Week 24: Fall Colours

Fall is coming to an end! The colours are in full bloom and this week, for the first time, I saw frost on the ground!

Winter is coming

On Saturday I went to Costco with my prof and his family!! He had been tossing around the idea of another trip for a little while, and I was getting dangerously low on peanut butter, so I was excited for another chance to stock up. My labmate's husband and daughter came along because they wanted to see what kind of cheese they could find. We all made out like bandits! We went halfsies on some almonds and pickles and olives. I definitely could have managed the full 2L jar of pickles alone but I was embarrassed to say so. 

Boy, Costco has really cut back on some of their packaging costs! 

On Sunday we went to Hokkaido University's main campus to check out the fall colours. Even the streets around the campus were beautiful.

There were some jack-o-lanterns outside of a church (??!) just outside the university campus.

The colours at the man campus didn't disappoint. There were tons of people around with kids and dogs, and everyone was taking pictures!

A direworlf!

The university has a small museum on campus. I LOVE museums and I haven't been to one since I arrived in Japan. The exhibits were.... varied. There was a room full of dinosaurs and gems, and across the hall there was a skin disease room (which was as grody as it sounds!). There was a polar bear in the space room and a stuffed squirrel beside the elevator. It was a pretty cool museum!! In the museum gift store I found something that I have been wanting since I arrived:

MUSHROOMS OF HOKKAIDO!! Now that the mushrooms are nearly gone for the year I can FINALLY identify the final stragglers of the year!! There are flurries popping in and out of the forecast for the next week. Huzzah!

Week 23: I can't think of a good title

Hmm. I had another boring week. I'm not sure I have a lot to say.

I guess the fact that I feel like nothing exciting is happening is sort of a good thing. I definitely feel pretty settled into my life here. My biggest adventures this week involved a) finally getting a cushion for my chair so that I can stop complaining that my butt hurts, and b) washing my shower curtain (which was pretty grody). It never occurred to me that I could just WASH my shower curtain until I was in the store and ready to buy a new one, and saw on the package of the new shower curtain that it was washing machine safe (or at least that's what I assumed that the little cartoon meant). It came out of the machine still splotched with mildew, but the mildew came right off when I rubbed it with a sponge. I am sure that this makes for riveting reading. 

My apartment is generally freezing cold in the morning and in the evenings these days. I don't have the control of a heater in my apartment, and actually, looking around, it occurs to me that there isn't actually a heater in my room (though there is an air conditioner, which I turned on once this summer). The heat is controlled by the management staff, and I heard that last year they didn't switch on the heat until November. So I bought a few sweaters at the second hand store this week, because I am tired of freezing to death! Now I am toasty warm, I am less likely to contract a weird disease from my shower curtain, and my butt is comfortable. Life is good.

I definitely feel like I am missing the opportunity to try some exciting new foods while in Japan. Damn my vegan-ness! Because the past weekend was a long weekend, a lot of people did some travelling and brought back snacks to share. Someone brought some green tea-flavoured mochi filled with red bean paste and wrapped in a (non-edible) bamboo leaf that was DELICIOUS. Someone else brought back CANNED BEAR MEAT which I thought was kind of insane. Apparently it tasted like beef. The can was just chilling on the lunch table for a day, and it kind of looked like cat food. That... did not make me regret being a vegan.

I think I'm going to be awfully sad when I can't use my bike in the winter. In Canada I almost never rode my bike because I felt unsafe riding on the road, and the cops in Guelph were pretty strict about giving people tickets for riding on the sidewalk. But here in Japan the sidewalks are generally VERY wide and you are allowed to ride your bike on them (and only hardcore super speedsters bike on the street). I have only been almost run over a few times (mostly on one eventful day when everyone spontaneously forgot how to drive or something) and it has been really convenient to be able to zip to the far grocery store in 10-15 minutes; from the time a few months ago when my bicycle tire exploded as soon as I left the grocery store (and I was thus forced to walk my bike full of groceries home), I know that it's at least a 30 minute walk to that store, which is also right beside a cheap department store, a video game store, and a 100 yen store (and, depending on your route, isn't so far away from the best second hand store). Alas!! But other than the impending loss of bicycle use, I am excited for snow. The snow bugs were clearly misinformed because it has been a week now and there haven't even been flurries yet!

Week 22: Mountains are nice!

Yay!! Another long weekend!! Now that they've started coming, the long weekends just won't stop!!

The other day I caught another one of the mega-crickets in my room, and I finally remembered to take a picture of him. When I went to take the picture, I noticed something alarming: there was also a spider trapped under the glass!! So I managed to somehow catch the spider without even seeing him! Two in one blow!

You can understand why I thought this was a horrifying spider at first. Note blond, less-horrifying spider in behind of cricket.

I had an amazing mid-week adventure this week because I attended a lecture at the main campus of Hokkaido University! The campus itself was really beautiful with fall colours... although I neglected to take pictures, except for a few quick snaps from the 5th floor of a building.

