We finally have snow in Sapporo. A few nights ago Shawn and I went for dinner with an American friend who will be finishing up her research (biomedical engineering) next week and heading back to the US. While filling our bellies with delicious kaiten sushi, the snow started to fall and we emerged from the station to a beautiful, fat crunchy blanket of white covering the city. Shawn and I have been waiting patiently for the snow (=yuki) to arrive, we have been told that it is late this year.
Most people, us included, rode bikes to work that morning so were stuck with a bike to ride home on in the snow.
This is a fun experience and when the snow is fresh and crunchy (like the kind that is good for making snowballs and snowmen) then the bike has great traction and is no problem to ride. At the top is a photo of our bikes outside a Japanese pub (of course we stopped for a pint on our way home). And here is a photo of Shawn riding in the snow (poor quality - sorry).The effective traction that fresh snow affords isn't the case the next morning once the snow is hard and icy however. Which reminds me that I have learned a load of new things about riding bikes that I wasn't aware of before. I have been meaning to share them, so this seems like an appropriate time.
1. In Japan, locking your back tire is simply an indication that the bike doesn't have a flat tire or faulty chain and has therefore hasn't been abandoned. Bike theives would have a heyday here!
2. When riding your bike on wet black ice, it is best to avoid any form of turning or stopping (the streets and sidewalks here have been covered with black ice for about 2 weeks now and they don't use salt or gravel).
3. Talking on a cell phone while driving a car in Japan is illegal. Riding your bike with an umbrella in one hand while writing a text message on your cell phone with the other is commonplace. Stay out of the way of these guys, they WILL mow you over.
4. When riding in the winter, never, ever, ever forget your gloves in the morning.
It is nice to have snow now, and it reminds me of home. One thing that I have definately felt the absence of here is breakfast. Japanese breakfast is usually leftover dinner from the night before and includes fish and rice. A common breakfast here is leftover rice with a raw egg on top and a splash of soy sauce. I can hardly bring myself to look at that in the morning let alone eat it. Another small victory this weekend was the discovery of a relatively inexpensive import grocery store where we found.... real salsa!!!
The store was a bit random in the items it had, so we couldn't find everything that we have been craving but here is a photo of a few of the gems that we were able to acquire. TimTam's are a chocolate cookie from Australia (possibly one of the best sotre-bought cookies in the world), salsa, pickles, real cheese and Ferrero Rocher (having this on our shelf helps to make it look like Christmas is around the corner!).These groceries laid the foundation for a fantastic Sunday brunch (shown here). Shawn and I slept late and then he made me a huge omlette with real salsa on it. I had a nice cup of coffee (coffee from most cafe's here is sour and way too strong - homemade coffee is tolerable - they also drink a LOT of instant coffee here... yuck!) and he had OJ.
Then we took the subway (=chikatetsu) out to a "mountain" on the edge of Sapporo where we had a nice, quiet walk to the top. From there we had a great view of the city covered in fresh snow. I could get used to days like that.
