SNOWBOARDING!

It's my absolute favorite thing to do in the entire world - now around the entire world! Mother Nature recently had a big dump of snow so now my town and the entire island of Hokkaido is blanketed in it. It's cold and sucks to drive in but it meant I could finally dust off my board and put it to use, which is precisely what I did a few days ago.

We had another long weekend due to Labour Thanksgiving Day falling on the Sunday so we had Monday off. I'm not sure if we're celebrating Labour Day or Thanksgiving Day (or maybe a kind of "Thank You For Your Labour" day?) but I'm probably guessing Thanksgiving since it falls around the same time as American Thanksgiving. My British friend, Georgie, had the brilliant idea of taking advantage of the long weekend and hitting up a ski hill in the area called Kuro-Dake - which is Japanese for 'Black Mountain' - and invited a bunch of us to go. When I heard about it, there was nothing that was going to stop me from going. I can never pass up a ski trip, especially the first of the season!

On the night before I went, about fourteen of us met up in Georgie's town of Rubeshibe and had a tabe/nomihoudai (all-you-can-eat/drink) at his local izakaya (pub). We all crashed/passed out at his place that night and then woke up early at 6:00am the next morning to try and catch the first lift of the day. We made a quick stop at 7-11 for a breakfast of pastries and onigiri and then caravan'd it to the ski hill. It was snowing pretty heavily that day and the roads were covered with a layer of packed snow so the driving was pretty treacherous at times, especially up in the mountain passes. However - in my experience driving to the mountains - whenever it's really sketchy drive to the hill (meaning it feels like I'm going to slide off the road at any moment), it means that it's going to be a good snowboarding day... and I wasn't disappointed!

Rubeshibe is a town near the base of the Daisetsuzan mountain range that sits directly in the center of Hokkaido. Daisetsuzan has a bunch of mountain peaks that are famous for hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter. From Rubeshibe, we drove about an hour and half to a town called Sounkyo which is an onsen town situated right at the base of Kuro-dake. From there we took a gondola halfway up the mountain to a mountain chalet and then it was a short walk to the chairlift.

What Japan lacks in the size of their ski hills they make up for in the quality of the powder! It is awwweeesome! There was one time in Canada when I went to the Castle Mountain ski resort in southern Alberta with a few friends. I went on the weekend of my 22nd birthday and it had been snowing pretty heavily for a few weeks up until then. There was even an avalanche a week before. While we were driving there it was snowing and completely white out so the drive was slow and (again) pretty sketchy. Once we got there we headed up the peak of the mountain where we were basically in the clouds.. and got treated to the best powder I've ever had in my life! It was knee-deep, fluffy, and felt like floating on clouds. Orgasmic! My point is that snow like that doesn't come often in Canada, but I guess during the winter in Hokkaido it's like that almost every day!

The hill we went to already had a snow base of 150cm after only a few weeks of snowfall, and it was still snowing that day. When we got there we weren't the first people on the hill so we didn't get first powder, but there was still plenty left to go around! It's a fairly small hill with only one, double-chair lift and two or three runs. It takes maybe ten minutes to get up and only a few to get down. A really popular thing to do on this hill is to take the lift to the top and then do a three-hour snowshoe hike to the peak of Kuro-dake to ski back down, off-piste, and through the trees the entire way. We were debating of doing the hike but since it was pretty snowy and windy, we decided not to. Decked out in our matching, orange, Jagermeister bandanas, we just stayed on the hill and played in the powder playground the entire time. As the snow continued to fall, it replaced the snow that had been scraped off so we essentially had unlimited powder all day.

We were at the hill for about six hours with only a few minor mishaps involving slicing my finger on a ski edge, oversized boots, a twisted knee (and afterwards, a wheelchair), MSG allergies, a lost (then found) digital camera in the snow, and a missing pair of glasses. By the end of the day my feet were protesting the abuse I put them through so we took one of the last gondola's down and headed into Sounkyo to soak in its famous onsen. The one we went to was on the 7th floor of a hotel and had a rotenburo (outdoor onsen) that faced the mountain cliff. It's a bit strange sitting naked in a hot pool with snow falling around you... but it's also very awesome. I highly recommend it. After that we headed back to Rubeshibe and went to a ramen restaurant where I had their super-spicy ramen to try and warm up my insides as well.

