JAPANEXILE

So it turns out the previous post was actually the penultimate post of year, however if I think about it as this final post will actually concern the early hours of the 1^st also I didn’t lie entirely. As previously mentioned It was decided to spend New Year in true British fashion (partying and blind drunk) socialising with friends enjoying a festive drink. Consequently we were up bright and early to catch the bus to Sapporo around midday. I don’t remember the exact order of events on the day. We did some obligatory sightseeing, something I have been intending to do for a while just have never got around to it. We rode the Ferris wheel on top of Norbesa, giving a nice view of the cityscape as you’d expect of a Ferris wheel on top of the building. Something that characterized much of our time in Sapporo, and was very much true for the Ferris wheel ride, was how incredibly quiet the place was. Empty streets, tumble weeds blowing down the highway, and just the general feel of cold emptiness. Not its normal bustling self, which Mike and Ben in their Tokyo arrogance would not believe. After the Ferris wheel we went to see the famous Sapporo clock tower, which is SO much smaller than I thought. Literally just a clock on top of a small wooden house. In my opinion a curious thing to choose as your city’s icon, there are far more impressive places. Its unique at least I suppose, and I won’t forget it plainly due to the shock I received when first seeing. I didn’t even believe we were at the right place until the sign informed me as such.

The search for food…is the subtitle I will give the next paragraph. You’d think it’d be easy but not on New Year’s Eve. My big plan had been to go to the Sapporo Beer Factory and enjoy all you can eat lamb and beer at the Genghis Khan. This was very irritatingly foiled after we searched on foot in the cold and dark for 40mins only to find the bleeping place was closed. I was upset to say the least. Especially as I really want to go there, but can’t think of a time when I can now, except alone, as Craig doesn’t seem so keen. If I do it’ll be by taxi that’s for sure. My spirits were lifted when I remembered that we had the buffet by the station to try yet, but again, after the journey back to the centre of town we arrived to find them putting the closed sign up outside. Truly gutting. Having exhausted my restaurant ideas we wandered back toward to Norbesa hoping to spot somewhere. Mercifully finding the completely un-descript named restaurant of “Potato Circus!” I noticed no specialist potato dished despite the name. I forgave them however due to the extreme rapid service of their Nomihoudai system, (All you can drink system) to the point that things were getting blurry by the end of the meal. It also has the advantage of being damn cheap for food as a plus, even has a Karaoke section, it looked pretty budget however.

Filled with liquid cheer it was off to Karaoke, and after a difficult registration process we managed to get our song on for a good hour, busting out some Limp Bizkit classics. I can do the voice for ‘Hot Dog’ really well I think. Karaoke was designated the ‘cool off’ period where we have juice only. (Actually, having just remembered the NDA mentioned in previous posts, let me tell you we drank only coke at Potato circus, and the blurred vision was due only to an irritation in my eyes)

Booti had a 3000Yen entry for the night which included all drinks desired from then on. Which is good value by anyone’s standards. So the rest of night was spent doing the usual things you do when under the influence of copious amounts of softdrink, dancing, singing, womanizing. A great deal of effort was spent trying to get Ben into the clubbing spirit, our attempts were met with resistance. And defeat confirmed when we found out the best part of his night was talking to his mum at night. We were forced to accept he was telling the truth that he really doesn’t like clubs. Mike made his own way back to the Manga Kisa, I’m not entirely sure when, Ben dragged an inebriated (strike) tired Craig back with me later on. We breakfasted as you do at a Curry House before getting the bus back, on which I left my wallet. Which begers belief as all of us looked for it on the bus for about 20mins before we got off. Finally it was back to Toya for a rest, all softdrinked out.

En route back from Niseko toward Toya I sent out an open invitation for everyone to join us at ‘The Tag’ so that Mike and Ben could meet the people that make all the magic in Toya happen! Unfortunately I was greeted with enthusiastic responses informing the Tag was closed for New Year – throwing a spanner in my plans a little bit there. Not to mention leaving us in a quandary about what to do for dinner. None of us really had the inclination to make a nutritious meal, and instant ramen didn’t feel right having talked about the culinary delights of ‘The Tag’ for the past few days. We were not to go hungry however, oh no, true to form hearing our plight Yuko offered to make us a nice curry, which is delivered promptly at 7pm later that evening. And after that due to a slight calendar misunderstanding it was Kathryn who came along with the promise of more food…over in Abuta. Over in Abuta after a quick stop to pick up booze it was onto Chizuko’s house, one of my English Class students. Ever together with Chizuko, Reiko wasn’t far behind bearing more food. And within a short time a veritable feast has amassed before us – good thing we had just eaten eh? We however resigned to our fate and through politeness and force of will we worked our way quite well through what was there – only to be given the leftovers anyway, dinner for the next day I suppose. And so to use I phrase I use far too often on this blog it the night was far from over. Mike and I had for better or worse made the decision to get drunk this evening and continued to work our way through a bottle of Whisky, bringing it along to the Karaoke bar we ended up in. Which is good as it means we didn’t have to drink ‘publicly’ which would have angered the powers that be. Instead we drank publicly but secretly in a very childish fashion. Karaoke was a good as ever, I actually think the ‘whole bar’ Karaoke system is better than the individual boxes, fellow drinkers always find foreigners singing amusing and I in turn find their amusement amusing. So it was a great night, even if I did kind of kill my already hurting voice by being a bit too enthusiastic in some Rage against the Machine. The singing/humming continued the whole car journey home in a great effort to stay conscious – we were determined to continue the night. Although that didn’t really happen, Mike passed out; I played with the wires on our sound system for a bit before forcing myself to stay awake for the duration of Clerks 2.

