of the ‘teachers’, me, was down. It didn’t last long. A hail of smiles and broken laughter soon follows and I was up laughing along with everyone else. The game carried on and　the lunch bell soon swept us all back up and on our ways about the day.

I am rather glad really that I was taken by surprise like this today. With both students and teachers present I was given the opportunity to look a little ‘human’ infront of everyone. Something for which I am glad.
In a culture of being careful, following the rules, and knowing your place it isn’t always easy to break down the walls between　say, student and teacher. But with a little help today (haha) students saw that I was just another guy, a friend -maybe, who enjoys a good game of soccer and crumples when thocked by a soccer ball.

All in another Monday’s work.