Hello again,
I left Milky house on the 4th, and went to a new place called Chise Gardens. At this point, the status of my trip became that of 'Caper'. Look for an upgrade to 'comedic misadventure' later in the wek.
Chise Gardens is a farm without a farmhouse. There is a kitchen building (where a farmhand called Furukawa lives), a yurt (where the family who owns the farm live), one nice room where seven cats live, three or four buildings for chickens, goats and vegetables, and a partially constructed farmhouse, which is where I live along with Pierre. The walls and floors aren't finished so there are lots of little cracks that the wind can blow through. Plastic sheeting is used to provide some sort of shelter, so there is no insulation. This being Hokkaido in the onset of winter, it's pretty cold in here. There is no shower, we go to an onsen to have a bath. We've done it every night so far but it's starting to be a problem, because it's quite expensive. And all I want is a shower, onsens are fun but it's a bit much to go to one each night.
There is no running water inside, but fortunately there is a toilet. Pierre and I share a little shack inside the house, it is reasonably warm inside. We can sleep OK.
Pierre is a French WWOOFer. We are helping build the house, and also occasionally chopping firewood. Pierre is a professional carpenter, which is good because he knows what to do and the work is going quickly. Living in the place you are building is a big incentive to work quickly and do the job properly. I'm going to be a dangerous amateur carpenter by the end of this, I'll have enough knowlege to be ambitious, but not enough to prevent disaster. A disaster of the 'shonky furniture' kind, that is. As accident prone as I am, I don't think I will have an accident with the power tools we are using, because I am genuinely afraid of them. The father of the family that owns the farm cut his hand pretty badly using a circular saw that they had jury-rigged into a mounting arrangement. It's a sobering reminder of the seriousness of the situation. But I will be fine. And I'm learning how to properly pronounce French swear words, which can only be a good thing.
Pierre doesn't speak Japanese, so I've been translating between him and Chizuko san (the mother of the family), and Furukawa san. It seems I can actually communicate quite well. Even though I don't know half the words they use, communication takes place eventually. I'm glad that I have learned enough Japanese to be useful. At this point I feel like all the work I've done has been worthwhile. I really badly need to learn more words, and I'm doing so, but I've already reached the level where I am noticably better at communicating than someone who doesn't speak the language. At the beginning, I wasn't.
I am proud to say that I have helped sully the good reputation of Australians over here. Onsens are public baths, you wander around naked with a bunch of strangers. But you're not completely naked, you're supposed to carry round a small towel which you drape over your bits. Which I did at first. But I observed that keeping yourself covered at all times didn't seem to be a big deal. If it was, they would use more than a towel. From this I concluded that nudity wasn't a big deal here, so I did away with the towel. But today I was watching what people were doing more closely, and I think I was wrong. I think you are supposed to make the effort to cover your bits, even if it clearly pointless and futile. It's OK if people see your bits, as long as you made a token effort to hide them. Japanese psychology still seems pretty strange to me but I think I'm starting to get to the bottom of it.
Well, got to go. Hope everyone is well.
Bye,
James
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
At Milky House
Hey folks,
Sorry it's been so long since I've written. I've been very busy here at the hotel, I work 8 hour days and then I try to enjoy my spare time as much as I can. Life has been good here, if hard at times. Lots of boring repetitive jobs but I've learned some useful things too. I've also become good friends with my colleague Micchan, and greatly improved my Japanese.
So I'm in Hokkaido. My girlfriend Miho told me the word 'Hokkaido' means something like 'magical frozen world' (if I remember correctly). The word magical is pretty apt. From an Australian perspective it all seems a little other-worldly. At the moment there is snow falling past my window which is a new experience for me. Today is the first snow we've had here, although a week ago it fell on the mountain about 1km away. From a distance the hills here look very nice, covered in rolling greenery. However, when you get closer, they turn out to be covered in an unbroken thicket of fleshy rope-like shrubs (which are actually a kind of bamboo if I understand what I was told correctly). These thickets are for all intents and purposes impenetrable, I had a go soon after arriving and walking through them is very tough going. You basically have to stick to the paths.