It's still technically Fall, but winter has gripped the entire island and won't let go until May. It's going to be a long winter of scraping off my car every morning and freezing all the time, but I guess it's a fair trade-off to enjoy the sport I love the most. Who knows, maybe in a month I'll get sick of the snow and want to get away from it. It just so happens that in a month is exactly when I will be leaving it behind for the beaches of Vietnam..

I've been in Japan for almost four months now this is usually around the time that home-sickness kicks in. What better way is there to cure home-sickness than having a little piece of home with you? (Not that I am suffering from home-sickness...just saying...) This piece of home I'm talking about is a sport that Canada has adopted and DOMINATED over the past 40 years - so much so that it's now essentially associated with Canada. I'm talking about.. Curling!

Way out here in the middle of nowhere, Hokkaido is actually home to one of the largest curling centres in all of Japan. In the small town of Tokoro, nestled along the north-eastern coast where winter reigns for most of the year, is where curling took hold. The curling hall in Tokoro and has actually spawned quite a few olympic class curlers who have competed internationally in the Olympics. Pretty good for a town of 5000 people!

My friend Caroline - a 2nd year JET who is also conveniently Canadian - lives in Tokoro and was naturally drawn to the sport as well. She used to play back home so it was no wonder that she'd be taking up the sport here as well (and even brought her curling shoes from home o_O). Last year she made up a curling team with some other JET's in the area (mostly Alaskans.. but they're basically Canadian) and competed in a few tournaments that were held throughout the winter. They were called 'Team English'. Quite a few of those JET's had left for home this year so the team was basically down to one person - herself. When the new batch of genki JET's came in early September, she quickly went to work and started recruiting for her curling team. Once I heard that she was looking for people to make a new curling team, I told her I was definitely in. I'm no newbie to curling believe it or not. By the end of her recruitment spree we had a new team of six people, three of us being Canadians (the highest concentration of Canadians on the team to date) with the others being an Alaskan, a New Zealander and an Irish. [Insert Joke Here]

Once the reality of winter hit and the snow began to fall, the curling season officially started. Caroline entered our brand-new Team English into a round-robin tournament that's held every year. This was no small tournament either - in a town of 5000 people there were 37 teams competing! Just like the Futsal tournament however, there were four leagues depending on level of competitiveness. We were in the fun, "Smiley", D-League. Our "first" official game was actually a few weeks ago but, due to scheduling problems for most of us, we weren't able to make that game and had to take an automatic forfeit. Our second official game (but actual first game for us) was last night. We were scheduled for two back-to-back games with the first game pitting us against a vicious pack of little Junior High School girls and our second game against a team of teachers from the same school. Our game started at 7:00pm so we arrived a little early to get ready. With Caroline being the only surviving member of last year's Team English (and the most experienced), she was skip, I was vice-skip, Chris was second and the Alaskan, Sean, was first. We started off the match by seeing who would go first using the method that settles absolutely any and every dispute in Japan - by Rock, Paper, Scissors. Their 'Rock' beat our 'Scissors' so we were the first team to throw.

I won't bore you with the details... but we smoked those girls 9-4! They were playing really well but with a few lucky throws and strikes, we won two 'ends' with four rocks in the house which put us way in the lead. I took a picture of our rocks (we were red) during one of our ends (a round of curling is called an end). For our second game we rotated players and Caroline opted out so I became skip while the other two moved up and our new player, June, became the first. This game didn't go quite as well as our first game and we lost 6-2. We were playing on a different rink than our first game so the ice was a bit different and a lot of our throws were too strong (yeah I know.. excuses, excuses ;) It may have been a good thing that we didn't win because if we did, we would've had to go back there tonight to play in the semi-finals. After playing for a solid three hours, we were Curling'd out!

Our next game is sometime next month before Christmas and we're hoping to get some team hoodies made so we look more official. I think between Curling, Futsal, and now that snowboarding season has started, I'll have enough to do to keep me busy throughout the winter!

