tumble, tumble, japan

I can now truly empathise with the tourists who flock to Singapore during winter in their respective countries.

This week brings a forecast of negative maximum temperatures, and that, I find laugable, because the word ‘maximum’, while still being factually accountable, has lost its relevance. What use is a maximum temperature forecast if it lingers in the subzeros? Water stays frozen, anyhow.

I think back, fondly, of the good sunshine days in Nagasaki and Okayama, and of those afternoons that don’t lapse into nights at three thirty pm.

It is true that you don’t miss something until it’s gone. And it is also true that you will go back to taking things for granted in a heartbeat.

Today, in Sapporo, it snowed and was cold. I did laundry, cooked rice, chatted online and read more chapters of a book (‘Then We Came to an End’ by Joshua Ferris). Later, I shall cook dinner, watch some telly and read.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, predicted to be the coldest day of this entire week. Thus, I shall head out and seek the comfort of overly heated underground malls.

Asahikawa. Give me a good day to visit you, please.

And my earphones need to stop giving me electric shocks.

Saturday nights like tonight get me wondering, of what it would be like at home, or on a night’s out at the movies followed by supper(s), or how the Internet looks like, or whether I would take an earlier flight back if such a chance arises. Saturday nights, without a book and with the exhaustion of the tv, bring up what-ifs with far more fanfare than their contemporaries. And I start counting down to my return, and hope that there is a Sweet Talk at the airport. I think of the upcoming holidays and feel a little more misplaced here. I miss the warmth and the fact that I can tumble out of bed without having to brace myself for the chilly walk to the heater. I miss being able to connect to the Internet anywhere at all times, to email people out of the blue to call them names, or even to SMS a grumble. Such interactions and more, I miss, and I wonder if it was a wise choice to spend Christmas away from people I know and care about so I can come here, look at pretty scenery and think about things that have remained unthought about.

What shall the new year bring forth, but another twelve months of days, of days of two dozen hours, of hours of a brief sixty minutes each? A year seems shorter in that perspective, and already I feel out of time, am out of time and out of goals.

I need a new book.

Heard, with disbelief and slight fear, on the news that it hasn’t even started snowing properly yet. There isn’t a lot of snow in Sapporo so far, but I have seen snow covered roads on the news in other parts of Hokkaido, so I just thought that perhaps the city doesn’t get much snowfall anyway. Well, well, apparently it’s gonna snow and snow and snow (“the real snow season”; what do you mean that this past week isn’t real) from next week onwards. Anyway, with that sobering weather forecast in mind, I decided to head for my little side trips asap because, really, it gets damn cold.

Today was for Otaru. Ms. J and I did visit the place two years back when we did our ahem pseudo backpacking-omiyage voyage, but owing to a bad ear, I had us alight two stations earlier and then we spent quite some time trying to pretend that that was Otaru before someone pointed it out that it wasn’t. When we did get to Otaru, it was nearly sunset and while we did wander a bit and took the mandatory Otaru canal photographs (and ate gyozas and praised heated toilet bowls) we didn’t get to see much of the place. This time around, I was prepared and at the right station before ten in the am. (Garbage collection wanted my garbage by 8.30 am. Grouse to come, yawn)

Let’s describe Otaru in five words or fewer: quaint! seafood! small! Singaporeans! supermarket! In that order.

It is a quaint little place (two, so far). A straight road from the entrance of the JR station leads to the town’s main attraction – the Otaru canal. I don’t find it particularly attractive (the word “canal” connotative of my secondary one days when my classroom was right next to a canal, but I digress), but it is a must-take-photograph destination anyway.

Seafood. I like seafood. Otaru has lots of seafood. I happy, but no money. Next.

Singaporeans. Not sure if this is a daily occurence, but the tour buses sure drop off a lot of my fellow country people at Otaru where they are allowed to roam about and buy omiyage (I approve, but speak softer and why are you guys all wearing track pants). Caught up in the mood, I also surrendered part of my omiyage allowance. Not a chocolate fan, but gooooooood food doesn’t need fans.