However, I discovered that there are some incredible walking trails nearby. I went up to the top of a nearby mountain and had the unique experience of looking down at clouds. It was very imressive until I realised they were coming my way, and I would have to walk through them on the way back. At that point I beat a hasty retreat, as hasty as you can get down a 45 degree slope (only a minor exaggeration, it was pretty steep). On the way up I met an Australian, apparently in this part of Japan you can't throw a stone without hitting an Australian. Lots of houses around here are owned by rich Australians who work in other parts of Japan. There are also many ski lodges owned and/or run by Australians. Most of these people are Australian men married to Japanese women. It's very hard for a foreigner to run a business here without a Japanese partner. 'Here' is a town/region called Annapuri, there is another region called Hirafu which has an even greater density of Australians. Australians have introduced to the Japanese the practice of drinking alcohol at the hot spring baths (onsen), good old Aussie innovation at work.
I also went on a minor Hefty Death Mission through the bush here. I started at a Shinsen (a swampy wildlife region) called something like Numia Shinsen. I walked from there back to the hotel. It normally takes 5 hours, I walked for about 5 hours and only made it to Goshiki Onsen which is about two thirds of the entire journey. I spent a lot of time admiring the incredible scenery, so I didn't make a very good speed over the trek. Also it was raining for most of the time and there was a lot of water on the trail, which slowed me down.
The scenery was like something out of Arthurian legend, rolling hills shrouded in mist, an incredible stillness in the air. It was very cold, the hotel staff had a bit of a laugh when they saw me leaving wearing shorts, but I was fine after I got going, the walking warmed me up satisfactorily. I prefer to wear shorts when walking over hills and mountains, I think I can move much faster than when wearing trousers. I ate my lunch standing up at a lake that reminded me of the ending of the Monty Python Holy Grail movie. I took some photos, I haven't seen how they came out yet, maybe I'll post them later. Lunch was onagiri, rice balls wrapped in seaweed that I made with the assistance of the hotel owner (Nishio san). Very easy to make, and uner the circumstances, delicious.
Later I came to a region of dune-like formations of some kind of white mineral/stone. There was a smell of sulfur, so maybe there was a mineral spring upstream. That was a lot of fun to walk through, kind of like being on the moon. You can probably tel by now that my imagination get pretty active when I'm out walking in the bush! After that I came to a region of really cool-looking crags, some unusual rock formations that would be a lot of fun to climb around. Hopefully I will get a chance to go back there and explore, because when I was walking through there I was in a big hurry. I didn't make it back before dark and in fact sunset happened about an hour before I reached the onsen. The last part of the trek was going down a hillside, the path was very broken so it was difficult, it was fully dark at this time and rain was falling. But I'm used to wandering around the bush in the dark, I did it a lot in Australia, so I quite enjoyed that part of the walk. I wanted an adventure holiday, and I've got it.
Before I came to Niseko I went to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido and a very modern city. I had a good time wandering around it at night, the tourist book says it's nightlife is the equal of Tokyo's. I still haven't been to Tokyo so I don't know if it's true, but there is definitely a lot going on there after dark. Last night the Fighters (Hokkaido's baseball team) played in the final of the all-Japan chamionships. They lost and everyone here was disappointed, but they played a good game. I even watched a bit, which is unusual because I hardly ever watch sports, but it was a final and there was a local interest, so it was pretty exciting.
Well, that's it for now. Catch you later,
James
Sorry it's been so long since I've written. I've been very busy here at the hotel, I work 8 hour days and then I try to enjoy my spare time as much as I can. Life has been good here, if hard at times. Lots of boring repetitive jobs but I've learned some useful things too. I've also become good friends with my colleague Micchan, and greatly improved my Japanese.
