Week 69: No more Japan!

I'm back in Canada with the cats!!

I had a smooth trip home and I'm mostly over my jetlag. On the flight from Sapporo to Tokyo, which is only about an hour long, I had an entire row to myself!

My last chance to stretch my legs.

Alas, on the flight from Tokyo to Toronto, I was sitting in the middle of the middle row. That.. felt like a long flight. Everyone kept asking me what the first thing I was going to eat would be when I returned to Canada, and I figured that it would probably be a coffee and a bagel from Tim Horton's. But I wasn't in the mood for coffee, and I was all out-of-sorts, so instead I had a bag of all-dressed chips and a grapefruit juice. A winning combination!

Here are some of the last pictures that I took in Japan. This is the Sapporo Clock Tower, which is apparently one of the top three most disappointing tourist sites in Japan. I can kind of understand that designation. It's just a small clock tower, even though it's kind of cute. I found it by accident during my first weekend in Sapporo, and again during my last weekend.

I also saw a terrifying over-stepping of Imperial power.

 I can't believe I'm back home! I still have some adventures lined up, so I might keep trying to update sporadically. It has been kind of fun having a blog!

Week 68: The beginning of the end

It is officially freak-out time: I am going home in less than 48 hours!! 

Most of my junk has been packed, or eaten, or thrown away (to the extent possible by Japan's arcane garbage laws). I haven't decided yet whether my older computer is going to make the amazing journey back to Canada. It is in serious danger of being disassembled and thoroughly destroyed very soon. 

This week was the beginning of the goodbyes. On Tuesday, we had a lab farewell party at a vegetarian-friendly buffet restaurant near my apartment. I got some very cute gifts, including a Hello Kitty button and a cute cat statue. Actually there was a definite cat theme to all of my gifts :) 

On Thursday my prof invited me to have dinner at his place with his family. It was so nice to have the chance to say goodbye to his kids, and the meal that his wife prepared was without a doubt the most delicious thing that I ate in my entire time here. She made tempura without using eggs (there is often egg in the batter). It was SO GOOD. I really want to make it when I get home!

On Saturday I went to the beer garden with the other international folks from the lab, and we had a great time just sitting around chatting. Our plan for Sunday was to climb a little mountain, but my friend's kid had an ear infection and we decided that the change in elevation probably wouldn't do her much good, so instead we hiked back to my place and ate a picnic on the floor. I'm still not sure how I'm going to say goodbye to them tomorrow. 

Anyway, for a significant chunk of my time in Japan, I had snippets of a song running through my head that went something like "Oh, I wish I was back at home in Canada..." I tried googling around several times, but just this week I FINALLY hit on the right random string of words and found the song!! I think it expresses my thoughts perfectly.

Last weekend I found a big bookstore downtown that has a small foreign-language section, and on Saturday afternoon I picked up a paperback copy of The Martian, which everyone has been raving about. I got it at about 1 pm on Saturday, then met my friends at 4 pm and got home around midnight. It is now Sunday at 7:30 pm, and I was with my friends from noon to 7. I am on page 320 of about 420. It's really good!! I think I'm going to leave my copy here for my friend to read, because I'll be finished before I leave Sapporo :)

I'll try to update the blog again during my trip home, and again when I arrive (in the off-chance that anyone other than my parents and brother might be reading this). Now I have to get to work on finishing that box of red bean popsicles that somehow appeared in my freezer yesterday. However will I finish them on time??!

Week 67: the penultimate peril!

My second last weekend in Japan! The start of my last week in Japan! Wow!

On Saturday we had a fireworks party at International Hall. My friend's kid invited all her friends, and we had lots of fun kicking around a deflated soccer ball that I found in a field six months ago, and slapping around a tennis ball with my hockey stick! When it got dark enough, we played with sparklers and the real grownups fired off a few fireworks.

The firework haul!

I also did a test-pack of my suitcase and finished buying souvenirs and bought a box of red bean popsicles. And I saw the google car!!! So maybe my time in Japan will be immortalized on google streetview. Keep your eye on this spot!

I also found a place where I can find a job if I ever need to work in Japan again!

Acne studios.

Before I came to Japan, I found a blog that I really like called 1000 things about Japan. It's written by a woman who lived in Tokyo for about 20 years, although ironically she left Japan and stopped her blog almost as soon as I got here. Anyway, I really like her style of having an alternating list of things that she figured that she will / won't miss about Japan after she went back to the US. Here is my much shorter list, in no particular order. Maybe I'll add to this list next week, because I'm sure there are many other things.