Wanted to hike to another station, but got distracted midway by a long flight of stairs. From previous experiences, such strenuous exercise can only lead to one thing, and I was right. A panoramic view of Otaru greeted me at the grounds of the Tenmiya shrine. File under nice and quiet.

Having walked quite enough, I decided to head back to the Otaru station instead. Then I saw people with grocery bags, which naturally made me want to do some grocery shopping of my own too. I am a big fan of marketing (Aussie term, like Ta. Ta confused me for a while), if you haven’t already realised.

Bought enough to make another three meals. I think I live in constant fear of starvation.

On a slightly different note, I think I should stop walking to everywhere/Sapporo station because it isn’t as near as I thought. A 40-minute walk is not very near, my brain. Subway, subway. But my brain says it is a 10-minute walk to the subway too, what’s another three more of those? My right foot disagrees by aching and behaving oddly. Bleah.

Somewhere in the Wikitravel entry for Okayama lies a suggestion: cycle the Kibi plain. So on the second day of my being in Okayama, I found myself, ever the avid optimist, at the Bizen Ichinomiya bike rental and handing over a ¥1000 bill in exchange for a bicycle and a route map.

“どのぐらいかかりますか。”
“まあ、二時間でできると思う。ゆっくりなら、4時間かもね。”

(“How long does it take to cycle the route?” / “Hmm, about two hours? If you take it slow, it should maybe take about four hours.”)

My first half hour was spent within 200 metres of the rental place in a somewhat secluded carpark, and it was also spent wondering hmm I thought I knew how to cycle. I guess that saying about never forgetting how to cycle takes a while to kick in, because by the time I took off, it was with great apprehension and a greater relief that I took the day package rather than the 4-hour package.

But cycle I did, despite having to chicken out several (a lot) times and having to wheel the bike down steeper slopes and around sharp corners. Cycle I did, under the most perfect weather you can possibly ask for, along the prettiest fields framed by hills and mountains and the autumn foliage, across bridges that cross rivers on my behalf, alongside deep ditches that I really really prayed wouldn’t entertain my unintentional presence, and all the time, thinking (sometimes aloud; but there was no one around) what a wonderful day it was. Cue countryside, enter girl on bicycle from left, and a slight breeze across these fields provides the background music.

Well, I did fall and cut my thumb (which, surprisingly, bled so much I thought I broke/cut something else); and I only managed to see one out of the many sights listed on the route map, but no regrets whatsoever at least about cycling.

In the end, I got to Soja in a little more than four hours. It was a 15-km route so it worked out to be around 4 km per hour. I could actually walk that distance, but what the hell, the breeze was more fun.

A slightly bashful confession: I really liked today’s dinner. Stir fried pork with beansprouts, with a minor appearance by xiao bai cai.

What have I seen of Sapporo so far? Frankly, not that much in terms of sightseeing destinations. Instead, I know the layout of the supermarket fairly well. And chicken is ¥118 per 100 grams this week.

But, I know that I like this city. I like that though it is cloudy most of the time, there is sun shining in the most unexpected places, like on a puddle so clear you can see the clouds reflected in it, on a snow-covered rear window of a parked car etc etc.

I like that it snows. And when I get up and look out the window, I see tiny white flakes floating down from the sky. I go out when it is just barely snowing, get snow on my face, forget the cold, however briefly, and realise that this is my first snowfall.

Today’s dinner was meant to be steamed chicken and veggies over rice, but it is kinda hard to steam stuff when you have a 16cm pot and no steamer dish. So you decide to put in cooked rice (there are rice cookers in the common kitchen, yay) first, then place the chicken on top, followed by veggies. Throw in some infallible garlic, soya sauce and sugar, put the lid on and set to cook over low heat for 30 minutes.

Of course, since your cooked rice was already too soft to begin with (don’t blame yourself, you have no experience with this brand), though everything was cooked well, the rice turned out a little too mushy. Also, you got a layer of dried rice stuck at the bottom of the pot. Clap clap. Note to self: this dish needs some adjustments; do not attempt again until then. Next.