A couple weeks ago my friend, Eoghan, called me up and asked me what I was doing this past Sunday. He was putting together a team to play in an upcoming Futsal tournament and needed a few players. Futsal - Portuguese for "futebol de salão" - is basically indoor soccer played with a smaller field and slightly heavier ball. I had never heard of Futsal before but after he explained it to me, I told him I was definitely in. I hadn't played soccer in years but I love playing it. Our name? TEAM RAMROD!!

The tournament was two weeks from when he called so we decided it would prrrooobably be a good idea to have at least one practice before then. He told me they were having one the following Friday so I said I'd show up. When Friday came around I took off right after work and drove the hour to Kitami for the practice. It was at a school gym where a group of regular guys come to play recreational futsal. Eoghan and another team member, Ben, usually go and play with them every few weeks. There were six members on our team: Eoghan, Ben, Justin, Me, Ben's Japanese friend Daisuke and his friend Take. Daisuke and Take were part of the staff for the tournament so they were the ones who told us about it. During the practice we thought we would be practicing together as a team, but before we knew it we were split up randomly among three teams and pitted against each other. We wouldn't be able to play together but I would still be able to learn the basics.

Futsal only allows five people on the field at a time - including the goalkeeper - and during our practice we rotated players after each goal. Once a goal was scored the goalkeeper would rotate off, another would go into net to be goalkeeper and a substitute would come onto the field. We played two hours of King's court where winner stayed on and the matches were five minutes each or until a team scored two goals. The goal posts were made up of two pylons with big padding propped up behind to stop the ball. The soccer ball is made deliberately heavier in order to discourage raising the ball above waist height and encourages players to focus more on passing. The field consists of lines so the ball can go out of boundaries. When this happens the opposing team simply sets it on the line where it went out and kicks it back in. It was fun and refreshing to play after so long and the two hours flew by. We definitely weren't quite as good as the other Japanese regulars, the best players probably being two junior high students! This ended up being the only practice we would get before the tournament.

We had to be at the Centre where the tournament was held by 8:30am on Sunday morning. It would turn out to be an early start to a long day. We thought it would be elimination style where the losing teams are out right away. With our makeshift team, we figured we'd be out of there by noon! When we got there, we looked at the tournament schedule and realized we actually had three games that day at 11:15am, 2:30pm and 4:40pm. There were also four different leagues with 4-5 teams competing that day with the A League being the pros, B League being the amateurs and so on. We were in the D League - the "fun" league - or as Daisuke put it, "D is smile, A is not smile". We were playing against teams like "Scratch" and "Fuzz" so with a name like "Ramrod", we fit in perfectly.

After checking the schedule we claimed some seats in the bleachers overlooking the gym and sat down to wait. While we were looking around, it dawned on us how serious this tournament was. Literally everyone had track suits, soccer shoes, matching uniforms and jersey numbers! We had a motley collection of uniform colors (we had agreed on black but Eoghan showed up entirely in red) but even our uniforms weren't enough. We learned (while we were there) that we had to have knee-high socks, shin pads and shorts without extra pockets. Fortunately, Daisuke had plenty of extras to go around so he lent us the socks, shin pads and even lent me a proper pair of shorts (mine had extra pockets). The other thing we noticed with this tournament is that the goals were proper 3x2m soccer nets and each team had an actual goalkeeper with different colored jersey and gloves. Each match consisted of two, 13-minute halves so we decided we would rotate goalies for each half. No one was particularly keen on being goalie so I said I would take the first shift.

Our first game was against Team Scratch which was a fairly young team around our age. We were the first match of the D League so we weren't sure how this team compared after watching numerous A and B League matches (including an insane kick from the corner of the net where the player was two feet off the ground, horizontal, doing a scissor kick and managed to score a goal... in a pink uniform! It was the most amazing goal I've ever seen). The first half of the game went pretty well. Luckily Team Scratch were at the same level as us so we were able to hold our own. I managed to make a few good (lucky?) saves and we kept the ball in their zone most of the time. Unfortunately, by the end of the game we weren't able to pull out a big win and lost 3-1. We were pretty pumped about our performance though and vowed we would do better in the second round.

