Have you ever heard of Sports Chanbara? Neither have I! I discovered this amazing, amazing sport yesterday at the after-school center I normally go to on Wednesdays. I was there talking to one of my cute little 2nd year students when one of the adult workers brought out this big cardboard box and set it on the table next to me. I looked inside and saw what looked like a bunch of foam bats and helmets. The kids (mainly the boys) got really excited so they put on the helmets, grabbed the foam bats - which were actually foam swords of all different sizes - and start beating the snot out of each other! I thought it was the greatest game ever :D There was a book in the box that came with the rest of the stuff so I picked it up and read the cover: "Sports Chanbara". Intrigued, I opened it and discovered to my delight that the book was written in both English and Japanese, so I read on.

Sports Chanbara is actually a competitive martial art with tournaments held internationally. It developed to allow the "Japanese to rediscover their heritage in a safe, injury-free way" through the use of foam swords and naginata. Um.. riight. Basically what you're doing is trying to hit the other person with floppy, foam swords before they hit you. The only rule in sports Chanbara is the first person who gets hit is out because "in reality warriors on the battlefield only had one chance." How badass is that??? Here's a picture of Chuck Norris fighting a 13 year old boy with foam swords. Did I mention they use foam swords?

Sarcasm aside, the principles of the sport are sound... I guess... but whatever happened to Kendo? Isn't it basically the same thing? There's seems to be a trend in Japan about taking a sport and making it easier so that everyone can play, such as mini-volleyall, or soft tennis, and now sports Chanbara. Man oh man, Japan never ceases to amaze me!

(By the way, I played a few rounds of Chanbara with the kids and totally whupped them ;)

*cue Fantasia music*

This past weekend I headed down to Sapporo once again to go on another hike but this time up Sapporo-dake with a guide, Leon, who does guided hikes all over Hokkaido. We started out in Sapporo on Saturday afternoon and took an hour bus ride outside the city. We drove through a small place called Jozankei Onsen which is an tourist onsen resort with tons of hotels and really famous onsen.. and where I'm definitely going back to in the winter. We got dropped off a few minutes outside of the resort and walked a little further up the road until we got to the trailhead. We started out a bit later on this hike than other hikes so it was around 2:30pm by the time we got there. It was okay though since it was only a two hour hike to the hut where we were staying that night. It's normally closed this time of the year but we had it booked for our group specially for this hike. It was a fairly easy trail so Leon let me take the lead and we were off. The weather stayed beautiful and it didn't rain that day so it was a nice, quick hike to the hut.

At the pace we were going we managed to reach the hut in a little over an hour instead of two and dusk was just beginning to settle by the time we got inside. The hut was a two-story building at the base of a steep incline in the middle of the mountains. The main floor had a big stove, a kitchen, a few tables and benches. There was also a little bathroom (basically a hole with a 5 foot drop) just inside the main enterance where we put our shoes. Up a really steep staircase (you basically have to climb like a ladder) was the second floor with two rows of padded flooring along both sides of the room. The middle of the room was open to the downstairs and was right above where heat from the stove could waft up. There were wooden racks and railings above the hole where we could hang our clothes to dry. We put down our packs, got our beds ready for the night and by the time we were done it was pitch dark out.

In our group we had seven people, four of us being JETs, a married couple from Sweden and our guide, Leon. The hike was advertised as an easy level 'Friendship overnight hike' and there was to be a Halloween party that night in the hut. Wenger - the maker of Swiss Army Knives - was sponsoring the hike so there were prizes for the best costume. Me and Callie had decided to dress up for it, her in her pirate costume again and me as a proper mummy this time (no more damn toilet paper!). We really wanted to win those prizes but we didn't have to worry because, again, we were the only ones to dress up for it! I didn't wrap up my entire body since it would've been too much of a hassle so I decided to wear my jacket and brought just enough bandages to wrap my head and hands. I ended up looking more like a burn victim than a mummy.