1. I WILL miss the friends that I made here, especially the Bulgarians.
2. I WON'T miss being 12 hours out of synch with everyone I care about (and also being like 6000 km away from them). 
3. I WILL miss being able to take the subway to get anywhere, including the snowboarding hill!
4. I WON'T miss jerkos staring at me for being non-Japanese and whispering "American!" to their friends.
5. I WILL miss bean-based sweets, like my bean popsicles!
6. I WON'T miss not having access to actual functioning deodorant. I have smelled terrible for a month. Even terribler than I normally smell!
7. I WILL miss seeing tanuki and deer hanging around my home / place of business. 
8. I WON'T miss seeing terrifying hell spiders hanging over every doorway that I need to go through and window that I want to look through. 
9. I WILL miss the people that I see on the subway every day. The guy with the neon running shoes who is always dressed in a track suit (I like to imagine that he is a gym teacher).... the lady with a weird hat and unflattering cotton shorts who always glares at me... the schoolgirl who looks identical to Ann Veal from Arrested Development.. the business lady who always shoves in front of me so that she can get on the escalator in front of me, then walks verrrrry slooooowly to the next escalator and blocks my path... the Japanese guy with orange hair that is huger and fluffier and curlier than mine... alas!
10. I WON'T miss being unable to read food labels and worrying about mystery fish all the time.
11. I WILL miss the abundance of mountains to climb and to look at!

Week 66: Hot naked ladies

This weekend I had an amazing Japanese adventure!

Because I'm leaving soon, my prof took me on an adventure to climb the highest mountain in Hokkaido! Originally we were going to go with his family, but something came up. So the Bulgarians came instead!

Our first stop was Mt. Asahi, the tallest mountain in Hokkaido! It's a volcano, like lots of other mountains in Japan, and it's constantly belching steam. There are lots of hotels with hot springs all around the base.

Luckily for us, there is a ropeway to go most of the way. We saw a lazy deer lying around under the ropeway! Before we could set out from the upper ropeway station, there was a torrential downpour, so we had to wait for it to die down. But as soon as the rain cleared up, we set out to hike around.

 There were lots of little lakes dotted around near the top of the mountain!

And when we got near the top of the "casual" trail, the sky suddenly cleared, and we had a good view of the peak!

But all of a sudden, a thick fog rolled in... and then there was another torrential downpour, and we had to climb back down in it! The paths turned into small rivers and our feet got SOAKED. By the time we made it back down to the car, we were all shivering cold. Luckily, the next step was the onsen!

Onsen are Japanese hot springs. They're super popular, but you are not allowed to wear a bathing suit: to use them, you have to be naked. The last time I had the chance to try them, I chickened out. But now that I'm leaving Japan soon, I finally decided that I should take the plunge. Luckily, I was so cold from the mountain that there was no hesitation! I'm glad I tried it! It was very relaxing (despite the naked), and it was a great way to warm up! Now I know what the monkeys are so excited about!

Week 65: It's my birthday!

Happy birthday me!! Saturday was my birthday, and boy howdy I had an interesting day!

During the week I got some good news about some job prospects... and then on Saturday morning I got even more good news!! It feels really good to have things kind of settled, considering that I'll be back in Canada in less than a month!

My birthday was great. First, I woke up to my good job news. Then I had a great chat with my brother, followed by a second great chat with the friends that came to visit me in Sapporo. Then I went to the lab for a little while, and then I met up with my friends for some birthday shenanigans! I got a great gift (a watermelon!!) and they cooked me a really good lunch! Then we picked up their kid from playgroup at school and we took a bike ride out to a little farm that's in the neighbourhood of the research center. By the way, did I mention yet that my friend's 10-year-old kid is now a few centimetres taller than me?

The farm is only open for a few hours every week, but they have a little market with fruits and veggies and their biggest attraction is fresh milk and ice cream! The weird thing to me is that there is only one flavour of ice cream: milk. Not vanilla. Just milk. But people go bananas for it, so I guess it must be pretty good? After the ice cream we continued our bike ride and visited some sunflower fields. I don't know what kind of sunflowers they were but they were pretty puny!

