Festive wishes

Here is a youtube video greeting card from us to you!
Christmas in Japan!

On Dasher, & Dancer

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Bonenkai - 2008

Time is running out for the year 2008 and in Sapporo that means it is time again for year end parties. They call them bonenkai, and unlike the Christmas parties I am used to, they happen any day of the week. Our lab group held our year end party on a Wednesday last week. Our lab joins with 2 other lab groups for the party and that makes for a few more bodies and a lot more fun.

Most of the students spent the day on the ski slopes while the senseis and I worked. We all met at a resort hotel about 45 minutes from Sapporo called the Jozankei View. Yes, for those readers who have been following this blog closely, it is the same place that we went to last year. There is a water park there with water slides and we all joined up for an hour or so of swimming before dinner. Shawn and I actually spent most of the water park time in the outdoor hot tub. There is a beer vending machine just outside the entrance to the pool area - what Canadian can resist a cold beer in an outdoor hot tub during winter.

Dinner there is a delish buffet with a mix of Japanese and Chinese food. As is common in many resort hotels in Hokkaido, everyone spends the entire time in the hotel wearing yukata provided by the hotel. Here is Shawn, dressed and ready for dinner. I still find it a little strange to dine in the hotel robe with 200 other people wearing exactly the same thing.


After dinner, we retired to one of the rooms for the party part of the evening. The students had diligently arranged all of the snacks and drinks. Here is a shot of the party room.
No need for couches when you can sit on the floor!

We added a Canadian favorite (well, one of our favorite winter treats anyway) to the drink menu. We shared a bottle of Fireball cinammon whisky around and it was a huge hit (mostly). It was the first time anyone in the room had even heard of such a thing (except for us of course) and so it was fun to share such a strange drink with them. A special shout out to the pack-horses who brought this to us in Asia when we realized that we can't buy or order it here!




The highlite of the party was an unexpected one. One of the senseis who had been to this hotel before and knew that there are no ice machines (AND they charge $10 for a bag of ice!) thought to bring his own ice for the drinks. He had a large cooler full of massive pieces of ice wrapped up in paper. As they were serving up the first round of drinks (Fireball on ice please!) he told us all where the ice had come from. He had gotten it on a research trip to the Japanese research station in Antarctica. He brought the ice back and had kept it in deep refrigeration since. The ice block had been dated at 100,000 years old. It was packed with tiny bubbles and he told us to listen to it fizz as air, one hundred millenia old escaped from the ice. Stone age ice - now that's how to have a drink "on the rocks".

Delinquent

Apologies to you all for my inexcusable delinquency in updating this site. As it turns out, since my last post life here has been - dare I say - normal? For me, there hasn't been outstanding things that I felt worthy of blogging about. Wait, that isn't entirely true. I simply have gotten complacent and expectant with life in Japan and don't recognize a good blog opportunity now, as well as I did before.

For example, I would be remiss if I didn't make note of and congratulate my American friends for their impressive and inspirational recent election. We could have used a result like this some time ago (we being the rest of the world), but nonetheless you stood together and collectively asked for change. In Canada, we too had a chance to do just that, but instead opted for "status quo" (more or less). The Canadian election result, unlike the optimistic American result, appears to have been a questionable decision.

Of course we were glued to the CBC online news feed as the Canadian election results came in here in Japan. There wasn't much "hype" in Sapporo over the Canadian election, as you could imagine. The American results, however, were a different story. We attended a party at a bar run by an American guy that night. He was delighted with the news and put on a beer special that couldn't be beat, videotaped the election coverage and we all sat in his small windowless bar drinking beer in silence as we heard the now-famed Obama speech. Lots of people cried, the gathering was mostly American but there were smatterings of other countries there too. We sat at a table with a woman from Georgia (the American state, not the country), a couple from Australia, and a guy from England. And of course, there were a couple tables of Japanese people who starred in utter amazement watching how much we all cared about what we were seeing on the television. It was certainly a unique experience to see both of these elections covered through online news here in Japan.

Now, Japan has also had a recent change in political leadership. In September, Japan's Prime Minister at the time, Fukuda, announced that the financial crisis, among other things, was too much to handle and he was quitting (sound ominously familiar Canada?). So, amazingly, Fukuda steped down from leadership (who knew you could just quit because it was too hard?) and was replaced by Taro Aso. So Japan is now under the leadership of PM Aso. I wonder how Canadians have been using the same name for our leader?