Next day! Feeling bright and alert after the previous night today was the day I was to fulfil my parent’s promise of watching videos with Onishi- san (guy with the greatest beard). The whole JPK came along for good measure. The first hour or so was quite interesting, watching videos he has covertly taken of our various activities over the past few months, as well as the 2000 eruption. The 3 or 4 hours after that were less enthralling however, watching videos of his various travels. Impressive as his holidays look, it jut wasn’t all that interesting. Still, it clearly meant a lot to him that we came so I’ll take that positive and leave it there. Night had already fallen so I unfortunately was unable to show the guys the highlights of Toya as I had originally intended. But time was running out! Tomorrow was devoted to Sapporo, which as I remember was the original intention of this post. I’ll get there soon…

The rest of our time in Toya, both before and after Sapporo was spent playing four player worms, which is very funny at times, and watching the movies we had talked about during naked banter sessions in the preceding days. (I mean during Onsen) As Ben and Mike pointed out, and as I already knew very well, when one is not doing a specific activity in Toya, there is actually very little in general which you can do. That draws it to end for this post, perhaps next time I’ll get on to Sapporo…Not many interesting photos relating to this post, so I tacked a couple of snow ones on:)

The first official day of our holidays were spent going en-masse, Yuko, Hiromi, Namiko, and of course the ever present Shiro early in the morning to Noboribetsu. I of course have already been to Noboribetsu, and wrote about it in detail here so I won’t say too much. With different people it was definitely still good fun. We remembered to bring our swords along for the sole purpose of attacking the guy at the entrance. Who gladly indulged out childish side and was hacked down like a true warrior. All on video, which really is quite funny. One thing I must put up on Youtube. I was also lucky enough to manage to win the four way Janken match at the theatre, so got my wish of acting on stage there! Two things I learnt there, firstly, its really difficult to speak Japanese loudly and maintain any sort of correct pronunciation, so I sounded like a idiot. Secondly, downing quite large amounts of Sakke (in the name of theatre of course, I wouldn’t normally start drinking at 11am) is actually quite difficult. I managed, I’ve had plenty of practice. But still. The Ninja show was as cool as ever, different Ninja this time, whose sword bent during the performance, which whilst comical at first was just distracting after that. We did all the rest, had a go at the Archery, at which Dad was surprisingly good. Surprisingly not because it was dad, rather that the equipment is near un-useable in my opinion.

All Edo Period-ed out it was time to induct the parents in the way of onsen. We went to our favourite one back in Toya-onsen, which seemed counter intuitive considering we were in Noboribetsu – a hotspring resort. But whatever. As expected mother loved onsen, its pretty much her idea of a perfect activity, scorching heat in many forms. Dad was less keen, not liking the heat quite as much. Which I agree with in many ways, I enjoy onsen, but not for too long, and not everyday. As we seemed to end up doing. Hopefully I didn’t upset Hiromi by having a beer afterwards, it felt right though. I haven’t mentioned yet that a few weeks back we had a fun meeting discussing what we are aren’t allowed to do in public. Drinking being one of the “aren’ts” Due to our growing fame around Hokkaido (8 Newspaper appearances, and a TV Show) there is a risk we would be recognised. And as we are not of the legal drinking age this apparently could be a problem as we are officially government employees. I understand where they are coming from, locally as we are the only foreigners yes we probably would be recognised. But up in Sapporo I don’t think it is such a problem. Considering we are one of many up there, and who in a dark nightclub is going to care? I guess it doesn’t really matter – the rules aren’t for discussion. So back to the day. Lastly it was time for a tradition with Shiro, Korean BBQ. Gotta love it. And I think mum and dad did.

21^st December. A morning spent out in the snow with the Sakura nursery kids. Dad, Craig and I made a mighty effort and built an impressive Igloo. Which was then transformed into a slide once the kids started climbing up it. Hard work, worth it though. I really hope at least some of it has survived. I doubt it somehow however. Children don’t seem to have the vaguest concept of structural integrity, let one loose unsupervised with a shovel and nothing will stand. This was actually the last day I’ll see some of those kids, since most of the kids who go to Sakura are farmer’s children Sakura closes until March as the parents are able to look after them in the Winter. Unless they go to any of the elementary schools I teach in anyway. They were practicing for graduation day, which was really cute and quite sad at the same time. No time to be sad however, next engagement was at the Abuta Elementary School for a rice cake making lesson.