On my way home I found a 1 yuan coin. I had a lucky birthday!

On Sunday I lazed around and did some shopping, and I took a trip out to the Hokkaido Shrine and bought a fortune. I got a lucky one!! I'll take that as a good omen for my job news. 

I also took a good hike through the Tanuki Koji shopping district. While I was there I bought a treat: a red bean popsicle! The ingredients are just red beans, cornstarch, sugar, and water. I really liked it!! I just found out that these exist so now I'm going to have to do my best to cram as many in my mouth as possible before I leave. 

Things are getting a little weird at the travelling roadshow for that giant movie...

Note guy in inflatable skinless giant costume

And there was an exhibit of space stuff at Sapporo Station! A Japanese guy is currently the commander of the ISS, which I think is the reason for the delay. I want to try space curry!

Week 64: Hokkaido adventure

Happy August! This is the beginning of my last month in Japan!!

This week we had an adventure! My friend's husband teaches guitar to a Japanese guy, and he offered to take us on a trip around Hokkaido! I had fun drawing with my friend's kid in the car. At her request, I drew a chihuahua. Then a mouse riding the chihuahua. Then my cat. And then she added a kabutomushi. And then some cowboy hats. 

In response to the M on my cat's forehead (for mackerel tabby / Mighty Cat / Mario), she drew some additional cats: first an L cat (for Luigi) and then a W cat (for Wario). Wario cat has a big butt. 

She also updated her portrait of me. I think this is a much more accurate representation than the one she drew last year! I'm looking good these days even though my skin fell off.

Anyhow, our first stop was the Asahiyama Zoo, which is the most northern zoo in Japan. In the winter, the penguins go on parade around the city! But in the summer, the winter animals were mostly just hot. It was a pretty nice zoo!

Even though it was too hot for a penguin parade, we still enjoyed the penguins. There was a 360 glass underwater tunnel so that you can watch the penguins swim all around you! There was also a seal tunnel (but they were harder to get a good picture of). 

In addition to the penguins, the zoo had some cool birds!

The red panda was putting on a show to look cute. 

As always, the chimpanzees were really fun to watch. There was a mother with a really young baby! 

After she got tired of holding it, she put it on her head and it rode around backwards on her head for a little while. 

The lemurs had a baby too!

In the Hokkaido animals section I was FINALLY able to take a good picture of some awake tanuki!

There was also a GIANT hare!

 I was really happy because this zoo had some capybaras! Capybaras are the best because they are just giant guinea pigs.

The goats were having a great time!

Some of the "fierce" animals were trying harder than others to actually look fierce. Most of the cats were just sleeping.

The giraffe was eating out of people's hands!

The hippo was getting stung by a sparrow bee but he didn't seem to notice. 

When we left the zoo, we headed to Biei, where there was a really beautiful blue lake!

There was also an active volcano!

Next we went to Furano, which is known for it flower fields!

Lavender season had just ended, but you could still buy lavender ice cream (which everyone did)...

As well as lavender lemonade (which I did)! It was really good!

Our last stop was a series of cabins in the woods. It reminded me of Endor! The little cabins were actually shops selling expensive handmade toys and bits of art, but they were fun to poke around in. 

On the way home, my friend's daughter and I took turns drawing animals in the dark with our eyes closed. I think the drawings turned out well, though they started to get abstract near the end when the theme changed from "zoo animals" to "monster fruits / vegetables."

An emu

A tiger!

Flamingo

Tanuki. This one is my favourite. He's so fat!

"Ringo-san" (Mr. Apple)

A French-Canadian pineapple

A sweet potato kid

It was a great trip!! I'm really happy that I had a chance to see a few places outside of Sapporo. 

In the interest of "taking pictures of things that I enjoy before I leave," here are some more subway pictures. I finally got a picture of the scary living rice leaf man! In this ad series, it always says "rice is..." and then there's a picture of something (like a little kid and his dad and it says "rice is... family." This one says "rice is natural." I'm not sure if this picture really gets that across...

This is a poster for a horse racing track. They have a bunch of posters with this theme of people doing things while oblivious to a horse standing beside them. This one has a mother with a crying baby, and the mother is saying something like "Shhh... there's no horse." I think it's mean to lie to babies. Also, at least to me, the translation of the racetrack is "Sapporo Horse Friends." I like it!

Finally, here is Tanuki Koji, all dolled-up for summer!