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

Teeveeeeeeeee \o\

MY TV WORKS AGAIN. A week after Typhoon Melor plowed through the country's power grid like Godzilla without his morning coffee, I can watch my local stations static-free and see the Friday night Engrish movies again!

Obviously this is the post-storm recovery item of chief importance in my town. Which is kind of remarkable, considering that THIS is the view of typhoon #18 as it made landfall directly above my peninsula:
See that faint white outline underneath all the angry sky? That is Japan. See the wee-tiny dot in the middle of the red-zone? That's me hiding out in my front entrance because it's the only spot without the potential for susploding glass flying everywhere. Fun times and great sound effects.

Actually there was a point of damage that matters a lot more to me than the little picture box I use maybe 4 hours a week at most - the shortcut from behind my apartment building to school that winds through a little forested hillside.This is what it used to look like ( ; _ ; )

The before and after shots here don't even begin to convey the swath of destruction back there. It's very sad that I no longer have a plan-B for when I sleep in past 7:30 or forget a bunch of stuff and don't make it out the door until 8:15, but I'm thankful it all went down into the ravine and not onto any of the houses surrounding this hill on three sides. Who knows, with pretty much no property damage, maybe the city or whoever oversees the land back there will get somebody to clear off the old road. It'd be a shame if whoever gets my job next year won't be able to enjoy the sights and smells of the woods and 10 minutes shaved off their walk to work.

Typhoooooooon /o/

Despite the season's 18th typhoon having been downgraded from a Category 1 (of the sort that blew directly through my city last year) to a Tropical Storm, it looks like it's gonna pack quite a punch.

This "storm" has a diameter well over half the length of the Japanese archipelago. It is literally covering a good 60 - 70% of the islands right now.

From the warnings scrolling across the top of my wee-tiny TV screen, I have gathered that my prefecture will have the special privilege of receiving 60 cm of rain (that's a good two feet, Americans). The second-highest number I saw throughout the entirety of the warnings was 20 cm, so we are clearly #1. Go us! On top of that, our coastline (and technically I am in a coastal town, even though I am surrounded on all sides by mountains; there is an ocean inlet that runs almost up to the train tracks a mere mile or so from my apartment) can expect 9-meter waves.

Last year my biggest concern was wind blowing out my big glass patio sliding doors. This year the hubbub around here is obviously the water levels, but given that I'm on the second floor I'm not TOO too worried. Talk about the office has it that we're definitely-maybe showing up for work tomorrow (please see Japanese Work Ethic), the only question is whether or not the students get sent home early.

nenkyuu

"Nenkyuu" is the regular paid time off that we can take throughout the year. I took it today three hours into the morning because apparently all the other teachers decided that this was the day to take off, so the office is empty and dull and my work computer's maddeningly slow.

Also, the windows are all closed and the air conditioners are set at 27 on low speed. It is a dry & breezy 26 C outside. Sorry, office, you fail at life.

There's a nice breeze coming in through my balcony door, and outside a couple of the rice fields are already being harvested. I don't quite trust this mild spell - I KNOW I remember being sweaty and gross well into Septemer last year - but it's pretty nice to not have to run the lung-fungus-inducing aircon all day. Gotta get back to working on essays, but first some observations:

Every old man driving a kei-truck looks like the guy from Waking Ned Divine (sigh...okay Grandpa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but seriously, you should see David Kelly in other things)

Parasols are useful for defense not only against the sun, but also against oosuzumebachi ("big sparrow bee," the most giantest of Asian giant hornets, which happen to live in the mountains around my town). I know this because on Monday one flew INTO my parasol, got angry with me for being in its way, and was summarily smacked down with said instrument. Then I RAN LIKE HELL.

Dirty dishes are like goombas to my Mario - I just walk away from the sink for a second and when I go back again they've respawned. Unfortunately they don't make little bloopy noises; I would probably clear them more often if they did.

Thyme looks kinda sad when it's in a bit pot all by itself.

foto trifecta

Not quite a photo-dump, but some odds & ends.

I had some heavy cream in the fridge that was gonna expire in a few days, so I decided to make some veggie korma couple nights ago. Got everything chopped up, sorted out, had the onions & garlic frying in the skillet, and then I reached for the tomato sauce. Which was totally NOT there. Too late to go to the store, and too late to stop cooking even had it still been open. Sooooo I tossed in a splash of water to disperse the curry powder and the last of my garam masala, and this is what I ended up with. Actually, I think I might prefer this to the version with cream. The snap peas and bell peppers and cashews made for a really pleasing mix of flavors c: It's nice when unexpected set-backs turn into delicious discoveries.

This town takes the usual counter-measures against pigeons and their ungodly mess (and as usual, they fail spectacularly). And yet people here seem to be remarkably accommodating towards the swallows, who make just as much of a mess, at least on whatever is directly below their nests. There's a nest above the vent on the front outer wall of the konbini near school, and the store clerks went to the trouble of putting a box beneath it to catch all the droppings. Today I was heading to the school lunch office when I heard a lot of loud chirping very near the student entrance downstairs, and I caught sight of these little guys. Judging by their size, they're nearly ready to strike out on their own, but for now they still snuggle down together while momma's away.

Finally, my latest order from Kawachi came tonight. I...couldn't help myself. But I make no apologies. This sketchbook's paper is just as good as any more "traditional" book's, and I won't brook any intolerant slurs against it.

blips

I haven't made a real picture-laden post in a while now, I think not since I put up those terrible and pity-evoking shots of my empty apartment when I first moved in and had no clutter stored up around the edges like cushy, subcutaneous fat deposits.