So I'm in Hokkaido. My girlfriend Miho told me the word 'Hokkaido' means something like 'magical frozen world' (if I remember correctly). The word magical is pretty apt. From an Australian perspective it all seems a little other-worldly. At the moment there is snow falling past my window which is a new experience for me. Today is the first snow we've had here, although a week ago it fell on the mountain about 1km away. From a distance the hills here look very nice, covered in rolling greenery. However, when you get closer, they turn out to be covered in an unbroken thicket of fleshy rope-like shrubs (which are actually a kind of bamboo if I understand what I was told correctly). These thickets are for all intents and purposes impenetrable, I had a go soon after arriving and walking through them is very tough going. You basically have to stick to the paths.
However, I discovered that there are some incredible walking trails nearby. I went up to the top of a nearby mountain and had the unique experience of looking down at clouds. It was very imressive until I realised they were coming my way, and I would have to walk through them on the way back. At that point I beat a hasty retreat, as hasty as you can get down a 45 degree slope (only a minor exaggeration, it was pretty steep). On the way up I met an Australian, apparently in this part of Japan you can't throw a stone without hitting an Australian. Lots of houses around here are owned by rich Australians who work in other parts of Japan. There are also many ski lodges owned and/or run by Australians. Most of these people are Australian men married to Japanese women. It's very hard for a foreigner to run a business here without a Japanese partner. 'Here' is a town/region called Annapuri, there is another region called Hirafu which has an even greater density of Australians. Australians have introduced to the Japanese the practice of drinking alcohol at the hot spring baths (onsen), good old Aussie innovation at work.
I also went on a minor Hefty Death Mission through the bush here. I started at a Shinsen (a swampy wildlife region) called something like Numia Shinsen. I walked from there back to the hotel. It normally takes 5 hours, I walked for about 5 hours and only made it to Goshiki Onsen which is about two thirds of the entire journey. I spent a lot of time admiring the incredible scenery, so I didn't make a very good speed over the trek. Also it was raining for most of the time and there was a lot of water on the trail, which slowed me down.
The scenery was like something out of Arthurian legend, rolling hills shrouded in mist, an incredible stillness in the air. It was very cold, the hotel staff had a bit of a laugh when they saw me leaving wearing shorts, but I was fine after I got going, the walking warmed me up satisfactorily. I prefer to wear shorts when walking over hills and mountains, I think I can move much faster than when wearing trousers. I ate my lunch standing up at a lake that reminded me of the ending of the Monty Python Holy Grail movie. I took some photos, I haven't seen how they came out yet, maybe I'll post them later. Lunch was onagiri, rice balls wrapped in seaweed that I made with the assistance of the hotel owner (Nishio san). Very easy to make, and uner the circumstances, delicious.
Later I came to a region of dune-like formations of some kind of white mineral/stone. There was a smell of sulfur, so maybe there was a mineral spring upstream. That was a lot of fun to walk through, kind of like being on the moon. You can probably tel by now that my imagination get pretty active when I'm out walking in the bush! After that I came to a region of really cool-looking crags, some unusual rock formations that would be a lot of fun to climb around. Hopefully I will get a chance to go back there and explore, because when I was walking through there I was in a big hurry. I didn't make it back before dark and in fact sunset happened about an hour before I reached the onsen. The last part of the trek was going down a hillside, the path was very broken so it was difficult, it was fully dark at this time and rain was falling. But I'm used to wandering around the bush in the dark, I did it a lot in Australia, so I quite enjoyed that part of the walk. I wanted an adventure holiday, and I've got it.
Before I came to Niseko I went to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido and a very modern city. I had a good time wandering around it at night, the tourist book says it's nightlife is the equal of Tokyo's. I still haven't been to Tokyo so I don't know if it's true, but there is definitely a lot going on there after dark. Last night the Fighters (Hokkaido's baseball team) played in the final of the all-Japan chamionships. They lost and everyone here was disappointed, but they played a good game. I even watched a bit, which is unusual because I hardly ever watch sports, but it was a final and there was a local interest, so it was pretty exciting.
Well, that's it for now. Catch you later,
James
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