Week 16: More fireworks!

I'm feeling pretty settled in in Sapporo. I've been here for more than 100 days now. I know that because I have gone through a 100-pack of coffee filters :p I still have about 1/4 of my giant jar of peanut butter though, so all things considered I'm doing pretty well. A lady on the street asked me for directions today. That's the second time that's happened to me in Japan! I guess that means that I must look like I know where I'm going? Alas, I had no idea what she was asking me so I had to duck out of the conversation. Sorry lady.

This weekend has been quiet, which is nice because I've been pretty busy in the lab lately. I spent most of Saturday in the lab, and on Saturday evening there was a fireworks party hosted by my friend's daughter for a bunch of her friends from school! Within the time that I've been here, this kid has started speaking both English and Japanese like a pro! It was really nice to see how many friends she's made, because she was understandably struggling socially when she couldn't communicate with any of the other kids. She has also grown ~4 inches in height and is getting dangerously close to my height. And her feet are already bigger than mine; actually, I guess her parents bought her a 4-pack of socks, and two of the pairs were too small for her so they gave them to me. They fit great!

Anyway, the fireworks party was really fun! Mostly we just played with sparklers, but there were also a few larger fireworks that the adults (not Linda) shot into the sky. There were also black snakes and mice fireworks, which were coils that spun around really fast and shot sparks. Just like real mice! My favourite were senko fireworks, which are a sting with just a bit of black powder at the end. When you light it, you need to hold very still and let it burn for a little while; if you do it perfectly, you'll end up with a globule that shoots sparks for a few seconds. If you move too early or the wind catches it, the bottom will drop off and you don't get anything. 

My prof's son with a senko firework. This one actually worked beautifully!

Children and fire... a perfect mix!

The kids also used the sparklers to write on the pavement, and in the morning, this was the result: 

I think they mostly just wrote their names

On Sunday I just ran some errands and did some cleaning and some work at home. It was nice to have a lazy day. I took a trip downtown to go to the big dollar store to get some organizational stuff. They had a bunch of Halloween stuff!?

A) Isn't it too early for Halloween? B) I thought they didn't celebrate Halloween?!

They also had apparently the most delicious candy in the world:

"I am sorry that I cannot tell this deliciousness in a single word"

I also may have caved and bought another DS game:

It was really only a matter of time. I am pretty sure this is the fourth copy of this game that I own, all for different systems / languages. But that's ok because it is the greatest game ever made.

On my way home, I noticed that the woman sitting across from me on the subway had a bag from Lush! I really like Lush because they have a ton of vegan soaps and shampoos; their stuff can be expensive and a bit over-perfumey, but the vegan-ness wins me over. I had just been beginning to worry that I was going to run out of soap before my year is up, so I was really excited to discover that there is actually a Lush in Sapporo!! Now I can shower with impunity!

I also saw a woman with an amazing hat. I was a super-creep and took a picture, but it turned out too blurry to post, so you'll have to trust me that it said "Happy events tend to be preceded by challenge." I found that very frank. 

I realized that since there isn't anyone around to eat things that aren't edible (CATS), it might be a nice time to get some plants!

Finally, in terms of my critter sightings... not to go into too much detail, but I was out for a walk in a remote area of the research station today and I saw some weird animal poo on the road. It definitely wasn't deer poo, but it was FULL of seeds so it probably belonged to an omnivore so I really doubt it was fox poo...... I suppose it could have been a raccoon, but I actually kind of think it might be bear poo! So maybe the bear isn't just a legend after all.

The mystery poopers

Week 15: mushrooms and fireworks!

This week I learned something amazing: the English slang "skosh" (as in "I'll have a skosh more pie") comes from the Japanese word "sukoshi" (a little)!! I had previously noticed the similarity, but I dismissed it as coincidence because, really, how many Japanese-derived words do we have in English? But I did some googling and the etymology is legit. Exciting!

I also learned my second Japanese joke!! Here are the two jokes I know in Japanese:

Q: What's ichi (one) plus go (five)?

A: ichigo (strawberry)

My friend's daughter told me this one and I thought it was hilarious. 

Q: Watashi no kutsu wa, nan-sai desu ka? (How old [nan-sai] are my shoes?)

A: Kusai (smelly). Hahahahaha! This one works because to make a number an age, you said the suffix -sai, and kyu is nine, so ku-sai SOUNDS like a number, but it means smelly. This one is my favourite.

Anyhoo, on Saturday I was riding my bike down the tree-lined path into the research station when I saw something so exciting that I literally leapt off of my bike in excitement:

MUSHROOMS!!! At first I thought they were Amanita pantherina, an excitingly poisonous mushroom, but now I'm not so sure... maybe they are Amanita regalis? They really do look like pantherina..

 On Sunday I saw some more pretty mushrooms:

I'm pretty sure these are actually the incredibly delicious Amanita caesareoides (also known as Amanita hemibapha), but I really don't consider myself remotely good enough at mushroom identification to even think about eating wild mushrooms (so don't worry, Mom). They look a little similar to my very favourite mushroom, Amanita muscaria (so named because it is often surrounded by a ring of dead flies!).