We had over two hours to kill before our next match so four of us (minus Daisuke and Take who had to referee the other games) plus another JET who came out for the day to cheer us on, June, went out to get lunch. We drove into downtown to a Mos Burger, the Japanese equivalent of fast-food. We gorged ourselves on mos burgers, chili burgers and fries (some of us more than others) for more than an hour before deciding to head back. When we got to the parking lot we realized someone forgot to close Ben's car door after they got out (*cough*Justin*cough) and it had been completely open the entire time we were at Mos Burger! This being Japan, of course nothing was stolen, even though his iPod was in complete view. Also of course - this being Japan - no one took it upon themselves to close his door either!

We got back to the Centre with half an hour to spare before gearing up for our second game of the day. This team was older than the first one and were a lot bigger and more scruffy (I love that word). I liked being goalkeeper from the first game so I gladly volunteered to stay in again for this game. I had to wear a different color jersey than the rest of the team so Daisuke, with his staff connections, went into the back room and got me a pink #9 pinny. Nice! We were playing really well this game and managed to outplay them for the most part. Our one and only goal was by Daisuke off a brilliant rebound from a penalty shot. Even though we were playing a little better, the other team were also playing really well and we ended up losing this game 4-1. If anything, we were pumped to do even better in our last round.

Right after this, Justin had to leave us to go to his viola practice. There was only an hour to go until our third and final game so I quickly dropped him off and made it back with time to spare. I had rushed for nothing though because they were running late and there was still an entire game before we were up. Our team member, Take, had to go and ref the next game so he asked me to switch my shorts with his. He had to have only pure black for his referee uniform and the pair I was wearing was (coincidentally) the pair that Daisuke had lent me. We discretely switched my pair of shorts and his #11 shorts up in the bleachers and then he went off to ref the game directly before ours.

With Justin's leaving we were down to five men, the bare minimum, which meant that we all had to play for the entire next match. When the game before us finished I wished the guys a "Ganbatte" and volunteered myself into net again. Just before we were lining up to play, Take realized that I was still wearing his shorts so he motioned frantically to me and said "change, change". He wanted to switch shorts again because I was wearing his number. I said, "What? Now?!" We were standing in the middle of the gym with the other team gearing up to go and tons of players watching from the bleachers. I also had my bulky goalie gloves on too so I wasn't exactly keen on stripping down in public. I asked him if it was alright if we kept on the shorts we had (which is, you know, what anyone would prefer) but he kept insisting. The other team was ready to go and the coaches were waiting for our team to line up so I said "Alright, fuck it", took off my gloves, dropped my shorts (while he simultaneously did the same) and tried to minimize the amount of time I had to stand there in the middle of the gym in my boxers. After (what seemed) a long time, we managed to switch shorts and then were finally ready to go.

Our last opponent of the day was Team Fuzz, the only team we played that had proper uniforms. The match started out evenly with the ball going back and forth between both sides. They were the first to score a goal off a sharp angled kick from the corner. We rallied and pushed back but we weren't able to get the ball into their net. They scored on us a second time... then a third... then a fourth. These guys were quite a bit better than the other teams. By the time the first half was over we were all exhausted and were glad to hear the whistle. The other team realized we were getting tired and that I wasn't as good as they thought. During the halftime they were talking and I was pretty sure their game strategy was "Kick the ball in the direction of their net and it will go in," which is pretty much what went down by then. Soon after the start of the second half we gave it our best and tried to score at least one goal but their keeper was too good. They scored on us a fifth and sixth time and by this point the game was pretty much decided.

At one point when I had the ball in hand (after it went out behind the net), my teammate told me to kick the ball so I punted it towards a player on the other side of the court. This earned me a whistle from the ref because I forgot that you aren't allowed to punt the ball. They gave me the ball back so before kicking it again I set it on the ground, which also earned me a whistle from the ref and.. a yellow card! I was being given a penalty! I learned later that this isn't allowed in Futsal either - BUT - dropping the ball and kicking it after one bounce is allowed. I would call that splitting hairs, no? The two referees conferred (probably after looking at our empty bench and the score) and decided to be lenient. They gave me the ball back and said to play on. I guess it's better to learn the rules before a tournament, huh. Whoops!

