Week 46: Zoetropes and placentas

Hm. It was a pretty boring week, so this will be a pretty short post.

The snow is on its way out, and the first new green stuff is visible! One plant that someone told me is a sure sign of spring is fukinoto, and once someone pointed it out to me I noticed that it really is everywhere!

Baby rhubarb!

I was really surprised when I went to check Wikipedia and found out that fukinoto is actually the sprout of the Japanese rhubarb-like plant that I remember noticing in the spring last year!

I also noticed something rather strange in the grocery store...

Is it placenta-flavoured or just good for your placenta?

On Sunday I made a nice loaf of bread with my friend's daughter, and we also built a zoetrope! My friend's kid likes drawing and she loves watching cartoons, so I thought she might enjoy drawing some cartoons of her own, but she was pretty reluctant to give it a try, so I ended up being the animator while she was responsible for colouring and art direction. I think we made a pretty good team. 

Story #1: a dancing frog (based on my mug)
Story #2: A dog chasing a cat chasing a mouse (the first one we did)

Story #3: a fox looks in a doghouse and gets chased by a duck
Story #4: A rocketship lands on  planet and an astronaut is surprised by an alien

There were two other stories (one was a cat playing with a ball of yarn, and one was a cat looking in a doghouse and being chased by a dog - the prequel to the fox / duck story) but I didn't get a picture. 

Finally, my friend's husband gave me some pictures from the curling tournament! He got much better photos of the awards ceremony than I did.

My favourite Canadian

Week 45: Hurry Hard!!

This week I had an exciting weekend!

On Saturday morning, I spilled a cup of coffee in my bed!! That was an exciting start to the day! Then I went to school and exploded some tubes in the centrifuge!! That was also very exciting!! Luckily, things got better from there. I went to the post office to mail my friend a birthday card, and I got VERY lucky because they closed right after they served me: I had totally forgotten, but Saturday was actually a holiday for the Spring Equinox and so the post office closed early! Apparently Japanese people are supposed to visit their family grave on this day, which makes the advertisement that I saw at the post office for some sort of memorial stone (surrounded by candles and pictures of dead grandma) somewhat less morbid and creepy.

Anyway, after I noodled around a bit, I finally checked out the World Women's Curling competition, which is being held basically in my backyard!! I saw Canada play Russia in the semi-finals. There were lots of foreigners there (although I later realized that most of them were actually the other teams from the competition!!) and I ended up sitting with a nice Canadian who has lived in Sapporo for more than 20 years! We talked about how much the Leafs suck and we laughed and we laughed. Even better, Canada won easily! 

I don't know much about curling, and I don't think I ever even watched a whole game on tv before, but it was surprisingly fun to watch in person. It's pretty speedy, and it's fun to try to guess what each team is going to do. 

On Sunday I went back to watch the gold medal game between Canada and Switzerland. My friend's husband came with me. He likes taking photos, and I guess curling is an ideal game to photograph because there isn't a ton of fast action :p Anyway, Canada almost made an amazing comeback to at least force an extra end, but the Swiss made an unbelievable shot on their last stone and won the game. It's hard to be angry with them because that shot was truly amazing. But I thought it was a little funny when they were presented with their prize: Swiss watches :p

The other good news is that enough snow has melted that it's possible to ride bicycles again!!! My bike survived the winter quite well (though riding a bike is a bit painful with a bruised tailbone), and I also had fun riding my friend's kid's bike home from the subway station where it had gotten left behind. I also saw a few motorcycles around! Spring is really here :)

Week 44: I am basically ready for the Olympics

I spontaneously spent the entire weekend snowboarding!!

Lately it has been really warm and rainy, and a bunch of our snow has melted. During the week, I was thinking that I had probably missed my last chance to go snowboarding and I was kind of sad. But then I woke up on Friday morning....

....and so I realized that this weekend I still had a chance!! My friend's kid likes to ski, so I made a tentative plan with my friend and her family that we would go on Saturday if the weather was ok.