OK, ok, enough politics - but I really had to share the Prime Minister Aso joke! The holidays are around the corner and I hope everyone has fun and relaxing booked into their schedules. Similar to Canadian office Christmas parties, Japan has "end of the year" office parties (called bonenkai in Japanese). Our lab group will have our bonenkai today in a resort town called Joznakei. We go to a big hotel there that has a waterpark and great onsen and hang out overnight and return the next day. I will be sure to update the blog with the antics from this year's bonenkai.

In the mean time, here is a link to our lab website. I was only recently sent this page myself, otherwise I would have passed it on sooner. If you don't have an asian font pack loaded on the computer you are using, you may only see non-sense characters on this page. Unfortunately, the site is in Japanese so I can't read most of it, but you can click on my name (lower center box) to get to some English.

Cheapass Japanese Safari

My intention in this post is to send a cyber shout out to a cherished friend who recently had a really bad day at work (pause for understatement effect....). Don't worry Rubbin'-is-Racin' (from here on in the post I will refer to you as RiR for short), I am sure that this will soon become a cool story that you will tell your babies, or those two older gentlemen that I can't believe are the same two lifejacket-clad rascals I knew before, creating an even more legendary RiR persona than previously revered. Cowboy hats off to you sir. This post, in case you couldn't tell from the title, is for you. I will here outline my advice for a Cheapass Japanese Safari.

Step 1: Because this is a cheapass safari, buy yourself an all-day subway/bus pass that allows you unlimited access to all public transit in the city for the bargain price of 1000 Yen. Note: these are only available on weekends and holidays so be sure to plan the safari accordingly.

Exiting the train armed with my all-day-card.


Step 2: Use your free gmail account to send invitations out to a bunch of cool friends. Safari's are always more fun with wing men.

Step 3: Arrive at the bus station, ready to use your cheap all-day-subway/bus-card and realize that your safari guide (you all know who he is) didn't check the bus schedule and there are no Sunday buses running to the park golf course that your friends will meet you at.

Step 3.1: Modify step 3 and instead take a taxi to the park golf course. Not as cheapass as the original plan, but you don't want to be late for the antics.

Plan B - take a taxi.


Step 4: Rent clubs, balls, buy beer from the vending machine at the bottom of the course and hit the links (LOVE the fact that there is always reasonably priced beer for sale in vending machines everywhere you go - no need to plan in advance or carry a cumbersome cooler). Incidentally this particular safari took place at Bankei Ski Hill's park golf course where there are 36 holes, loads of vending machines, BBQ tables for yaki-niku and way too much fun.

The top of the course at Bankei.
Don't be afraid to show your affection for the beer vending machines.



Step 5: While killing time waiting for the oji-san (=old men) 4-some ahead of you to clear the fairway, rock out to some air guitar (note our safari guide's shadow in the photo, he is rockin' out too). RiR - you have to find a way to incorporate air guitar in your physical therapy routine! Talk to your doc, get creative.

AIR GUITAR!!

Step 6: Take some time to enjoy local wildlife viewing, this is a safari after all. Unfortunately it is also Japan so wildlife takes a bit of effort to find.... you will have to look hard!

Follow the arrow to see the bird of prey we spotted.


Step 7: After a fun-filled game of park golf and pops, soak in some local culture, but be careful to mind local customs and beliefs. In Japan gambling is illegal and frowned upon, so spend the afternoon at the horse track. I have no idea how they get around the "gambling is illegal" bit, but the kid and family friendly amusement park in the center of the racetrack may have something to do with it. Don't forget to bring the picnic basket and the children for some solid family-time at the ponies.

The Sapporo Race Track.

The family park in the center for the track.

No need to shoot the former cup winners, instead they can retire and provide expensive rides for the kiddies in the family park.

Step 8: End the day with a local meal at one of the city's finest, inexpensive restaurants, Mohan Dish Indian Curry House. This place offers the absolute best in non-Japanese food. Gut yourself with tasty and buttery nan bread baked in their real tandoori oven, and enjoy any of their 36 delicious Indian curries with it.

And that is it, your foolproof plan for a Cheapass Japanese Safari. Get on the physical therapy and listen to your doctor RiR, cuz the next Cheapass Safari plan will end with patio pops at your new casa when we return from Japan and you better be ready to be our fearless guide!
Here's lookin' at you RiR!

ichi nen

It's official. I arrived in Sapporo exactly one year ago. I survived one whole year - ok... not a whole year because I spent a good part of my summer in other countries, but still. We celebrated this momentous occasion the other night with a nice bottle of Canadian ice wine. We thought it was fitting for the occasion.