This was the first time we have been here, marked by a sign in the entrance “Welcome Tom & Creeg” Ha. His name seems to cause no end of trouble, to the point when introducing himself he no longer waits for them to say it wrong, but spells it out immediately. Rice caking was fun enough, I actually quite like them, though they didn’t seem to go down too well with mum. Or down at all in fact. Yes they do look like a large chewy ball of phlegm, but I think that’s part of their charm. Back to the elementary school though, I think we will be teaching there more regularly this year. A new job for the Toya volunteers! History in the making! I gather we will only be teaching the same 6 kids however, which seems odd. We played a game of Zoofball with the kids afterwards in the ice-cold entrance hall. Greatest game ever in my opinion. Though it turned into “Zoot” rather than “zoof” The rest of the shouts just became various yelping sounds. But nonetheless it worked. Only two more engagements today! Huzzah!

Abuta Jidou Club. Where unbelievably we had three Santa’s, Mum, Dad, and Kenzo! Craig and I got to watch, play and laugh. More cake was eaten, and a game of “Ringa Ringa Roses”, which mum had first introduced at the Toya nursery. A good game, but all the kids cheat, and it’s a hard floor, so some serious buttock pain. And finally, the meeting with the mayor. Originally I was supposed to be translating this. Which, I’ll be honest, wouldn’t have gone well. The mayor isn’t the clearest of speakers, and a slightly bigger hitch, I don’t know Japanese yet (a lot better than I used to be however). It didn’t matter in the end, a translator had been found, so I was off the hook. I tried anyway, but felt a bit useless, by the time I had figured out what had been said they have moved on. In some ways I had been looking forward to trying. Would have been a good test. Sure there will be more opportunities however. The mayor was very generous, pottering around looking for presents to give, which was cute. So Mum & Dad left two bottles of wine and a picture of a boat richer.

Mum & Dad were staying in the completely empty Phoenix Club so we went for dinner there. Which was really, really good. My compliments to the chef indeed. Being the only guests there the “Hotel Owner/Manager/Waitor” (he seemed to do everything, so can’t really just call him a waitor) hovered over us the whole meal which was a little off putting, for mum at least, didn’t really bother me. He was kind enough at the end to give us a lift home so can’t complain really.

20^th December. The next Christmas party! One I’d been looking forward to, the Toya Nursery party. Its no secret Toya nursery is my favourite, and even better Dad was taking over the Duties of Santa for the morning. I had worried about the early start, but Mum and Dad were up bright and early anyway, doing the dishes, and hunting for coffee as you do. It was pretty standard Christmas party fare, singing, present giving, dancing, games. Good fun. The present giving took a long time, at first each kid came up, either with great speed or rather sheepishly, depending on whether they were interested in or scared out of their wits by the strange hairy Santa wearing a Rolex. But to speed things up Santa went round in person to the remaining kids, some of whom cottoned on that it might not be the real Santa, so to check wanted to remove the beard. Cheeky. A good last nursery day of the year, a good time for mum and dad to come methinks. Craig and I only had our Junior Class in the afternoon which dad came to whilst mum was getting her exercise fix. We’ve had some trouble with this class lately, with very few kids actually turning up, and when they do its in dribs and drabs. Quite annoying honestly. Makes it difficult to get anything done, as anything you do in the first half is then completely new to whoever turns up late. Hopefully the Board will heed our complaint and do something to fix it. This lesson was no exception really, three in total turned up, making any games difficult to do. Not a great lesson for dad to see, wish he had come on a day when we can do a real lesson. The day was yet to finish whoever, we got mum and dad checked into the Phoenix so they could have a rest before being taken with a large escort to the watch the festival in Toya-onsen. I would have liked to have seen this, but being one of the performers I was confined to backstage until showtime. I wrote about how the performance went in my Yosakoi update so I won’t bother again. Afterwards it was back to the Guten for the after-party, and finally bed, a long day. With another full one ahead.

The amount of times I said that, well the first part anyway, over the Christmas period I don’t know. A lot for sure. The “Very Xmas” part is one of the many examples of pretty terrible uses of English you see around. “Very Xmas” was plastered all over the shop windows in Sapporo. I wonder who exactly told them to put that up instead of the correct “Merry Christmas”. Being the local foreigners and of course the people most acquainted with Christmas traditions it was mine and Craig’s job to be jolly old Santa here there and everywhere. The first time of many to come was for a group of kids only half of which I knew over in Abuta. That was definitely the best organised party we went to. The whole room had been decked out into Santa’s grotto, complete with several helper Mrs.Claus(s) (How do you make that into plural?) We did our usual bit, dressed up handing out presents, fortunately no-one asked the perhaps obvious question of why there were two Santas. For our trouble we were given a nice cake made by none other than Kenzo’s mum, the infamous person who wrote “Kuratagu” instead of Craig on his birthday cake.

The rest of the Christmas period was dominated by the presence of Mr and Mrs Clayson (my parents) so the rest of this update is going to have to be an amalgamation of the separate post I had planned for their visit. Mum & Dad arrived late on the 19^th, and brought straight back to our humble abode for a feast of Yakisoba ably cooked by Kuratagu. Our house really did seem very small with two extra people are their luggage. We managed for one night well enough anyway, with me and Dad kipping in the living room, leaving my palatial bed for mum. It was definitely a good idea for them to stay at a Hotel I think.