We ended up losing 9-0 but, hey, at least it didn't go into the double digits! We didn't feel too terrible about losing this badly because we literally had no practice as a team (other than our previous two games). It was also my first time in net. We still had a lot of fun though since we didn't have that high of expectations in the first place. But, playing in this tournament made us all want to do even better in the next one. This tournament is held four times a year and the next one is in March so we're hoping Team Ramrod will make another showing in three months. I really want to learn how to goaltend properly now too so I may have to invest in a pair of shoes and gloves. There's a practice this Saturday that I'm hoping to go to and one every following Saturday so maybe after a bit (or a lot) of practice, here's hoping we do better in the next tournament!

Yes, the title does not lie. It does exist. I was shopping at the grocery store when there, amongst the Pocky and Crunky bars, I saw its shiny box calling to me. It was so strange, yet familiar, that I had the sudden urge to buy it. Behold, the McFlurry Kit Kat:


And to prove it's actually McFlurry flavored, the McDonalds logo is displayed prominently on the back. I haven't tried it yet.. and honestly I'm a little afraid to. I don't know why but Japan seems to love Kit Kat, or maybe it's the other way around? According to Wikipedia, only in Japan can you get these flavors:

- Kit Kat Original
- Kit Kat Cacao 61%
- Kit Kat Sakura (Cherry blossom)
- Kit Kat Cacao 72%
- Kit Kat White
- Kit Kat Iced Tea
- Kit Kat Caramel and Salt
- Kit Kat Kinako (soybean flour)
- Kit Kat Wa Guri (Chestnut flavour)
- Kit Kat Green Tea
- Kit Kat Apple
- Kit Kat Orange
- Kit Kat Café Latte with Hokkaidō Milk
- Kit Kat Kiwifruit
- Kit Kat Strawberry
- Kit Kat Peach
- Kit Kat Gold
- Kit Kat Cantaloupe
- Kit Kat Triple Berry
- Kit Kat Mango
- Kit Kat Azuki (Red Bean)
- Kit Kat Green Grape Muscat
- Kit Kat Caramel Macchiato
- Kit Kat Zunda - mashed edamame beans (only in Yamagata prefecture)
- Kit Kat Hascapp - Hokkaido blueberry (only in Hokkaido prefecture)

Quite the odd mix, eh. I think I'll make it my new goal to collect them all while I'm here... like delicious, chocolatey Pokemon. I've only tried five of these flavors so far, my favorite being Green Tea. My friend got it in Japan and brought some back to Canada for me to try. Ever since I've arrived, I've been looking everywhere for them! I learned later that they're seasonal and are only sold in the springtime. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to wait and make do with my Caramel Macchiato in the meantime.

Edit: I just tried it.. and they should just keep this flavor to McFlurries..

Here's a small introduction post to Japanese cuisine, and I'll start with Takoyaki. Takoyaki is a deep fried ball of batter with octopus and different vegetables in it. They taste quite good with takoyaki sauce and fish flakes (if you can stomache octopus that is). I first discovered these delicious little treats at a festival where they seem to be very popular. I had them again last night at a karaoke bar, but they weren't to be your normal takoyaki...

We went to the karaoke bar - me and seven of my co-workers - after an enkai to celebrate a busy month of preparing and practicing for the kid's school fesitival. We went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant earlier in the evening but we still ordered snacks once we got there. Singing works up an appetite! On the menu at the karaoke bar it showed 'Lucien Takoyaki' with a little skull-and-crossbones picture beside it. These Lucien balls (maybe they meant Lucifer?) came in a tray of six balls and two of them - instead of being octopus - were cleverly substituted with a mysterious substance. Since there were eight of us they decided to get two of these trays so out of the twelve takoyaki, four of them were evil balls of death.