It is strange to think that it has been that long since I first came here. The recent time here has passed very quickly as it does when you are busy. As I look back, some things have rolled along as expected while others have been pretty different from my expectations.

One example of something that both fits and deviates from my expectation is my language progression. One one level, I am way behind where I thought I would be after a year of living here. I am still relatively illiterate; I can't read a random package that I pick up in a store, I can't carry on idle chatter with the man at the post office or the cleaning lady in my building without reverting back to a game of charades. On reflection, however, I am able to cope in a way that would make the me of one year ago think that I was completely comfortable with Japanaese and could read, write, listen and speak easily (Ha, don't I have her fooled).

Another thing that is in the same category is my progress in my work. On one hand, my research has been progressing well and I have been writing papers, getting time in the field and giving talks, all of which were goals I had on arrival. On the other hand, the teaching and mentoring side of my work has been relatively non-existant (see previous paragraph concerning my Japanese illiteracy). I had hoped, 1 year ago, that I would have more chance to work directly with graduate students, help mentor them and even maybe teach a class. Forget it! There isn't even one single class in our faculty that is taught in English (this was a surprise to me since Hokkaido University is a top University with strong emphasis on the strength of English in graduate school) and between my non-existant Japanese and their weakness in English there isn't much chance to work directly with students (unless you can convince their sensei to tell them to do so in which case they will reluctantly work with the scary-emotion-expressing-English-speaking" postdoc). So, on the job front, I am both on target and way off target all at once.

Travelling has been one thing that I have been lucky to get loads of in the past year. Not only am I in Japan and able to see many incredible places here, but I have also been fortunate to skip off to a few other international destinations for work and play along the way.

All in all, things have been entertaining and enjoyable. Sapporo is a comfortable city, even for an illiterate foreigner, and infrastructure in Japan (trains, subways, shopping areas etc) makes temporary life here easy. The climate in Sapporo is nice with lots of snow and recreation in the winter and warm sunny late summers with lots of hiking near the city (watch out for spring and early summer though.... windy!). Nevertheless, with only 6 months to go in my contract, I can't help but look forward to the comforts of home and getting a chance to see friends and family again.

Koyo in Daisetuzan

There are two seasons in Japan that are of such natural splendour that the national meteorological service carefully calculates their timing each year and people plan holidays and and cities schedule festivals to co-incide with them. The most commonly known of those two is the sakura or cherry blossom season (which we were lucky enough to see in both Kyoto, Sapporo and Hakodate earlier this year). Lesser known, but just as beautiful, is koyo or changing leaves season. The map above is the "leaf change front" published recently by the National Meteoroligcal Association.


The koyo starts in the highest alpine regions of Hokkaido, and this year it was a bit later than previous years. We wanted to see the first of the koyo in Japan so we drove to the Daisetsuzan National park (the map above shows the National Parks in Hokkaido - Daisetsuzan is the most central one and in this map it is called Taisetsu - yes, both spellings are correct). Daisetsuzan is a large park and is home to the tallest peak in Hokkaido, numerous onsen and active volcanos so it provides plenty to see and do on a weekend there.

The waterfall at Tenninkyo.

Our first stop was Tenninkyo where we took a short walk to a waterfall. The autumn air was definately cooler there than what we had been used to in Sapporo. Along the road between Tenninkyo and Asahidake we got our first up-close encounter with the famed Hokkaido Fox (kitsune is Japanese for fox). There were a couple of clever devils whose game was to dodge across the road in front of cars and when the car slowed down they came to the door and waited patiently for snacks. Shame this game must often work because they were definately expecting us to give them something and looked shocked when we took photos then rolled up the window and drove away.

Our friend Moochie.

We enjoyed a nice BBQ at dusk and checked into our cabin in the Daisetsusan Shirakaba-so Youth Hostel (here is their website). The hostel was a perfect place to crash for the night before climbing Asahi-dake the next day and the small onsen and ryokan there was a great end to our first day in the park. We stayed in the cabin side of the hostel that had plenty of space for all 4 of us in our room (two friends joined us Friday night) and had a comfortable rustic mountain feel.

The hostel.