Leon had provided the supper for that night, carrying it all in his pack up the trail. He even brought up some Halloween decorations to put up on the walls, Halloween party hats and a flashing pumpkin. We had nabe that night, which is a big boiling pot of chicken base broth where you put in different vegetables, meat and udon noodles to let them cook before dipping it in a peanut sauce.. mmmmm. Since there were so few of us (there was supposed to be 13 of us in total but 5 people dropped out at the last minute), Leon decided to give us all prizes but we had to Janken (rock, paper, scissors) for the good ones. I managed to win a swiss army knife and a leather notebook. After that we brought out a deck of cards and the swedish couple taught us a swedish card game (gimme the box!). Then we played a few more games and just sat around and chatted until 11:00pm. After that we went to bed in our sleeping bags, but not before having a before-bed chat about spooning, toe-sucking and other various things.

We woke up the next day with the sun and had breakfast which consisted of the broth we had the night before. Leon boiled up some noodles and added more meat and vegetables and it made a nice warm meal for the hike that day. It had rained during the night and it was still raining by the time we got out of there so we were looking at a pretty wet hike. We ate, packed up all of our stuff, cleaned up the hut, geared up and were off at 8:30am. I took the lead again and we headed up the steep incline I mentioned earlier. The mountain was at 45 degrees for most of the time and it continued that way basically until we reached the peak. It was quite the workout for that early in the morning! For 1 km of the hike, we were literally hiking up the middle of a river stream, jumping from rock to rock. The rain didn't help that much either. Despite the fact that we were walking in mud, water, and up a steep mountainside, I thought it was the most enjoyable park of the hike! When I hike, its really tough for me at first since my body is trying to catch up to all the extertion I'm putting on it, but after half an hour or so I get into a groove and my breathing calms down and I stop sweating. That's when I'm in the zone and can keep going for hours and hours and we reached the peak in a a brisk two hours. The rain clouds were really low that day that we were standing right in them at the peak. We couldn't see 20 feet in any direction. It was also really windy, wet, and cold so we missed out on the great views that Leon told us about. We rested, ate some snacks and took pictures there before continuing on down the other side of the mountain.

When I mentioned how steep the mountain was on the way up, if you can imagine it, it was even steeper on the way down! It was nuts! I would say more than a 50 degree decline. I could walk forward a few meters, look back and see the others over 10 meters above my head! We were slipping and sliding through the mud and down the mountainside for the good part of an hour. There were some parts of the trail that provided ropes so we wouldn’t slide down the entire way. We grabbed onto anything and everything we could from little shoots of bamboo to overhanging branches but it still wasn't enough to prevent the muddy bums we got by the end of it. After about two hours down the mountain we decided to stop and take a rest for lunch. I really had to take a #2 at that point so I did the only thing you could do in that situation.. trek into the trees with a roll of toilet paper in hand.

It was still another hour or so by the time we reached the main road where we would catch our bus to make it back into Sapporo. On the way there we walked past a really, really random Halloween festival at some sort of valley zoo. What caught our eye was a huge inflatable pumpkin so we went and walked up to the fence. When we took a closer look we saw all different kinds of animals, from big python snakes to pelicans and owls and even a little beaver pond. It cost 1000 yen ($10) to go in so we decided not to. We stayed there for another ten minutes before continuing up the road. When we got to the bus stop we only had to wait another ten minutes before the bus arrived. Luckily we didn’t arrive ten minutes later or else we would’ve had to wait another 45 minutes! The other five took the bus to Sapporo station and me and Callie took a bus that came seven minutes later to take us to a different train station.

Unfortunately there was no onsen at the end of this hike.. I was a little sad. I felt dirty and exhausted but had to wait until we got back home to take a shower. There was no time to rest though because we were back out the door to see a movie that the Banff International Film Festival (!) was putting on that night only. When we got there the doors weren’t open yet so we waited for our friend who had bought the tickets for us. Once she came and we got in there were a bunch of “Visit Alberta” pamphlets and booklets promoting the Rockies. Ahhh… how I miss them. The movies we saw were a collection of short films about extreme skiing, a rock climbing photographer, extreme white-water rafting, speed flying and a 50 minute film about an insanely good rock climber looking for the most “extreme line”. They were all pretty good films but I would’ve enjoyed them more if I wasn’t so exhausted and wind burned.

