This weekend was spent at a symposium for population ecology. The event was held in a small onsen town called Jozankei. I guess a good BC comparison would be Radium – stunning scenery and natural hot springs that have been built into a tourist destination. The photo shows the hotel we stayed at. It was spectacular with traditional Japanese styling and lots of artwork and great food!
The timing of the symposium couldn't have been better and the colours of the mountains around the hotel were unbelievable. The leaves are starting to change colour throughout Hokkaido and it creates a very beautiful backdrop both on campus and out in the mountains. It was unfortunate that we didn't have very much time to walk around and see the sights because the meetings filled the entire two days that we were there. On the drive there we did get a chance to take a short walk in the forest and saw the dam at Jozankei that provides part of the drinking water supply for Sapporo. It was a nice chance to stretch the legs after a 1 hour drive from Sapporo to Jozankei and a good way to kill some time before we could check into the hotel. The weather is turning cold and the air was crisp. Of course, walking in the forest with a group of ecologists is always fun and we nattered on about theories of species coexistance and biodiversity.
The hotel is a resort place that Japanese people travel to and spend a few days lazing around in kimono, eating buffet food and taking onsen. The Japanese guests at the hotel arrive and put on the kimono provided by the hotel and pretty much wear that the whole time that they are there. Those of us there for the symposium were pretty much the only people at breakfast not wearing the outfit. We were busy most of the time with talks but I did manage to get to the onsen once while I was there, and it was a very nice one. I didn't get a chance to use the rooftop onsen because that one had a set schedule of hours when men are allowed to use it and when women are allowed and the only time that I could go was during the men only time – so no fancy rooftop onsen for me. The one I used was on the 16th floor though so the view from the windows was pretty amazing!
The meeting was good, but a little too broad in their approach. They had speakers on topics that were very far removed from one another which would be ok if they had tied their work into the unifying theme a little better, but for all but 2 speakers, English was a second language, so things were hard to follow regardless of topic.
The banquet dinner last night was fun. We were served by geisha, who always had a laugh at me who was managing to do everything wrong (poured my own drink twice and didn't even touch my rice – I am getting pretty full of white rice). At least I wasn't the only foreigner who didn't speak Japanese or know what most of the food was that we were eating.
We sat on the floor (typical in a lot of restauraunts and tea houses) and had a little individual table in front of us. We ate all kinds of food including jellyfish (it was really good). The sashimi was great, but I have learned that I don't like koebi sashimi (raw shrimp). We even had our own personal fuel burners with nabe and miso soup on our mini-table. The presentation of food here is exceptional and even going to a burger joint will get you a beautifully prepared meal served to look like a work of art. This photo shows one of the rows of tables with dinner laid out.
I am back in Sapporo now and missed a couple of language classes to go to the conference so I have to head back home now to do battle with the laundry machine and get my homework done for tomorrow morning. I have been trying to fit in time this week to learn the phonetic alphabet (hirigana) and am happy to say that I now know almost half of the characters and the proper order to write the strokes in – but that is a topic for the next blog.
