winter

It's a typical December day in western Japants.

The wind-chill is below freezing, my sliding door and window are open to try and suck out some of the dust from my very unfiltered living space, and I look like this -->

That's a warmfuzzysweater underneath my Dinosaur Comics hooded sweatshirt. I would have another full layer underneath my warm corduroy pants, except I am washing just about every piece of cold-weather underthings and overthings that I own.

Why? 'Cause for Hokkaido adventures commence in 72 hours \o/ And after THAT? Touhoku adventures. And then Chubu adventures. I'ma wandering down the local train network (well, starting off on the expresses because I realized there's no feasible way to get from Sapporo to Akita in a single day otherwise x.x durrrrrrdurrdurr I fail geography), stopping off at a few of the larger cities on my way back down to Kansai.

I initially had no plan whatsoever but to maybe try a couple of the inns / hostels I happened across in the metropolises, and take refuge in 24-hour internets cafes if that didn't work out. But as departure day approached I got to thinking maybe my spirit of adventure would be less dampened if I had an actual sleeping room for sleeping times. To that end, I joined this couchsurfing / international exchange network a Siberian dude at a dinner party told me about, and sent off one request for crashspace for each of my stopoff points, not expecting to have much luck given that it's the holidays and most people are off having their own fun travels.

The morning after I sent the requests, I'd gotten affirmatives from all three peoples :D These are vouched-for and peer-reviewed experienced hosts, with confirmed identities / addresses and so on, so safety factor is high. The network is very efficiently self-regulating in that respect, to minimize on creepers. PLUS they all sound like for-seriously awesome people! Two of the three have been around the world and back again, one of 'em is actually a current JET, and one is a BRAIN SURGEON. SUPERNIFTY.

I am all kinds of excited about this trip ~/o/ (that is me running around with my arms out making whooshing noises)

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.