Leaving Hokkaido

Hi folks,

The holy fool writes again (I always wanted to call myself that. Anyone else remember Tripitaka from Monkey Magic?). I've been staying in half completed houses for the past five weeks, and between working, studying, and trying to get warm, I haven't had much time for writing. My access to the internet has also been extremely limited.

For the last three weeks I've been staying at the house of a guy called Rob. In his own words, "don't ever call me a fuckin' American. I'm from Alaska." He's married to a Japanese woman called Natsuko. Marriage seems like the only way for a gaijin to get into the country, and if the marriage ends, you have to leave. I've heard of a guy who lived here for seven years who is getting kicked out for that reason.

But it's all fun and games here at the dome. We've been taking it really easy, Rob worked very hard during the summer and he's resting now. Today we watched part II of Lord of the Rings, a great movie, I'm glad I've finally gotten around to watching it. If I hadn't grown up on Star Wars, it might have become my favourite movie ever. Nothing like a little make-believe to stir the imagination.

It's really cold here. I'm not sure exactly how cold, but it's below freezing outside pretty much all the time. I'd estimate temperatures ranging from -2 to -7. I must be close to freezing in my room at night after I turn the heater off. Fortunately I have a nice warm bed. For some teason condensation forms underneath the mattress every night, so I have to keep drying it out. The food here is very good, and the scenery in the area is incredible. I've taken up cross-country skiing, which has been a lot of fun. The locals have been very friendly to me. The people of this country are great.

I'm in a town called Niseko which is one of the premier ski resorts in Japan. There is a nearby town called Hirafu which is a Little Australia. There are also a lot of Australians moving into Niseko. They buy up hotels and holiday houses Some of them are Australian business people who live in Tokyi. There are also a lot of Japanese business people who do the same thing, coming up here for a couple of weekends every month.

Yesterday I went into Sapporo (the capital of Hokkaido) with a very genteel local couple, the Enomotos (Akira and Aiyeko). They are members of the Home Stay association, they host foreigners visiting the country, and they go to other countries as guests of other members of the association. They are friends of Rob and Natsuko. It was a lot of fun but utterly exhausting, I spoke a lot of Japanese over the course of the day and it tired me out. In Sapporo we went to a cooking lesson hosted by the homestay association. It was also a social occasion, everyone gave a quick talk to the group, talking about themselves. I found it pretty hard, the audience was underwhelmed, but it was a pretty good effort for someone of my level of ability and experience.

I've got some photos ready but I don't have time to post them, so they will have to wait.

Later,

James