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!

Week 20: Fall is here!

It's fall!!

The leaves have just barely started to change, but there is a definite nip in the air, there are pumpkin and apple-flavoured drinks and sweets everywhere, and there are a surprising amount of Halloween decorations everywhere I go!

This week was pretty uneventful. It was a bit strange, because Tuesday was a holiday (for the autumn equinox)... it's weird having a day off in the middle of the week. I celebrated by making cookies!

I am having some major internet issues right now - my computer has forgotten that it has a wifi adapter (an annoyingly frequent problem) and on top of that our always-flaky wifi signal has been paricularly garbage today. So this is going to be a short post, hopefully to be followed by a later, better post at another time!! :p

On Sunday I went with my friends to check out the Autumn Festival in Odori park. It ended up beong mainly a food festival (to the delight of my friend's kid, who eats like a growing hungry hungry hippo), so when we were finished we wandered up to the Hokkaido University Botanical Garden.

The most exciting news is that I saw a tanuki for sure!! He was just sniffing around on the road late one evening. I was so excited that I immediately told one of my labmates and he was like, "Wow, cool! Yesterday I saw a squirrel!!" He is from Tokyo and is generally amazed by all wildlife, so this was a genunie comparison. I found it funny because squirrels are really a dime a dozen at home (though they are kind of uncommon here), and to me tanuki and squirrels are on an entirely different level of excitingness.

I have also been watching some Trailer Park Boys, and I am really enjoying the Canadian accents. Someone in the lab commented that I have a different accent than Americans do... maybe I should show him this show to recalibrate his North American Accentometer.

Week 19: A boring week

Yay! Short week!

Maybe it's because it was a short week, but I really didn't manage to do anything very exciting this weekend. This is going to be a short post! Maybe also because it was a short week, but I feel like everyone (certainly including me) felt a bit sluggish this week. Most days, the lab was empty by 7 pm which is unheard-of any other week! 

On Saturday I went on an adventure to find a yarn store. Now that it's becoming colder, I have re-caught the knitting bug. I couldn't find my stitch counter anywhere, and I only bought a small stash of yarn with me to Japan, so I was beginning to claw at the walls until I did some googling and found that there is a Kanariya (Canary Yarn) store super close to Sapporo Station. Well, after 30 minutes of wandering in circles downtown, I had no luck finding the store. I did eventually find the Kanariya section in a department store, which was still pretty impressive... I was able to get the stitch counter and ogle some nice yarn. 

After I gave up on finding the yarn store, I went to the nearby giant 100¥ store to grab a few basic items. As I was heading back to the subway station, I passed a fabric store that I have passed a billion times.... and I'm sure you have already guessed, but this turned out to be Kanariya! Sigh. At that point I had a backpack full of soil and I already had a stitch counter, so I didn't check it out, but at least now I know where it is.

I had a backpack full of soil because my pepper plant (Mr. Spicy) has had some weird little white bugs for a little while now, and if I can't get the infestation under control I'm going to need to chuck him because I can't risk infecting the plants at school. I fought valiantly with chopped-up garlic and shower-blasting, but alas. My last resort was to switch out the soil and rinse the roots really well to take care of any larva or eggs. Now both plants are suspiciously droopy ;__; I hope they don't die!

 On Sunday I spent most of the day at school, but when I was oot and aboot walking up the tree-lined road, four deer ran right in front of me!! I think it was an adult male and female and their teenage children. The deer here (Sika deer) are extra cute because even the adult males have white spots, like baby deer in Canada. One of the adults who was ahead of me on the path was sproinging with all four feet in the air. Very cute!

The deer ran up the path that I was going to take, so I followed them at a distance for a little while until just two crossed to the other side; at that point I turned around, because I didn't want to end up in between them. All I could think of was this story from a Neko Case concert and how I didn't want it to happen to me. Don't mess with members of the antelope family! (Warning for naughty language and a violent but HILARIOUS story).

The only other thing I did this week was work a little bit on my Japanese with my favourite 80's show! It's everything that you would imagine an 80's instructional video could be. But it is also actually helpful and I think this series in general has really helped with my vocabulary. 

Week 18: Finally another long weekend!