As you may have realised, today’s dinner feels a tad like yesterday’s. Oh well, variety is overrated. Tomorrow will see the debut of a new meat: pork!

The presence of a kitchenette in my room here in Sapporo has brought about quite a few changes in my travel lifestyle. Like, for instance, in five days, I found myself making four trips to the nearby supermarket. Like, for instance again, I found myself imagining possible recipes and wishing that I have perhaps an oven too. Like, for instance yet again, that my days are spent mostly indoors with a book that has found itself read after just a few days when I meant for it to last at least a week. I look outside and see snow, people walking their clothed beagles and dachshunds, trees that look like and are Christmas trees complete with snow icing (you know, the little piles of snow/frost that build up on the branches; my lack of winter experience has rendered me inadequate to describe). This is Sapporo in winter, and I walk around with four layers of clothing and see people with more. I wonder if I should carry an umbrella when it snows, because isn’t snow water in another form, and isn’t rain just water?

I sit here, in the middle of the afternoon, after a morning of light snow, and wonder where the apostrophe key is on this keyboard. I haven’t found it, but thanks to the right-click spelling correct function, my punctuation hasn’t yet completely failed this entry.

No wi-fi in this place so updates will be sporadic. I managed to find a wireless spot in a supermarket yesterday afternoon and spent a good quarter of an hour standing in the socks section checking my emails, updating apps and saving news articles. Ah, my dependence on the phone is telling, but I really like my apps to be up to date.

Living here in Sapporo brings back some memories of my uni days in Brisbane. I eventually chose a 1DK room over a standard room in DK House because the former has an attached toilet/bath annnnnnnnd a kitchenette. I’ve gotten a little weary of hunting for dinner places (Japan has a lot of eating places, but they are usually much more expensive at night or I happen to land myself in a place where everything closes at five), so I was looking forward to cook some of my own meals.

A kitchenette means I have one “cooking heater” and a sink. The place doesn’t come with any utensils, so I headed down to the ¥100 store and outfitted my kitchenette with: a small pot, a lid (very important), chopsticks, a skillet (unnecessary if you have a small pot), a knife, a bowl, a cup and a chopping board. And then a trip to the nearby supermarket for some essentials: salt, soya sauce, cooking oil and sugar. I would love to have some cornflour, oyster sauce and teriyaki sauce but figured that I probably won’t be able to finish everything so I settled on the very basics.

For some reason, there is only one working heating pad on my cooking heater/stove so I can only cook one thing at a time. Since it is so chilly here, anything left out gets cold pretty fast too, so I can’t cook one dish after another. I also don’t have a rice cooker. And I eat a lot of rice, so I still had to buy cooked rice from elsewhere if I want to have rice. But working around these limitations, especially the first, is kinda fun.

This is dinner for tonight. No name because I have no idea what it should be called. It is a bit like mui fan. It is a throwback to the kind of meals I would whip up after a day in school; perfect because it is easy to prepare and still contains all the major food groups. (Odd that when I cook my own meals that I would most definitely include veggies, when I don’t care for them when I eat out)

Chicken, cabbage, egg and rice. Fry some garlic, add in chicken (marinated with soya sauce and sugar), then add in cabbage. Set to simmer for 10 minutes before adding in rice (and some water so the whole thing doesn’t dry up). Lastly, when everything is bubbling and looking kinda dull, crack an egg over it and let it sit for another 10 minutes. Tada!

Currently seated at one of Haneda airport’s personal computer desks charging the phone. Also just paid a very reasonable ¥200 for five hours of wifi access, so I can find out how I should get to my next lodging.

I left Okayama at ten yesterday morning for Kobe where I just sat around and read (and finished) my book until my night bus for Tokyo came tumbling along at 9pm. Reached the capital at 6.20am, found out that it was knn raining and therefore hopped on the monorail a four hours too early for my flight to Sapporo. Thus, am hungry and kinda stoned. Today and yesterday need to run their course fasterererer.