At first I didn't know this was a 'food game'. After the server came and brought the trays for us my co-worker offered one to me. Not thinking much of it and thanking her for the offer of food, I took one thinking they were normal takoyaki. I wasn't allowed eat to it just yet though because I had to wait until everyone chose one. I thought this kind of strange but just went along with it anyways. I waited until everyone got one and then there was a countdown: San-Ni-Ichi.. Go! and we all munched down on our takoyaki. Mine tasted as good as ever and I enjoyed it along with everyone else who seemed to too. Then.. one of my co-workers, an older lady, started to gag, choke, and spit hers out! I thought, "Man, she must reallllyy not like takoyaki." After going to a corner to politely spit it into a napkin, everyone else all laughed and joked about it. I thought they were playing a cruel joke! Why did they give her one in the first place if they knew she didn't like them? And also.. why did she eat it in the first place? I would never understand these people.

There were still four more takoyaki balls left so one of my co-workers suggested we janken (rock-paper-scissors) for them. We did an 8-way janken (which actually works in Japan, its nuts) and on the first hand I had chosen scissors along with four others. The other three had chosen paper. I thought, "Sweet, I won! So I get one of them.." but no, no... it was the losers who would get the remaining takoyaki balls. The three of them hesitantly chose one of the remaining takoyaki and after another countdown from 3, ate them at same time. Almost simultaneously, all three of them started gagging and making faces just like the other lady. What the hell was going on?! I figured then that something was up. I asked the co-worker next to me who was still gagging on his takoyaki what was inside them. Through his obvious discomfort he told me, "Wasabi!" Ughhh, siick. Now it all made sense. He showed me on the menu afterwards about this 'food game' and the Lucien takoyaki. Throw a camera in front of us and it would've been exactly like a Japanese game show.

There was still one remaining takoyaki ball left and my co-workers, through the power of induction, said it was safe to eat and offered it to me. If there had been any wasabi in it there would've been a green mess in front of me. Just imagine a tube of wasabi.. and then imagine that tube of wasabi suddenly in your mouth. Uggh. Sorry, Japanese politeness, but I think spewing food in this case is warranted.

I wonder what the next food game I come across will be?

This is my intensive study of the cultural and societal differences between Canada and Japan during my three months here so far:

	Canada	Japan
Land Area:	9,984,670 sq. km	377,873 sq. km
Population:	33 million	127 million
Language:	English, French	Japanese, Engrish
Cellphone features:	Calling, texting, internet, camera	Calling, e-mail, hi-speed internet, camera, videophone, TV, GPS tracking, Japanese-English dictionary, infrared/bluetooth, FM radio, SD slot
Gifts I've received from gas stations:	Nothing	Two kleenex boxes, a bag of onions, a wash cloth (although I realized afterwards that it was for washing the inside of my windows...)
Highway speed limits:	110 km/hr	80 km/hr
Cars drive on the	...right	...left
Average number of vending machines you see a day:	4	63
Price of gas:	~$0.90/L	~$1.30/L
Eating on the go	...is a convenient way to save time	...will get you dirty looks from strangers
Drinking in public will get you	...a ticket for public intoxication	...drunk quicker
Wearing running shoes with a business suit:	Not OK	OK
Time it takes to throw out garbage:	2 seconds	At least 2 minutes just to sort it... on every second Saturday for plastics and non-burnables and every Thursday for burnables
Wearing shoes in the house will get	...the house all dirty	...you a "Dame! X"
Slurping soup	...is rude and annoying	...is an easy way to get your shirt dirty
Washing machines	...wash your clothes	...eat your clothes
How to find an address:	Go to the street address and look for the building number	Find the general area you want to be in, find the block, go to the correct side of the street and then circle the block for a while to try and find the correct building
How to take a hot shower:	Turn the hot water tap	Turn a knob to turn on the gas, turn another knob onto "high", push in to turn another knob and hold it down, then crank a little handle a few times and look for the little blue flame in the window. (Don't forget to turn the gas off afterwards)
To use a toilet you	...sit	...squat
Schools are kept clean	...by janitors because they are paid for it	...by students because it is their duty!
How to stay warm in the Winter:	Central heating	Electric heaters, gas heaters, kotatsu (an electric blanket table thing), slippers, sweaters, wearing layers, spooning
For an $18.25 restaurant bill you pay	...$21.00	...$18.25