This is only the second long weekend since I arrived in Japan! The summer has a dearth of holidays, but for the rest of the year there is at least one day off per month (and actually Tuesday of next week is also a holiday, so I guess I really shouldn't complain too much).

On Friday morning I woke up and stumbled to open my blinds.... and found this about two metres away from my window!!

He was all scruffy-lookin' from the rain.

At first he was just grazing and he didn't see me, so luckily I had time to slowly creep to my desk, grab my camera, insert the memory card, and get one quick shot before he saw me and BOLTED into the woods. He was so cute!! It was a great way to start the day!

He is a much more welcome neighbour than the bear, who was a frequent subject of discussion this week. Whenever I ride my bike alone in the dark, I am always a little paranoid about running into the bear, so I jingle my keys in lieu of a bear bell. It must be working because I haven't been eaten yet.

A close encounter with my neighbour

On Saturday I had a great day. I got a very early start to the day because I couldn't sleep, which means that I got all of my lab work done VERY early! :p I then had the day FREE to go on a second-hand store adventure! MAN I love second hand stores! My favourite haunt, which was closed for renovations, had its grand re-opening this weekend and is now super nice! I ran into my neighbours there (they said they knew that it was only a matter of time before I showed up). Sadly, there was no hockey paraphernalia, but I did manage to snag a new coat! I wanted a more casual fall jacket, and the one I got (for about $15!) is actually a winter jacket with a removeable liner!! 

I also had time to go back to the sports store. I really didn't think they would have another hockey stick so quickly, and of course they didn't. But they did have THIS.

As a canuck I was legally obligated to buy this sweater

I had to buy it because I felt bad for it. Who else is going to want a 1992-1997-era Canucks jersey?? When I got it home I noticed that it actually still has the original paper label attached - it has never even been worn! I'm glad I saved it from a sad life of wasting away. I wonder how long it was there. On a related note, I JUST figured out that this logo is a skate. Huh.

On Sunday I had an adventure with 60% of the Bulgarian population of Sapporo (and also a Hungarian)!! We visited the city of Noboribetsu, about 2 hours away by train, and located on the other side of the narrow part of Hokkaido. Now I have been to the Japan Sea AND the Pacific Ocean sides of the island! Both of the gals we travelled with are seasoned Japanese adventurers: they have both lived in Japan for several years and speak Japanese, and by using a day-pass but hopping trains like a bunch of pros we were able to make the trip almost as fast as if we had bought a direct ticket on a much more expensive train!

Noboribetsu is known for its hot springs and its active volcanoes. Once we arrived, our first stop was Jigokudani, aka Hell Valley. Sadly, I will state right now that this is NOT the same Jigokudani that has  wild monkeys; there is another Jigokudani on the main island of Japan where wild monkeys are known to bathe in the hot springs during winter. I REALLY want to go and see this!! But there are no wild monkeys native to Hokkaido, so I guess I'll have to plan a trip.

Anyway, the mascot of Noboribetsu is a little devil (oni), because of the pretty understandable association between hot springs and hell.

Giant Oni clubs

I liked this oni because he is clearly a great dad.

The first thing we saw was a geyser in the middle of town?

It only bubbles up every 3 hours but it was going to beat the band when we arrived!

Then we went for a walk through Hell Valley, which was much more pleasant than it sounds like that would be! Much of the appearance of the valley is due to a previous volcanic eruption. There is another active volcano nearby, a few kilometers away. Because of all the volcanoes, there are tons of hot springs in the area, as well as hot lakes (with surface temperatures of 50 C!) and my favourite feature, a long, winding, and pleasantly warm spring that is a natural foot bath! There was a section with benches were you were encouraged to take your shoes off and enjoy the hot water, and we were more than happy to oblige!

Hell valley

A hot lake!

Natural foot spring

When we were finished in the park, we split into two groups. I didn't have the guts to try (naked) hot springs, but some of the others did. The rest of us chickens went to Date Jidaimura, a historical park that is best known for its shows! Several times a day, actors put on four shows: a comedy show, a samurai show, a "cultural" show, and a NINJA SHOW. The promise of a ninja show was honestly 100% of the reason why I was excited about this whole trip (although everything about the trip ended up being great).

ARE YOU READY FOR NINJAS?

THERE ARE ALSO SAMURAI!!