One last mushroom: I think this is Tremella fuciformis, yet another commonly-eaten mushroom!

I have been meaning to look for a field guide to the mushrooms of Hokkaido, so now that it's just beginning to be mushroom season I guess I'd better go to the book store!

Anyway, after my amazing mushroom adventure on Saturday I fell asleep at like 6 pm (because I only slept for one hour on Friday night...), but I was awoken by the sound of fireworks!! I went to check them out with my neighbours.

In terms of my critter sightings: this week I mainly saw enormous bugs. I saw the biggest spider in the history of the world on Thursday ;__; It was bigger than Aragog! I was only able to get a terrible cell phone picture where you can't really judge the size, but here it is anyway. 

My friend said that the spider looks photoshopped in. Alas, how I wish that was the case!!

I pointed it out to one of my Japanese labmates and he was like "Oh yeah, there are lots of those around. Didn't you wonder what had been making webs that are literally > 1m in size and that are strong enough to trap multiple dragonflies?" The answer is that yes, it had occurred to me that there must be something afoot, but I really hadn't wanted to think about it. I haven't had the guts to google "giant spiders of Hokkaido" (I have enough spider-related nightmares as it is), but my friend in Toronto did, and he thinks that it was probably one of these beasts (click at your own risk, obviously). Blargh!!

I also caught a cricket the size of a VW beetle in my room. He wasn't scary, but he was big enough that I had to use a tupperware container instead of a drinking glass to catch him because he was THAT big. I really, really want to catch one of the feral cats (or maybe a tanuki!!!!) to deal with my bug woes.

Finally, I noticed a great sign on my way home from the grocery store:

Have a drink and a perm at the beauty saloon!

Week 14: More Beer and Mountains!

This week we went back to the beer garden!! There is an intern student visiting our lab for two weeks, so to welcome her, on Tuesday we went back to the beer garden! When the beer garden closed (at 9pm?!) we moved on to a bar in Susukino, the nightlife district. The bar turned out to be owned by an Australian, and there were actually several foreigners there, but the bar was so busy and I was close to the exit so I didn't get to chat with anyone other than the people in our group.

On Saturday I went to Mt. Moiwa with my labmate and her family. Mt. Moiwa is a smallish (just over 500 m) mountain at the edge of the city. We took the ropeway up to the top of the mountain, which is famous for offering a beautiful view of the city. To get there, we had to take the Sapporo Streetcar!! I don't know if I've ever taken a street car before. It was very exciting.

When we reached the mountain, we decided to take the ropeway to the top; it is possible to hike the mountain in a few hours, but when we arrived it was already past noon and it was another incredibly hot day, so we decided to be lazy. 

At the top of the mountain there was a gift store and a little shrine.

I think this picture also does a good job of showing how Sapporo is located approximately 1 km FROM THE SURFACE OF THE SUN.

There was also an intriguing restaurant at the top of the mountain. I was tempted to visit to see if I could get a free meal ;)

The view from the mountain really was beautiful; it was another sunny and clear day, so you could actually see all the way to the Sea of Japan, ~30 km away! 

The other mountains surrounding Sapporo.

I guess because I am used to the tectonic Rocky Moutnains, I was really amazed at the shape of these mountains (which I assume were formed volcanically??) 

I never realized what a huge city Sapporo is..

The Sea of Japan is the dark blue streak!

 On the way back, I made an amazing discovery: I saw the Love Neko cat cafe!!!!! I had previously tried to find it on google street view and had failed miserably, so I was really excited when I saw it from the street car!! Now that I know where it is I will definitely be paying them a visit in the near future!

I realize that it's been a while since I updated my critter list. I have seen a lot of critters! I have now seen both of the feral cats who live in the research station. Obviously I have tried to lure them into my home (to eat one of the MANY MANY spiders that I have now caught in my apartment ;_____;), but so far no luck; both of them COMPLETELY ignored me when I tried to get their attention by making cat-attracting sounds at them. That usually never fails! At home I'm pretty good at getting random cats to come up to me but these ones really gave me the cold shoulder. I was offended. I saw some deer in the research station, and the other day when I was biking home in the evening, my friend and I saw something that was either a cat, a fox, or a raccoon! I really think it actually was a raccoon because it was too big for a cat and too fat for a fox :p

I also saw a snake this weekend!! I didn't take a picture, because sadly he was lying dead in the street (mysteriously dead, since he wasn't run over, but definitely dead because he was being eaten by ants..), but I am pretty sure that it was a Japanese striped snake. Maybe if I can't catch a cat I can catch a snake to eat my spiders.

Finally, my brother sent me some great pictures from home!

Apparently there was a cold snap, which is why Jim is wrapped in blankets.

Since Jim is swathed in blankets, Luke has taken over Jim's usual bed... a suitcase on top of a dresser in my old bedroom!

Week 13: Birthday and Beer!