This weekend was another long weekend due to "Culture Day" falling on Monday. As you can probably guess from the name, it's a holiday for the Japanese to appreciate their culture. My town had a festival to commemorate it which included an Aikido demonstration, a tea making ceremony, origami lessons, cooking lessons, etc. Unfortunately, this all happened last weekend while I was away! Why they decided to have it a week early is anyone's guess. This weekend, however, I decided to stay home and not go off exploring like I usually do. On Friday night another JET, Caroline, was holding a kids Halloween party in her town of Tokoro, an hour away from me, so I decided to go and help out. I drove to Tokoro right after work on Friday to meet up with eight other JETs and spent a few Halloween-filled hours scaring all the kiddies in my mummy costume. After that we went back to her mansion of a house (her living room is pretty much the size of my entire apartment) and hung out there for the night.

The next morning we went to a fancy French restaurant called Blé (maybe the accent is pointing the other way... I don't know) where they had really good western food and homemade french bread and croissants! Soo good. After that we broke up and went our seperate ways with plans to meet up the following night for Justin's chamber orchestra concert! I drove home that afternoon when it was still light out, which is unusual for me, because I'm usually working during the daytime and never get to see the sun. I wasn't in a rush to get anywhere so I made a stop at "Ai Land Yubetsu" which was on my way home. I've driven past it a million times before but never stopped to take a look at. It's a mini amusement park with a ferris wheel and other fun looking stuff. It's closed at this time of year but I may have to go back there in the spring when it reopens..

When I got home I did some errands and other boring things like buying groceries, cleaning my apartment, taking another nap, writing in my blog and attempting to work on my presentation for next week. I decided to go to bed early that night and slept for a good ten hours. Sleeping-in is a luxury for me nowadays! The next morning I lazed around my apartment, talked to my family for over an hour on the phone and then headed out to Kitami for Justin's concert. You can read Justin induction into the orchestra on his blog. There were eight of us going and since it was technically a night out, we decided to dress up in our finest to cheer him on. The concert was put on by the "21th Kitami Chamber Orchestra" with members from all around Hokkaido. That's right, the twenty-firth Kitami Chamber Orchestra.. or is it twenty-oneth? Anyways, Justin says they're not a professional orchestra but they were pretty good. My few years working at a theatre hall and listening to the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra gave me an ear for classical music. They were a little sharp here and there, the french horn was a little squeaky and the trumpet player was playing into his music stand (something my junior high music teacher always told me not to do!) but overall they were really good, especially the violin soloist. After the concert we all went back to Justin's house where he gave a private performance and played a few pieces of Stravinsky and Bach on his viola.. then everyone changed, got drunk and had 7-11 bentos for supper. We're classy like that.

Oh yeah, I want to mention about the amazing toilet that I saw in the washrooms at the concert hall. You've all seen the self-heating, automatic washing, adjustable power, bidet toilets before (if you haven't, here's Callie's experience) but those are old news! A picture could not capture the amazingness of this toilet so I took some video of it. I also just realized the video is sideways so just tilt your head to the left.. and brace yourself..

AWESOME!

So anyways, the next morning we all broke up again and headed back to our towns. I left at around 1:00pm when it was light out (again) so I decided to make a few stops along the way. First thing I saw was this cemetery which looked pretty neat. The headstones are all really elaborate and the bigger or more richly made stone it's made of, the better the afterlife. They make cemeteries back in North America look like shoeboxes.

The other thing I saw was what I thought looked like a go-cart track but is actually a closed drivers course. It's where you go to get your Japanese drivers license test done. Instead of driving around on the road with everyone else you are safe within the protective confines of this course. From what I've heard, the drivers test has some really tough standards and it's really common to fail at least once or twice. I've heard of other JETs who took the road test and finally got it after three tries and $1000 later. Luckily for Canadians we have a driving agreement with Japan so when my IDP (international drivers permit) expires next year I just have to pay a $40 fee, watch a safety video and get a translation of my Canadian drivers license in order to get a Japanese one. No problem!


Later that night I went to the gym in my town for the first time since I've been here. My supervisor showed it to me when I first moved here but I hadn't been back there since. I bought a yoga ball and I have free weights in my house but they just weren't cutting it for me. It only costs 150 yen ($1.50) each time I go so I think I'll be going there a lot more often... when I'm not feeling lazy and manage to make the five minute drive.