It was a good weekend and I definitely got my fix of hiking and the outdoors. My legs are still aching from it but its the good kind of sore. I'm hoping to do maybe one more hike this weekend before the snow descends and ends the autumn hiking season for good. After that it'll be time to strap on my boots and slide down mountains instead of walking up them!

Japan has always claimed to have "four distinct seasons" like in Canada, but here I think nature takes it literally. Back home, Fall would come slowly, dropping a few degrees each day until you go from wearing a shirt outside to a hoodie to a winter jacket. I think Japan skipped the hoodie part altogether! Right when the seasons changed a few weeks ago (with the Monday holiday to celebrate it), the weather definitely started to change. When I arrived here the trees in the hills surrounding my town were a nice healthy green in the midst of summer. Every day now as I drive to work they've slowly started to turn to Autumn colors in phases, one patch here, another patch there. Now the entire hillside is awash in reds, golds and browns and the leaves are starting to drop to the ground. The temperature has been dropping pretty steadily since that weekend too. During the summer it was usually 25-30 degrees each day and I was usually drenched in my own sweat. Lately I've started to wear an undershirt just to stay warm. Now the average temperature is 5-10 degrees, the sun sets at 4:30pm and it's been raining more frequently. I've just started using the heater in my apartment but fortunately (comparing to friend's houses) I have insulation in my apartment! A lot of houses in Japan don't have any insulation in their houses, only in the colder parts of Hokkaido. Pretty soon (any day now actually) that rain will turn to snow and then it'll become Winter overnight. Then it's back to the same old routine of bundling up to go outside, digging out my car, warming it up, driving 2 minutes at 30 km/hr to work while trying to keep my car from sliding off the road, freezing my ass off to and from work and then getting home to huddle around my heater. There's not much to love about Winter... except maybe for snowboarding!

I was approached by a teacher at my high school a few weeks ago about the school's annual Parent/Teacher meeting they hold in November. He wants me to prepare a 13 minute powerpoint presentation on a comparison of high school club activities between Japan and Canada. Say whaat? It was pretty much out of the blue.. from left field. Apparently I'll be presenting it to a whole group of teachers and parents in an attempt to think of ideas on how to get the students more interested and involved in school clubs. You see, in Japan, once a student joins a club they basically sell their soul. They can only be in one club, have to go to every meeting/practice/rehearsal/etc. and usually stay after school for another couple of hours, and even meet on weekends, to be involved. My JTE said that most kids want to work part-time so they choose not to do any activities. It's gotten to the point where the men's volleyball team consists of 4 people, and the women's team.. 3.

It's a pretty interesting assignment and I'm definitely up to the challenge. It's different than my daily teaching routine and it gives me a chance to use my head again! I've missed doing things like this and doing research, makes me feel like I'm in University again. The catch is is that I have to present it in three weeks and I don't have much of anything done other than a page of chicken scratch for my ideas. The other catch is that it has to be in Japanese! Gahh.. I like challenges, but this is going to be like doing a rubik's cube while [insert witty metaphor]. I'll have to speed up my Japanese study if I want to do it in time... or I'll have to rely heavily on my JTE to make sure my garbled Japanese makes sense. Ganbatte ne!

I went out to get groceries right after work yesterday and as I was pulling out of my building I heard a loud "POP" sound. I wasn't sure what it was but didn't think much of it. I went and got groceries, did my thing and then came home. On the way back I could feel my steering vibrating back and forth and thought, "Sh*t, I know what that means." I did the standard test flat tire test and let go of the steering wheel. Sure enough, I slowly started to veer to the right. It was a slow leak so I was able to make it home safely. I intended to check on it when I got there but completely forgot about it.