We woke up to clear blue skies and left early for the summit of Asahi-dake, at 2290 m it is the tallest peak in Hokkaido. There is a ropeway (here is a link to the ropeway) that takes you part of the way up the hike, you can either take the ride (10 minutes) or walk the 2 hours to the alpine. In the interest of spending more time in the autumn coloured alpine, we took the ropeway up. We walked around the base of the peak and then climbed to the top. It is an active volcano (you can see the smoking vents in this photo) and like many of the hikes we have done here, was steep.

Asahidake.

This time of year is popular among Japanese people hoping to see koyo and this being one of the few clear days, the mountain was packed with people. Being from BC, we are not used to sharing a trail with so many other people, but the experience was still a good one and the scenery was incredible. Here is us at the peak settling in for some lunch. The peak was really crowded and we had to wait a while for a seat along the edge to open up where we could sit.

Asahidake peak.

Volcanic rocks on the peak and koyo below.

After the hike, we drove around the north end of the park to the east side to another onsen town called Sounkyo. We stayed in a small hotel in the center of town and (of course) took onsen at the local public bath. We ate combini bento (food from the convenience store) for dinner and enjoyed a nice sleep. Sunday started early with another trip up a different ropeway to the startpoint for hiking Kurodake. This side of the park had more colourful leaves and this hike was also busy.

Kurodake.

Bamboo and koyo on Kurodake.

Despite the crowds, we met some wildlife along the trail. The chimpunks rattled around in the bamboo along the trail the entire way up, busily preparing for hibernation. This side of the park uses a cute cartoon pika as their mascot, and we did hear some pikas chirping away on the top of the mountain, but we didn't see any.

Kurodake chipmunk.

At the top of Kurodake (1984 m), the wind was howling and ice cold so we huddled into the cabin at the top and had lunch. The cabin was built in the '30's, but a recent and notable addition is a high tech compostable toilet. After you "do your thing" there, you use a stationary bike to mix the "things" and help break it down.

Ridin' the toilet.

The koyo on this side was much more vibrant than it had been on Asahidake but the wind was cold so we didn't spend as much time wandering around.

On top of Kurodake.

We returned to Sounkyo and had onsen at the Grand Hotel. It was a nice onsen and after being in the cold wind at the top of the mountain, it was a welcome treat. After onsen, we enjoyed massive bowls of Asahikawa-style ramen (Asahikawa is a large city close to Daisetsuzan park). Asahikawa ramen is reputed to be some of the finest ramen in the country - it was hot, tasty, and a great way to end a weekend of hiking!

Natives and Devils

We spent a lovely sunny Sunday a couple of weeks ago with a couple of friends. We rented a car early in the morning and drove to a town near Tomakomai. There is an Ainu village there where you can step back into the days before mainland Japan took over the "northern barbarian land" of Hokkaido. The Ainu are the native people of Hokkaido, you can read more about them here.

Friends and I with an Ainu statue.


The Ainu village was small but had nice representations of traditional homes and clothing. There was a small museum with displays and information about Ainu lifestyles and heritage, and to our surpise, most of the information panels were in Japanese AND English (shouts erupt from the throng of Japanese illiterate!!). We were even lucky enough to catch a demonstration of traditional dancing performed by who we could only assume were of Ainu decent.

Us in a traditional home.

One portion of the village that we were terribly dissapointed by was the bear display. The bears in Hokkaido look like a small grizzly and were a big part of traditional Ainu rituals. The village had 4 bears on display in tiny cages, with barely any shade, dirty water and a small tube where tourists could pass "bear bicuits" to them. It was a smelly, dirty and dispicable display of animal cruelty - if you go to this place, don't bother with seeing the bears, it will only anger you (I hope).

One thing that we found striking about what we learned about the Ainu was how much their art, dress and lifestyle reminded us of some of the coastal BC first nations. I guess it might be expected given that they are both salmon cultures, with similar resources and climate. Nevertheless, it was an interesting comparison and one that I would be interested in reading more about.

After the visit to the village, we stopped at the beach for a BBQ lunch. We enjoyed some nice steaks while we watched what seemed like hundreds of fishermen fishing in the Pacific breakers. From there we went to a small town called Noboribetsu.

BBQ lunch at the beach.

Noboribetsu is one of Hokkaido's most famous hot springs parks. It is part of the Shikotsu-Toya National park which we visited previously (check this post for more on that trip). This area is famous for it's numerous steam vents, the notorious "hell valley" (called Jijokudani in Japanese), boiling mud lakes and the devil-themed town. We parked the car and took some short walks through the forest to see the famed places around the town. Here are some photos.

A boiling mud lake.

A small stream in Hell Valley.