Surrounded by mountains!

There was also a lunar eclipse on Wednesday evening!! When we noticed that it had begun, the entire lab ran out of the building to ooh and aahh at the sky. I took an awful picture but you can kind of see that the moon is weird-looking? It was really awesome to see it happen!

We like the moon!

On Saturday I finally went back to Kanariya, the yarn store, and had a looong look around. I made a hat for myself a few weeks ago, and last weekend my friend's daughter was really ogling it, so I took the plunge and threw one together for her :)

Purple in Japanese is murasaki!

I also bought some SOCKS!! I love socks. I have a sock problem. I had approximately 100 pairs of socks before I was tragically forced to pare down my collection before I left the country. I threatened to take an entire suitcase full of socks with me to Japan but my mom convinced me that it would be a poor choice. 

Could I BE a better adult?

I took this picture on my way home on Saturday. I think this is as fall-y as the colours are going to get, because the leaves have been raining down lately and I think the trees are going to be bare soon.

On Sunday we climbed Mt. Moruyama! As soon as we arrived we ran into this guy. People lost their minds, especially when a squirrel mad an appearance. Apparently chipmunks are kind of rare here?? 

Chip / Dale

I think this is the first time I've ever climbed a mountain. It was pretty steep in places, but luckily this old girl is a sure-footed as a mountain goat! 

As we reached the top of the mountain, I heard a rustling in the bushes beside me. I expected to see a bird or a chipmunk, but instead it was a wild mountain beast!!

He ran around at the top of the mountain for 10-20 minutes until some bigger dogs (on leashes) showed up.

The view from the top of the mountain was nice (but not as nice as Mt. Moiwa).

On the way down we saw something VERY interesting: CLOUDS AND CLOUDS of snow bugs! Earlier this week my prof mentioned to me that there are some little white flies that appear in the fall, and when you see them, snow is only a week or so away. I guess I'd better unpack my boots because there were really loads of these bugs. Maybe they aren't snow bugs (my google skillz led to inconclusive results) but they fit the descriptions that I heard from two people.

Get ready for winter!

I also have another entry in the "weird signs" category. This one was actually a tile on the street.

"Let's take away the dog poop!" Sounds like fun!!!

Monday is a holiday here for Sports Day. I am going to celebrate by watching the Sens game (which should be on early in the morning in Japan!) and then wearing a hockey jersey all day. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Week 21: Mt. Moiwa part two!

Well, I never got around to re-writing last week's post. I have some pictures to post but maybe I should save them for a rainy day... because the rain is here, and I have a feeling that I won't be getting out as much when the weather is awful.

Even the horriblest of beasts found the weather this week depressing. This guy was taking refuge on a window under an awning during a heavy rainstorm. I tried to take a picture of him with a battery for perspective, but I think the window did something funny to the perspective.

Just SLIGHTLY smaller than a battery. And this is not a particularly big spider ;_;

Long story short, most Canadian spiders (except wolf spiders - WARNING do not click that link if you don't want a giant horrible spider in your face!) have nothing on Japanese spiders. I have gotten adept at catching the blond ones that are always running around in my apartment, and on Sunday I managed to not panic when a spider assaulted me at close range at school, but I still don't feel up to catching one of the ones like in my picture. If I see one of them in my home, I will be on the first flight back to Canada.

Anyway, at least for now, there are still bursts of niceness in between the torrential downpours. On Saturday it was cold and rainy for most of the day. I got very lucky and was able to run out and get groceries during a period of calm just before dusk. The time zone here is weird; the sun is fully risen before 6 am, but now that the days are getting short, the sun is fully set by 6 pm. On an overcast day this past week it was already getting dark at 4:30 pm! I am curious to see how early the sun is going to set in the dead of winter.

On Sunday, it was the birthday of my friend's husband. We had heard a rumor that the Mt. Moiwa birthday is half price for you and your firends on your birthday, so we decided to check it out. We had also wanted to go back because the view at night is supposed to be amazing!

We had planned to climb the mountain, but by the time we arrived it was already beginning to get dark, so we chickened out and took the ropeway. The half price fable turned out to be TRUE, which was a major bonus!

This terrifying rabbit (?) is the mascot of Moiwa Mountain, hence his McDonald"s M ears.

When we reached the top of the mountain, we saw a dude playing with some birds! They were his pet birds: one was a cockatoo, and the others were little parrots. He was happy to let us handle them, and when I saw him later he was surrounded by people who were taking pictures with his birds. He was a pretty cool dude.

The leaves are only just beginning to change, but I was able to get some nice autumn pictures.

The really amazing sight was indeed the sunset, and the city at night. The view was really beautiful.

When we were finished taking pictures, we headed home and made a birthday dinner together. I made a cake that was helpfully iced by my friend's daughter. I think she has a future in cake decorating!

The writing on the cake is Bulgarian so I don't know what it says. I hope it isn't too rude.

She also gave me an awesome gift. My apartment is finally starting to look lived-in!