I woke up this morning planning to drive to work but then I took one look at my car and yup, definitely had a flat tire. The rim was basically touching the ground! I ran back up to my apartment, got my bicycle key and biked to work. When I finished work today about an hour ago, the sun had already started to set (change of the seasons and all). I quickly biked home and raced to get the spare tire on before it got too dark to see. Luckily I was able to do it in 20 minutes after finding all the tools and sweating to get the bolts off. Once the tire was off I took a look at it and realized that the big popping sound I heard was a 3 inch screw entering my tire! I got the spare on and drove to the nearest gas station (which is literally a block from my house) and showed them my flat tire. There were three guys there so they said, "No problem" and fixed it right then and there for me. They took out the screw, stuck in what looked like a twig covered in glue and wha-la! Fixed. It took them less then 10 minutes to fix it, replace it, put the spare tire away and top up the pressure in all my tires.. and it only cost me 1575 yen! Japanese mechanics are awesome!

My apartment has turned into the Northwest Territories recently. I think it's the change in weather but something is forcing hundreds of flies into my apartment... and I don't know how they're getting in! I keep all my windows shut and have tried to close up any gaps I could think of but just keep on coming! I came home during lunch-time today and there were flies everywhere: between my window screens, on my tables, in my kitchen, etc. This pic is just a small sample of what I saw. They seem to only come in the afternoon because after I get home from work and its cooler out, most of them seem to have left. A few don't leave though and fly around my lamp and lights when I turn them on in the evening. I've been using my uchi-wa (fan) to kill them and then vaccuuming up the corpses afterwards but it's a pain in the butt. Does anyone know a way to kill flies en masse?

This past weekend I went with a few JETs on a roadtrip up to a place called Wakkanai, which means "I don't understand" in Japanese. It also happens to be the northern-most city in Japan. There are a pair of islands, Rishiri and Rebun, just off the western tip of of the peninsula that are famous for sightseeing. Most people don't even go to Wakkanai, they only go there to take the ferry to the islands, which is basically what we did. Rishiri island is essentially an island consisting entirely of a volcano mountain. Most people go there to do the intense 10 hour hike to the top, which is what we intended to do in the first place! We had planned this trip to Wakkanai almost exclusively to climb Rishiri-dake but in the week leading up to the trip, the peak of the mountain got over four feet of snow! We weren't prepared to do the hike in the snow so we decided to go to the other island instead - Rebun. Rebun island isn't as big or tall as Rishiri but there are a lot of hiking trails there to do.

The five of us - Me, Callie, Justin (Team Marimo!), Chris (a JET from Shiritaki) and Rob (a JET from Oumu) - drove up to Wakkanai on Friday night after work and got there a little past 11:00pm. It was pissing rain and dark out the so it took us a bit longer than we thought. We were staying at JET's house that lives in Wakkanai who wasn't even in town for the weekend, but still graciously let us use his place anyways! He just gave me a map to his place, told me where he left the key and told us to use it responsibly. Once we got there we had to get up early the next morning to catch the 6:50am ferry to Rebun so we went to bed right away.