This week it was my birthday!! I got an amazing card full of glitter from my family :) I also got ten billion Steam games from my brother (and a digital copy of the new Weird Al album!), so I am pretty sure that I am set for my video game needs until the next decade.

He looks just like someone else I know...

On Saturday I went with a bunch of my labmates to the Sapporo beer garden in Odori park! It was really fun. There was tons of food available (even edamame and some cut raw veggies for me!!), and of course there was neverending amounts of beer. I didn't get a great picture of it, but most people (including us) ordered beer towers / coolers that they placed directly on your table, so that you could refill your own glasses (of course you needed to pay upfront for the full thing, rather than paying per glass). I have never seen anything like it!

My friend's daughter had a pencil and paper, and she gave me some of her beautiful artwork!!

A buncha beetles!

We also played a game where one of us would draw the head of an animal, then fold over the paper, and the other person had to draw the bottom of the animal without looking at what the head was.

Croco-horse

Snail cat!! I think this is my favourite one.

Octo-horse. I think we got stuck on horses for a while.

She also drew a photo-realistic portrait of me.

It sort of looks like I have one of those chains linking from my ear to a nose ring, but I promise that I didn't get one of those. 

On Sunday I FINALLY hit up a second-hand store that I had heard about from a friend. I always love second hand stores, and I was curious to see whether I could find some hockey sticks (because my friend's daughter asked me to teach her how to play hockey. I have never been such a proud Canadian!!). 

Sadly, there were no hockey sticks, but this store was AMAZING. I had a really hard time controlling myself. If I had a car and a way to get things one day back to Canada, I would have bought 90% of the items they had for sale. As always I have a few mentions for the "things I wish I had bought" category, but I also bought myself something amazing.

Here are the things I did not buy:

Sassy shoes!

Hmmm... once again I am seriously regretting not buying this bewildering dress. 

And here is the best item of clothing I think I have ever owned. I am currently wearing this dress and I may never take it off.

MARVEL COMICS DRESS!!!!!

Less-excitingly, I bought a USB keyboard (most certainly NOT to facilitate playing Steam games!!). I am using it now for the first time to type up this entry, and it occurs to me that it is, of course, a Japanese keyboard! Since I don't have Japanese language support enabled on my computer, it looks like it's not possible for me to accidentally begin typing in Japanese (which is indeed something that happens on my work computer when I accidentally hit the "make everything Japanese" button, which is right beside ctrl). But I did immediately manage to accidentally switch my keyboard input to French. My keyboard is more multilingual than I am :S

Oh, and I finally remembered to take a picture of this great sticker on my bike! I only noticed it a few weeks ago.

Escort City: another myth has been born. I think they mean legend :p

Week 12: History!

Hello blog!

This week I got an indeterminate number of new neighbours!! I ran into one of them, a teenage boy, in the hallway, and we awkwardly said konnichiwa to each other. That concludes my knowledge of my neighbours.

The prof with whom I studied for my PhD sent me an email this week asking me to check on some sites in the city for a particular plant disease, so on Saturday I went on a quest to skulk around the Botanical Gardens. I was indeed literally skulking AROUND them since he specifically asked me to stake out some trees that poked through the fence, so I didn't even need to pay the admission. It was face-meltingly hot and incredibly sunny, which is why these quick phone pictures are blown out. I will be back on a more comfortable day.

I also took a quick walk through Odori Park, since it was on my way, and I got to enjoy the sights of the annual beer festival! Unsurprisingly, Sapporo Beer had the biggest beer garden.

As always, Odori Park was beautiful!

On Sunday, I went to the Historical Village of Hokkaido with my labmate and her family. My favourite feature of the village was the Centennial Memorial Tower, which was built by Sauron to keep watch over Middle-Earth.

I photoshopped out the giant glowing eye.

The village consists of four different zones, each of which has reconstructed or preserved buildings from approximately the 1850's through the early 20th century. Hokkaido was permanently settled by the Japanese in the mid-late 1800's (it was previously occupied by the Ainu). Anyhoo, at this time, there was a fair bit of European influence on Japan, so many of the buildings were pretty European-looking. The four zones were a typical town, a fishing village, a farming village, and a mountain village.You could go into the buildings and see some examples of what life was like at the time. 

An old carriage.

A bunch of fire-starting equipment.

My favourite room: an old photography studio!

You could go on horse-drawn trolley rides. I didn't partake, but my friend's daughter is on this puppy.

An old police box! Apparently it was located in downtown Sapporo and was in use until the early 1970's!

 The whole park itself was interesting, and there was a good amount of English on the signs, and an English version of the map and brochure were available. There were lots of older people working there (I read online that they are volunteers!) who were hanging out in the buildings, and several of them made extremely valiant and patient attempts to explain things to us. 

When we came back, my friends and I cooked dinner together. Now I'm stuffed and tired!! I'm really jealous that Canada has Monday as a holiday :p

Finally, another entry in the "things I wish I would have bought" folder:

A mushroom (keychain??) from this capsule machine.