REAL winter

This is what it looks like.

See that lack of mountains? Those sprawling farmlands? The snow piled 3-4 feet deep? That is JAPAN, man! Only not, because Hokkaido is hardly anything like the mainland, except for that people with black hair and brown eyes who speak Japanese live there. And a healthy smattering of foreigners, too.

Foreigners who don't get stared or marveled at as much, it seemed to me. What I really liked about Sapporo was that people would leave me to my own business, but were very helpful when I needed directions or whatevs. Also the grid system. Oh. My. Jeebus. Grid systems are BEAUTIFUL, and cities built on grids are made of win. Sapporo is a Japanese city where you absolutely cannot get lost, it is un-possible. And it has great shopping, and great eating, and cheese, a-a-and BAGELS. BAGELS WITH CREAM CHEESE I seriously almost started crying right there in the middle of the store, I have been having the worst goddamn cravings for bagels and cream cheese for, what, probably a year now?

Best moment of Christmas day, in fact, for me, was sitting on an express train out to Asahikawa with my travel buddy, looking out the window at what honestly could have been any flat stretch of Wisconsin, eating my earl-grey flavored bagel with plain honest cream cheese slathered all over it. A close second was finally making it to a hot spring bath after getting hella lost, but by that time my Christmas Present From Japan, a.k.a. raging cold / very probably swine flu, was in full swing and I was feverish and cranky. This is the podunk mountain village we ended up in at one point, and grumbly as I was I couldn't help but admire the irony:

...Okay this is one of those things that is only really funny to people who know Japanese. Basically, we are at this point in central Hokkaido where it is cold as the ninth circle of hell, and stumble across this place whose name literally means "to know coldness" and on top of that sounds pretty darn close to what my students exclaim in the open-air hallways of our school at this time of year: "Wah! Samu'-!" ( "cold" is supposed to be "samui," but Kansai people love to drop syllables) I guarantee the Japanese teachers will find it hilarious.

Moving on, Touhoku. Really, really effing pretty c: The snow followed me all the way back to Nagoya, for pete's sake. Just look at this magic right here (this is in Nagano Prefecture, just south of Matsumoto):

After another 10 minutes or so, the snow got so thick you couldn't see 50 feet out, and the mountains just sort of disappeared. And then reappeared, even bigger than before. Japanese Alps: way impressive, you guys.

I connected up with two of the three slated hosts for my Great Meander back southwards. First night, my Japanese host dude took me out for a local (Akita) variety of nabe, in which the special ingredient was kiritanpo, mooshed-up rice cylinders that are hollow and closed at one end and sorta diagonally sliced at the other. The rice still retains its ricey-ness, so it's not at all like mochi, and it does an excellent job of soaking up the tasty nabe broth :d

Second night, I was crashing the couch (well, futon) of a fellow JET. He's been around the world a bit, did Peace Corps in South Africa, and was eminently gracious in sharing his stash of American cold medication with me, as well as some tea. We went out for Italian food in Sendai and talked for hours without really noticing the time go by and it was generally a very chill and groovy stay. I really wished I'd had more time to spend in that city. As it was I probably could have just stayed a second day & night and not bothered with Matsumoto / Nagano, but then I guess I wouldn't have had that lovely picture to show you above.

My would-be hostess down thataways never connected up with me, so around 11:30 I wandered into a business hotel that was about as overpriced as anything you could expect to find near a busy station - 5,500 and change for one person for a night. Actually most of the other hotels were charging more, but that still doesn't mean it's reasonable. As it happened, I'd managed to sneak in half an hour past the stated closing time, but before the manager guy had left and set the key-coded lock on the main door. So when he waddled out from a back room I asked if he had any free space, not really expecting anything. Must've had a soft spot for foreign girls down on luck, though, 'cause he offered to let me have a room for the 4,000 yen I claimed was everything I had on me (this was a half-truth: I DID have 4,000 yen in my pocket. And another 10,000 in my wallet, which was in my bag.)

Got back into Nagoya on New Year's Eve, and spent the night out with friends. Then I spent most of Jan. 1 sleeping off the effects of New Year's Eve / travel weariness. Still got a sniffle and a cough lingering, but otherwise I feel mostly peachy-keen.

I'll leave off with a view from the top floor of the Chocolate Factory in Sapporo city, where they have a sweets cafe overlooking Shiroi Koibito Park (Snowman Park). That was a very delicious Christmas Eve indeed :3

Seoul Food

...I couldn't resist.

The first thing we saw when we got through customs and out into Incheon Airport was a Baskin Robbins. The second thing was a scam artist posing as a taxi driver, and he saw us right away, too. The next time someone comes up to Nicole and I and demands to know where we're going, we're speaking French back to them.

In Korea every other word sounds like Japanese, but the syllables are all slurred and the writing is loopy. The TV is still weirdtacular, though. There are lights everywhere in Seoul, the bridges are illuminated, underlit, and across the river there is a stretch of buildings and rainbow pinpricks that just goes on and on. On the sidewalks there are people who don't walk in one direction or on one side and vendors who sell fried things, flowers, plastic toys that light up. It's like Tokyo except it's better because it's not Tokyo - there are busy streets with no crosswalks, no signals telling everybody when it is and is not acceptable to set foot on asphalt, in fact you can't not walk in the roads sometimes and it's wonderful to have to be aware of cars rather than beware of them - and it's like New York except I've never been to New York but I just get the feeling that that city is trying to reach me through this one.

We ate home-cooked kimchi soup and bibimbop at a mom&pop place just down the street from our very amazing guest house. Our host walked us there himself and told the proprietess what we wanted to eat. Her husband took pictures of me on his cell phone from across the room - that was refreshingly shameless, and it made me smile. She mimed to me that I shouldn't eat too much, because I'm wee and my stomach might hurt, but I finished most of a bowl the size of my head anyway because it was delicious.

Note: I admit that I wanted desperately the eat at the Outback Steakhouse or even the Papa Johns that we saw along the walk to the guest house, but Nicole, being the best friend that she is, talked me out of it. Still, if I get a hankering for pizza or black bean sauce, those two are fair game.

There is a small neighborhood market called "Lucky Sale Mart" a two-minute walk towards the station, and they have POMEGRANATES. Today after I see the palace and the historical district and the art galleries, I am coming back, buying a pomegranate, and eating the hell out of it!

Exploring time. Pictures will surely follow.