We decided to get up at 6 o'clock because we thought it would give us plenty of time to catch the ferry. We got up, got ready and were out of there in twenty minutes. Still pleenty of time! We decided to make a stop at Seicomart (a convenience store) to pick up some breakfast for the trip. We took about ten minutes and then it was time to head off to the ferry terminal which (according to our map) was a five minute drive away. We were still good for time. Once we got to the spot on the map we looked around... and didn't see any ferry terminal! We drove around for a few minutes before seeing a huge ferry at the dock. Phew! We then drove around looking for a (legal) place to park. There was ten minutes to go so we pulled into a large, empty gravel lot right beside the ferry and ran towards it. There was a steep staircase that lead to a plank-like thing sticking out from the side of the ferry and seemed to be the only way to get on. Since I had gotten there first I headed up the staircase onto the ferry... but no one was on board! Something was eerie. I called out a few times and then looked around... and that's when I realized the boat was still tied to the dock! This was definitely not the right ferry! Five minutes to go. Chris and Justin were still on the ground so they ran around the dock and saw another ferry on the next pier over. One look at it and we could tell that it was the one we wanted to be on... it was getting ready to leave! We raced back to the car, jumped in and gunned it for the next pier. After a few traffic lights we got closer to the pier and finally saw the ferry terminal. We pulled into the parking lot, I opened the door and high-tailed it to the entrance. Two minutes to go! I ran to the counter and asked if we were too late. The lady behind the counter was surprised to see us and said, "Chotto matte kudasai" (Please wait a moment) before scurrying into the back room. It's only 6:49am and teeccchnically we're not quite late yet. She comes back out with a man who I presume to be their manager or someone important.. and tells us that it's ok! As I'm paying for our tickets, the man is on his walkie-talkie talking to someone who I assumed was on the ferry telling them to wait. I couldn't hear him but I knew he was saying something along the lines of, "There are five late gaijin, just wait a second." The other four had already ran ahead of me so once the tickets were ready, the lady came out from behind the counter with the tickets, handed them to me and personally showed me the way to the ferry. I ran out onto the dock and saw the other four already up the gangplank of the ferry so I ran towards it, quickly showed my ticket to the man there waiting for us and then I was up beside them. Right as I got on, I looked back and they had already started raising the gangplank. I looked at my watch - 6:52am. Ok, so we were a little late, but we had made it!

After that intense little episode we went above, found some seats, sat back and relaxed for the 1 hour and 45 minute trip. I got a map of Rebun from the info desk on the ferry so after a bit of deciding we figured out a plan of action for the day. We would rent a few bicycles, bike to the trailhead of Rebun-dake and hike it. We were planning on taking the last ferry from Rebun back into Wakkanai so we had to make sure we could get everything done by then. Once we arrived we got off the ferry then went to look for the bicycle rental place. We found it just outside the ferry terminal but there was no one there to help us. We thought it was closed but we didn't figure out until later that you needed to call a number in the window for someone to come and meet us. Oh well! After walking around for a while trying to figure out a way to get to the trailhead (which was 8km away), we decided to say screw it and chose a different trail on the map instead. We walked 10 minutes into town and then another 15 minutes until we got to a trailhead. We weren't sure where it headed but we decided to follow it anyways!

We hiked around the island for 4-5 hours and saw many of the islands famous natural landmarks, including a big 190m tall rock that looks like a peach called Momo-iwa (which in English means.. you guessed it, Peach Rock). Tourist season had ended about a week earlier so the island wasn't packed with hikers like it normally is during the summer. We basically had the whole island to ourselves. The island itself is absolutely gorgeous with panorama views everywhere you looked. It's only 29km long by 8km wide so once we got to the top of one of the hills we had a view of the sea from three sides. It rained a bit in the morning when we started the hike but it cleared up around midday. We only managed to touch the southern part of the island but there's an eight-hour hike that spans the entire length of the island. We could see the mountain from Rebun and it looked absolutely amazing. It's dubbed Rishiri-fuji because it looks really similar to Mt. Fuji. The peak was hidden in clouds all day so we couldn't see the peak but it looks to be a pretty massive mountain.

We got back to the ferry terminal in time to have an hour lunch before taking the ferry back to Wakkanai. The amazing thing about Japanese ferries is that instead of seats, they have tatami flooring where you can lie down and sleep! We quickly took advantage of it and slept the entire way back. An exhausting day of hiking + the gentle rocking motion of the sea = out like a light. Once they called the five minutes to docking on the intercom we all woke up, groggy and red-eyed, and got off. We headed back to the place we were staying to drop off our stuff and then quickly headed to the local onsen in town. We lounged around there for about an hour and a half and then went out to eat okonomiyaki for supper at a restaurant. When we got there we were the only ones there but later on a group of Japanese people came in celebrating something. They had obviously been drinking before but they were really friendly to us when they found out we were all english teachers. One of the guys even bought us all drinks! We finished up there after hanging out for an hour and headed back. We were all still exhausted from the day so we all went to bed right away, crammed into one small tatami room. We even hung a blanket over the window to block out the light the next morning.