When I woke up on Saturday, the temperature was below zero and it was snowing softly, so I got amped up (and geared up) and decided to go even though my friend and her family couldn't make it because the day of the week that we were supposed to go was lost in translation (or, to use my favourite Bulgarian expression, "it went to the cinema"). So although I had an amazing adventure trying to find the shuttle bus, I eventually made it to the hill. I even managed to ask for directions in Japanese AND to understand the answer AND say thank you without blurting out anything too strange!!

The weather on Saturday was really nice, and although the snow quality wasn't fantastic, it was pretty darn ok considering that the hill is going to close for the season at the end of the month. 

I always enjoy the scenery from the top of the hill!

My sweet board and my hand-me-down snowpants from  9-year old. Life is good!

When I finally made it home on Saturday evening, I was tired and a little sore, but then my friend knocked on my door and we realized that we had had a miscommunication about the date, and that she and her family REALLY wanted to go to the hill, and were expecting to go on Sunday.

Soooo on Sunday I went snowboarding again!!! It was fun having my friend's daughter as a lift buddy. I managed to MOSTLY not get hurt, but I badly bruised my dignity (and definitely also my butt) because I slipped while I had only foot strapped in and I managed to fall and smash my tailbone on my binding. So I might need a butt cast. But other than a very sore butt, I escaped unscathed!! And now I can almost turn like a big girl!!

To top off the weekend, I bought a green tea and it came with a totally awesome pog (?). It appears to be a ghost named Whisper holding a ghost iPad (he is from the extremely popular ghost cat show / game that I predict will Pokemon it up in North America soon). 

Anyway, next weekend there is a "snow festival" at the ski hill, and my friend's husband really wants to go skiing......

Week 43: Happy Women's Day!!

Happy International Women's Day!!

I celebrated with my friends by making a cake and a colour wheel with my friend's daughter, and then we played a game of chess and had an early dinner together. My friend's husband got a second guitar, so he and his daughter played us a duet!! They make a great team!

Chocolate cake with chocolate-peanut butter frosting, decorated with bananas, apples, and dried papaya and kiwi.

I also got a beautiful phone charm! Being a woman is awesome!

I also celebrated by doing womanly things, like buying a new external hard drive and some pants!! Of course, I needed to buy the pants because my other pants got a big rip in them.. but it was still a pretty girly thing to do, I guess. 

It's starting to feel pretty spring-y around here. Things were melting like crazy, and on the subway all of the baseball fans were out in force! I guess there must have been some sort of an event at the Sapporo Dome because it's been a while since I've seen so much Ham Fighters paraphernalia. 

Week 42: A dream come true!!!

Brace yourselves. Today I did something that I have been meaning to do since I arrived in Japan.

WE WENT TO THE CAT CAFE!!!!

Oh boy. It was amazing! There were probably ~15 cats in a  5m x 5m room, along with about 20 people (at least when we first arrived). The crowd thinned out after cat snack time, which was a sight to see. I sometimes felt like I was living in a zoo when I had four cats in my apartment, but fifteen cats was really something!

Mostly the cats were sleeping. They were pretty chill considering that they were surrounded by strangers!

Google translate really does a number on the translation of the LoveNeko cat cafe's website, so I highly recommend it.

There were Luke-looking cats....

And extremely fluffy and nervous cats... 

And a Scottish fold....

And my friend, an angry grandpa cat...

And a big cat with a mustache....

And a talky Prussian blue....

And some rowdy orange cats...

And some not-so-rowdy cats....

And a mustachioed catloaf!

My favourite cat was the one who was wearing a diaper! He got in a fight with a cat that might have actually been an ocelot. He was scrappy! I mostly hung out with an angry looking grandpa cat with a weird growth on his head (Riku, according to the website). I considered stealing him, but then I got a points card (you can earn a free visit!) and I figured that I didn't want to burn any bridges just yet.

When we eventually left the cafe, we went to the Indian shop!!! Now I have lentils!!!