Relaxing foot onsen in the forest.

Devils!

We finished the day with a soak in onsen (we are starting to get quite reliant on a nice wash in a public shower follwed by relaxing in sulphur smelling mineral bath - it really is a perfect ending to a long sweaty day). The onsens in Noboribestu claim to have some healthy mixes of minerals and I still haven't been able to wash the smell of them out of my towel. Rotten eggs stench to my health!

Public Address

Last night we attended a meeting of the Hokkaido Canada Society (see their website here). Shawn was invited to attend as a guest speaker at the dinner meeting. The society is a group that meets to facilitate exchanges between Canada and Hokkaido and they act as an honorary consulate in Sapporo to provide services for Canadians within Hokkaido.

The evening started with a demonstration by a French-Canadian guy who lives in Sapporo and owns a maple syrup shop and cafe here. He and his wife showed the crowd how to use Canadian maple syrup in a nice salad dressing. His demo was followed by the chef from the hotel who demonstrated making a second type of dressing that also featured maple syrup. Both types were distributed to the tables for us to try on our meal.
Sauce demo #1.
Sauce demo #2.

Dinner was lovely and well presented. We ate delicous Candian Atlantic salmon, pumpkin soup, breaded pork and finished it all off with maple ice cream and coffee.


After dinner the "new members" (this include me, Shawn and another Canadian guy who lives in Sapporo and owns an English school) stood up and introduced themselves. Shawn was the last introduction which led directly into his speech. He had been asked to come and tell the society about Canadian Dragon Boating. Not surprisingly, he did a fantastic job and spoke clearly and slowly enough for everyone to follow. He also passed out hand-outs to the crowd with photos of the sport and a short history. Unfortunately he couldn't use power point and had to do the whole thing talking only - I think that is a much more difficult way to address a crowd, especially a crowd of non-English speakers. Nonetheless, he was a fantastic speaker and the society members were all impressed and ready to join a dragon boat team when he was through!

Shikotsu-ko & Tarumae-zan

We made a trip to a nearby lake last weekend to get in at least one more camping trip before summer slips away (click here for a link to more info on the Shikotsu-ko national park). We loaded up rental cars on Saturday morning and drove the short 1 hour drive to lake Shikotsu. It is a beautiful, deep lake (2nd deepest in Japan) with, what they call here, “very cold water”. The lake was once the caldera of a very big volcano and the water in the lake is amazingly clear. We took a pedal boat out for a spin and even in the deeper parts the water looked like swimming pool water. The nutrient levels in the lake are so low that the water doesn’t support a bacterial or algae community so the transparency is around 25 m on most days.

Moss Canyon.

We hung around the small town for the afternoon and took a short walk to a place called moss canyon before setting up camp by the lake. Unfortunately for Shawn and I, the friends who were supposed to bring us a tent didn’t show up (their son got sick and they decided not to come leaving us roofless on the lakeside). Lucky for us it didn’t rain overnight. Yes, that is us sleeping “under the stars”.

Our campsite.

It would have been nice (it was warm and dry) except for the group of noisy teenagers who arrived at 11:00 that night, partied only two tents away and made multiple trips to the bathroom (their bathroom route passed directly above our heads) and shouted and giggled to each other while on their way. We were even more annoyed to watch them pack up their guitar and leave at 8:00 the next morning.

A dip in Shikotsuko, Eniwa-dake overlooking.

After a short breakfast swim (for Shawn, not me because I was told the lake was WAY too cold to swim and didn't pack my suit – it definitely wasn’t and in Canada would be considered a warm lake!) we packed up and headed for Tarumae-zan, a nearby volcano. Mt. Tarumae was "born" only 9000 years ago with eruptions along the edge of the caldera that forms Lake Shikotsu. The lava dome at the top (shown below - and yes, its massive) was created in an eruption in 1909. The most recent eruption here was only 30 years ago!

The very top of Tarumae, a smoking lava dome.

Walking along the trail on top of Tarumae.

An overhead view of Tarumae.

We were happy to see blue skies for the first time in a couple weeks and walked around the moonscape at the top of the volcano listening to the mountain hiss and rumble. I was really surprised by the noise it made, loud and menacing. It was also pretty smelly up there when the wind was blowing the right way! After walking back down we grabbed an early dinner at the small town on the lake and drove back to Sapporo. I returned to work on Monday with a sunburnt nose, another great weekend in Hokkaido.

Overlooking Shikotsuko from Tarumae-zan.