We didn't have much planned for the next day so we slept in until around 9 o'clock, almost 10 hours of sleep! Rob had gotten up earlier so he went out to buy a couple things for the JET who's place we were using. We got him some groceries (that he had written on his little whiteboard) and some beer as a thank-you. We packed up all of our stuff and then headed to the JR station for Callie to buy her ticket home. She was headed back from Wakkanai on the train instead of driving back with us. After that we made a quick stop at a department store to get some purikura done (always a must when travelling) then we drove to a place called Cape Soya, the northern-most point in all of Japan. There are a bunch of wind turbines installed all over northern Hokkaido - and for good reason. The wind was intense! When we got to the parking lot where the cape was I opened the door and it basically blew the door shut back at me. I was trying to put on my sweater but the wind kept whipping it away and there where whitecaps on the waves way out to sea. It had to have been at least 75 km/hr wind. We spent some time there taking some pictures and checking out the gift shop before heading back to Wakkanai. There really wasn't much to see or do at Cape Soya other than to say you've been to the northern-most point of Japan. We drove back into town to find a kaitenzushi we had heard of for lunch. After driving around a bit and finally managing to find the restaurant, it was closed! Instead we went to a placed called "Russian Restaurant" which served Russian food. Apparently there's a large Russian presence in northern Hokkaido because the Russian sailors dock at the port towns all the time. You can even take a ferry to the Russian island of Sakhalin from Wakkanai.. but I've heard it's really sketchy. After lunch we went to the "Wakkanai Dome" which isn't even a dome at all and is just a long, cement breakwater which the Lonely Planet crowned as the best reason to come to Wakkanai. Total dud.

We decided to call it a day after that since we had a long drive ahead of us. We dropped Callie off at the JR station (where she met her new friend, a pot-bellied pig) and then headed home at 4:00pm. I fell asleep on the way because I was exhausted (even though, strangely, I had slept in the night before and we didn't do too much that day) to Rob's place in Oumu where I had parked my car. I drove the rest of the way home and dropped off Chris and Justin before making my way home to get there at 10:00pm. It was a long - yet short - whirlwind weekend where we did a lot and was a ton of fun. Most people spend at least 3-4 days to explore Rebun and Rishiri but we explored Rebun in basically one day. I plan on coming back next spring when the snow melts to tackle Rishiri-dake - it's on my "To Do" list.

It seems like my list keeps getting bigger and bigger.. so much to do, not enough weekends!

Last Friday there was a Halloween Party at one of my elementary schools. A bit early, yeah? They know Halloween falls on the 31st but I wasn't sure why they decided to have it then (I forgot to ask). The day before they had carved pumpkins and set them out on display in the hallway for their parents to see because that day was Parent-Teacher interviews. Callie came down the day before to help me teach and the teachers told me the week earlier that there would be Halloween activities planned, so we decided to dress up in Halloween costumes. I was told that the kids would also be wearing costumes but when we got to the school we found out that we were the only ones dressed up! Everyone else was wearing their normal clothes. Oh well, how's that for grassroots internationalization? I went as a toilet paper mummy and Callie went as a purple-striped pirate. I bought six rolls of bandages from the 100 Yen store, wore white clothes and wrapped them all over me, and then stuffed myself with toilet paper. Not sure how kowai (scary) I was but I thought I looked like a pretty good mummy. It turned out not to be the best costume because once we got to the school the kids got really excited at seeing us and went nuts! They kept trying to fight me and then started picking apart my costume! There was toilet paper strewn all over the hallways as they would grab fistfuls at a time. Eventually, after trying to fend them off and pretending to eat them, most of the toilet paper was gone and I ended up looking more like a guy wrapped up in bandages and less like mummy. I learned my lesson on wearing costumes in elementary schools: If its not stuck to you, the kids will try to take it. Callie learned that too when they kept trying to steal her sword and pirate hat. I think next time I'll buy 50 rolls of bandages from the 100 Yen store and avoid toilet paper altogether. Check out Callie's blog for a more pictures of the Halloween day with the kiddies.