Week 2

I feel like I'm settling in to Sapporo pretty well. One minor / major hiccup is that this weekend my computer decided that it hates the Internet. My tablet can connect, but not the computer. That kinda stinks for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I can't post many pictures!  Also, please forgive any weirdo spelling / grammatical / autocorrect issues.

Oh well. Just in general, I expect that this blog is going to be pretty quiet during the week. I usually just go to work and then come home, although I did have an adventure on Friday finding a 7-11 close to me (which required a hybrid of Google maps and 7-11's Japanese website). I needed 7-11 because they have 24-hour bank machines, and my bank (and its ATM???) are only open until like 5pm. Anyway, that turned out to be exciting because Google maps is in Japanese in Japan. I suppose that makes sense.

On Saturday I went shopping with my prof and his family. I had met them previously, because they came to stay with my current prof when he was a visiting scientist in my former lab. His wife is super sweet and very helpful, and his kids are adorable and very well-behaved. 

First we went to Costco, which had a TON of imported Western stuff! Near the entrance there was a woman demonstrating a Keurig, which must be new in Japan because people were flipping out over it. When the lady saw me she kept telling my prof that Keurigs are really popular in the US and telling him to ask me for confirmation :p

I didn't buy a ton of stuff, because of course the sizes were ENORMOUS, but I did get my hands on some peanut butter!!!!!!!!!

Next we went to a regular grocery store.  My prof's wife got rally excited about teaching me to make miso soup, so she helped me find all of the (fish-flake-free!) ingredients.  She was amazingly thourough and patient. It was really great to have some help knowing which brands of stuff I can actually buy! She also helped me find yeast and flour (so I can make bread!!!) and my prof "suggested" that I should buy a bag of rice of a cultivar that was developed at our research station :) (I acquiesced).

Finally, and most importantly,  we went to a second-hand shop and I got a totally sweet ride! I got to test it out right away by biking home since it didn't fit in the car. 

Mine is the blue one in the centre. It has a bell!!! And a headlight!! And a seat that's low enough for me!!

On Sunday I went to the zoo with my labmate and her family. My friend's daughter had been getting the hard sell at school all week about a special tapir exhibit, so we went to Maruyama Zoo (which, unsurprisingly,  is in Maruyama Park, where we went last weekend). Despite the fact that the tapir exhibit appeared to just be, y'know, the fact that the zoo has tapirs, the zoo was pretty fun. Most of the animals' enclosures were ok - I had read online that a lot of them were pretty bad but there were only a few that were unacceptable to me (most notably a very mangy-looking raccoon who was pacing frantically). These was also a very upset snow leopard with the same problem, which was confusing because right beside him was another snow leopard withal perfectly fine cage?? It was like he was in leopard jail. Also the polar bear did not seem impressed. However, the zoo was clearly working on a huge new area for some of the bigger animals like the giraffes, so hopefully the raccoon and the others might be able to take over the old space. Anyway, I would rate it as non-horrifying but mildly upsetting. 

When we were done at the zoo I went grocery shopping with my friend and her family. Apparently I cannot stop grocery shopping.  However, I guess as a person who always cooks every meal and is used to having a cupboard full of dried beans and other stocks, going from that to literally nothing (no spices?!) was a bit of a shock, so I feel like I'm always scrounging. My labmate's husband made the pot that maybe it's a good idea to check where the veggies were grown, because maybe it's better not to buy stuff from Fukushima just yet. Maybe a good point. 

Anyway, I made a huge curry with my vegetables and I finally have a cupboard full of dried things (like adzuki beans and mushrooms and seaweed) so maybe I can stop grocery shopping every second day or so :)