I guess there was an anime convention or something nearby because there were TONS of people in cosplay at the park. I first grew suspicious when I saw Kenshin hanging around near the park entrance...

Neon orange hair and a maroon shirt: the perfect disguise for a disgraced ronin

but I waved it off because, meh, this park is supposed to be a replica of the time period when that story takes place, so it sort of made sense. Also Japan is weird like that. Then I saw several Kakashis and Naruto pushing baby Kiba in a baby carriage. That almost made sense, because ninjas (and again, Japan), but Kiba in a baby carriage was a little too weird. That was when I started to suspect that these were not employees of the park haha.

Kakashi doesn't have a smartphone in the manga!This costume is totally inaccurate!

A later picture with a bunch of cosplayers, including a Kenshin and baby Kiba with mother Naruto

We didn't have much time to explore the actual park, but what we saw was great. I visited a cat shrine that also had a cat-themed haunted house! Nobody else wanted to go into the haunted house for some strange reason, but I had a great time (until I walked into a wall because it was pitch black. Then I apologized to the wall in English. Then I realized that there was a Japanese guy right behind me and I felt embarrassed). The cat haunted house had several terrifying things including a giant paw that descended from the ceiling, glowing cat eyes in the darkness, and a lot of meowing.

Cat shrine

Warning: haunted cat house this way

Despite our rush, we were still able to catch two of the shows. The first one we saw was the ninja show. It. was. AMAZING!! Of course ninjas are always cool, but man, these actors were also incredible athletes, and I was REALLY impressed with their skill! The park was also really good about providing an English plot summary ahead of time, and the helpful ninja who explained the rules of the show (e.g. no flash photography) also helpfully injected some hilarious English and miming into his explanations. The show was about a guy who decides to become a ninja to avenge his father (as opposed to a samurai, as his adoptive father has arranged). But before he can ninja it up, he and his adoptive father are attacked by ninjas who know the truth of who his father was! An intense ninja battle ensued for ~10 minutes, and involved lots of trap doors, sword fighting, shuriken flinging, and leaping from heights. It was seriously great, and we were in the first row so sometimes the ninjas were close enough to touch!! (I did not touch the ninjas)

The best ninja was the old ninja

Next we saw the "traditional" show, which was about a high-status woman whose samurai lover is disgraced and commits suicide to restore honor to her and her family, except, spoiler alert, he doesn't commit suicide at all, and actually his disohonouring was his way of taking the heat off of his family so that they can be happy and so that he can live a pressure-free life with his classy lady. Also, the part of this samurai is played by a random audience member. Also, this random audience member was my friend's husband. LOL. His lines were written on the back of his fan, and he was also helped along by a character who would have been an extremely racist caricature of a Japanese person if he hadn't been played by a Japanese person. My friends' kid nearly died of embarrassment during this ordeal and she refused to speak to her father for about half an hour afterwards, but my coworker and I were peeing our pants laughing the whole time.

A scene from the "traditional" play

I wish we would have had more time to spend here. It was really cool and I had way too much fun considering that I am theoretically an adult. I definitely want to try to come back before I leave Japan. I REALLY want to visit the "ninja resource" centre. Is it a centre FOR ninjas or to learn ABOUT ninjas? I wish I could tell you.

On the way home, I saw the greatest sign that I have ever seen in my life.

Yes, that is a clam playing hockey. Oh, does that seem strange?

Actually, I guess the small town where I saw this sign has a HOCKEY TEAM so I will need to come back in the winter to check them out!!

Because I knew I would be spending several hours on a train, I brought some knitting with me on our adventure! I haven't knitted or crocheted since coming to Japan (with the exception of making some "chair socks" so that my chair would stop making horrible screeching sounds on the wooden floor), so I was really happy to get back into it. Usually when we are on a long train ride I lend my friend's daughter my iPod or phone so that she can play Angry Birds, but as soon as she saw me knitting she was transfixed and demanded that I teach her. Luckily I planned ahead and I brought some extra needles and yarn for just such an occasion. I have taught several people to knit before, but MAN, she was the fastest learner I have ever seen!! She picked it up really quickly and managed to knit a few rows with hardly any mistakes! I was very impressed. Plus I maintain that knitting is an important life skill for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, so I'm glad that she's prepared.

I don't have any big plans for holiday Monday, but I have already had an amazing weekend!!