So here be some things:

1) wee-tiny kwabs be back in town. This one don't take no sass!
B) a gecko I found chillin' on the stairway handrail one afternoon. He'd just recently lost his tail, as you can see, little bud's just starting to come back in. He let me poke him and pet him a bit, probably thinking the whole time ohgodohgodohgod what is this horrible thing touching me please don't eat meeeeeee;

iii) a birdbatterfly. They seem to be all over Mie - I just saw one in Kumano over the weekend (I will look up their real name some day, wait no of course I won't, it can't be as good as this one I made up) They are generally not very obliging photo subjects, but this one had some flowermunchies to snack upon and keep it (relatively) still. It was the size of my hand, fingers splayed, and it was so drunk on nectar it nearly bumped smack into my head quite a few times;

and Δ) something NOT alive but flora-related, sorta, a painting I started a humiliatingly long time ago. It's going to get done and then it's going in a closet somewhere, and meanwhile I am starting a new project or two and not letting this old thing haunt me with its staleness and my failure to make it better.

Tomorrow I'm making a day-trip into Osaka that can't get too expensive, because I forgot that when Japan has public holidays, Japan's ATMs take public holidays as well; they dun' work and you can't get to 'em anyway 'cause the banks and bank-corners are all closed. Konbinis still operate, obviously, but Nicole and I have had some issues with finding Hyaku-Go-friendly stores in O-town. Helps when the ATM actually services your bank.

Anyway I am stocking up on chili-beans and diverse&sundry food-goods, for in a recent attempt to make myself some delicious chili, I inadvertently created the best Sloppy Joe recipe ever. EV-ER. No, internet, you can't have it, I'munna make a million dollars. ...Also I have to remember exactly what I did first (.__.)a

Chaahan (fried rice) tonight was in general a success (it was DELICIOUS, thanks for finally getting me the recipe, AJ!), only gum in the gears being that I tried to add some chopped bok choy to it and it weren't havin' none of that, taste-wise. Silly rabbit, bok choy is for stews.

Dude. Duuuuuuuuude.

Okay, add this to the list of reasons why I desperately want a grad school in the UK to accept me for fall 2010: Scotland, you now trump Warwick on my list

So about half of the bajillion rice fields across the road have been flooded in anticipation of the plantinating, and the frogs are going absolutely bananas. From around dusk 'til the early morning they sound like an army of kodama. Of course there are the usual froggy-noises, too, but apparently we have an abundance of clickity amphibians here in Isobe-"it's over nine thousaaaaaaaaand"-cho.

My legs are not as tired as I thought they'd be

This weekend I went exploring, which I have not done in a long time because I spent the previous 4 weekends going to places that are not my town.

Yesterday I took the local train down to Where The Train Tracks End, because if you go any further you will plow straight into the Pacific Ocean. That place is called Kashikojima, and it is full of pearls and ise-ebi (lobster), and regular ebi (shrimp), too. The station is right next to the wharf and its jumble of shops, and it smells of kelp and sea salt.

Today I discovered the hill behind my apartment. I mean I'd always known it was there, and that I could walk along a portion of it to get to work faster, but only recently did I notice a kei-truck parked up on a rise of ground that upon further inspection proved to be an unpaved road of sorts. It branches off the old paved road that I walk along normally, which disappears beneath my school's baseball field. So today I decided that before I went to the store I'd see where that little dirt track leads. Turns out it just winds alongside the marsh behind the school grounds and dead-ends after you walk through a creepy clearing where I-don't-know-what goes on, and then an archway of new bamboo.

But there is a footpath that continues onward, into mystery and adventure. I didn't have my camera with me, but this wasn't the sort of exploring I could really do justice to using a camera. Anyone who visits me from now on, I am bringing you by the rough and unbeaten track up that hill. Except it will probably never again be this kind of cool, sunny, sleepy day in early spring when there aren't enough insects to be a bother and the animals are still lying low and nobody is working the tiered orchards planted up there and it's so quiet, that whole piece of the world just dozing.

Still, we're going for a hike.

The last bit of walking I did was along the river bank on my way home from the store. I guess since today was pretty warm and sunny a lot of the older neighborhood residents were camped out with big buckets and nifty contraptions made of either bamboo or plastic tubing and fine mesh. They were catching little fishies, like minnows except I dunno the Japanese version of minnows, scoopin' 'em up with the mesh traps. Given the things I've seen at the store, though, I can't say with any certainty whether they actually intend to use them as bait for bigger fish, or just eat the little guys. Maybe both.

Mooooon!

Up until tonight, I don't think I've ever realized just how amazing a full moon is.

I've just now gotten back from spending the day up in Yokkaichi with the Stitch'n'Bitch folk. Many a night I have made the walk back from my local, unmanned train station, through the rice fields, down the Ise Road a bit to my apartment building. But never once have I actually been able to see anything without the aid of my cell phone's glow.

Tonight as I was walking down the narrow road through the rice fields, it was like I had my own personal street lamp dangling mere feet about my head, except it somehow lit up the WHOLE WORLD. There was a thin, fluffy scattering of clouds overhead shaped much like an Imperial Star Destroyer, but that hardly muted the shine at all. I could see across the width of the fields to the tree-line. I could make out in stark, steely relief the tire-tracks from farmers' trucks in the fields themselves. When I got to the other side of the small road, I could see ALL THE WAY BACK. All the buildings around me, even some of the distant mountain sides, I could clearly make out.

It was a lot like this, except there was no perturbed woman or jubilant crowd there, just me and the wind and a night-bird or two.