Oh yeah, I also want to mention that we had our first snowfall today! It wasn't cold enough to stay and just melted when it hit the ground but it means winter is officially here! Here's a video I took at my junior high school:

As most of you know I wear glasses, and I only came over from Canada with about 3 months worth of contact lenses. I've been in Japan for just over 3 months now (I know eh!) and my contacts have all run out. I figured it was time for me to find a new optometrist in Japan.

So last weekend - the weekend of the Sapporo-dake hike - I decided to take a day of nenkyu (paid leave) on the Monday and spend the morning in Sapporo getting some errands done. The first thing I did was get my Japanese re-entry permit which lets me leave the country and come back. The Immigration Bureau building is only open on weekdays so I basically had to take a day of nenkyu to get it done. I went right in the morning at 9:00am when they opened so it only took me 10 minutes to do! I've heard of stories of it taking people hours to get it so I went as early as I could. After that I mailed off my newly stamped passport to the Vietnamese embassy in Tokyo so I could get my VISA for Vietnam.. but that's a blog post for another day ;) After that I walked over (more like walked around lost for 15 minutes) to the building where Eye City is and got there right when they opened at 10:00am.

Eye City is a huge eyewear franchise, like Pearl Vision back home, and the office I went to dealt specially in contact lenses. It was up on the 8th floor of the building (once I found it) and there was a doctors office right next to the store that sells the contacts. I had gotten instructions on exactly what to do and where to go from another JET, Chris who had gone through the same thing before, so with my piece of paper of instructions I went into the doctors office and navigated my way through the language barrier. My Japanese is alright, at best, but I didn't know any of the vocab to explain that I wanted to get an eye appointment done! I attempted to talk to the receptionist and, after spouting off a few nouns and verbs and using gestures to explain what I wanted done, she understood and gave me an application form. I gave her my health card, filled out the form and then she directed me up a spiral staircase to the doctors office where they conduct the eye tests.

There were four people ahead of me even though I had gotten there right when they opened so I sat down in the little waiting room and waited. There was a little reception desk at the top of the stairs facing the waiting room so I passed the time by watching the assistants work. It occured to me that my application was still downstairs and was wondering how they got them upstairs because I hadn't seen anyone walk up the stairs in a while. That's when I saw the receptionist open up this fridge-like box and pull out a big plastic cylinder. In the cylinder was a rolled up piece of paper and I realized they were using vaccuum tubes! Cool! As I waited I saw a few other patients come up the stairs so I watched and, sure enough, a few minutes later the fridge-box would emit a beep and there would be a new tube for the receptionist to pull out. She would take the paper out, put it in a clear white plastic folder and leave it on a rack for the assistants to call on the patients. When they called out my name I realized my application was in a clear red plastic folder instead of a white one. It was weird, I guess they color code for the language of their patients!

A male assistant who spoke passable english came and got me. I told him I was a new patient so he took me over to the machines to perform the standard eye tests. He did the eye focus test, the air puff test, and then took me over to another machine to get my acuity test done. This is the test that everyone knows where you have to read of the alphabet letters as they get smaller and smaller. It's a bit different in Japan though. Instead, they have black circles with notches missing from one side, like in this picture here. Each time he would show me a smaller and smaller circle and all I had to do was point in the direction of the notch! It was brilliant.

After that I had to wait a few minutes again and then he gave me a pair of contacts to try on. I put them in and then did the visual acuity test again. Then I had to wait again to see the actual doctor who signed off on my prescription and that was it! As easy as pie. I was in and out of there in less than an hour and I only had to pay 990 yen ($9) for the checkup because my health insurance coverage paid for over 70% of the costs. Normally it would've cost me 4000 yen which still beats the hell out of the $80 I used to pay for a checkup back home! I bought a few boxes of contacts at the store on the way out and that was that. They gave me a card with my prescription digitally imprinted on it so next time I want to buy contacts I just have to give them my card and the number of boxes I want. I even earn points on the amount of yen I spend so I can get discounts when I use the points, w00t!