Japaneasy?

Oh dear, I fear that I was at the brink of admitting that Mr Carney may have been right about me... again... Matthew, my boss at LU, loves to tease me in much the same way a big brother does his little sister... this time that I wouldn't be able to keep up this blog or a journal... Well, in a way he's right as I've not been to consistent with either but I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet... Here's what happened during 3 weeks in Sapporo:

I spent most of my brain power on learning Japanese, as in how to speak... Reading is a whole other challenge that I don't have the energy to put myself through just now - I'm sending my books home and will be revisiting Nihongo for sure :) It's such an interesting language, logical in so many ways but then you realise that after learning a tiny bit of it, that to be able to actually say what you want would take at least another 6 months of intensive study... Eesh! I can say what I had for dinner, when and where but a full on political debate is a little out of teach just at the moment! And apparently I speak with the register and delivery of a news broadcaster!!!! Not bad for 3 weeks though... A million thanks to Senseis Shima, Ozawa, Uchida and Kimoto for their patience, wonderful teaching and general all round loveliness :)

Of course there were plenty of opportunities to sample the local cuisine, and I tucked in... As some of you may have already heard, my lovely teacher Ozawa-sensei took me to a friend's house just outside the historic fishing village of Otaru after I had been studying wih her for just 2 days - how's that for local hospitality!! The friend, Ken-san, built a summer house a few years ago overlooking the Sea of Japan and we were invited for a barbeque. What I hadn't bargained on was the local delicacy - see Lisa's blog for a full description! Another delicacy I got to sample that evening was shako, or mantis shrimp. Apparently they possess the most complex eyes of all animals!!! We ate ours, without eyes, after they had been boiled and stripped of their hard shell - the flavour and texture was more like lobster than prawn. Delicious!!!

In between lessons at school and studying hard in the evenings, I made time for some excursions and sightseeing, and here are the highlights...

- Sapporo Beer Museum with my new friends Esther and Rachael - we could have learned how the famous Sapporo beer is made if we could read Japanese so instead we drank 3 kinds of the product and marvelled at the oddest ice cream flavours we'd ever seen... Salt, squid, sesame seed and kim chee were some of the less appetising flavours on offer so we wimped out and went for cherry blossom, grape and green tea - yum!!

- I got an initiation into the way of the Japanese bath, or onsen, and was hooked pretty much straight away. My first trip was to a lovely onsen at Ishikari beach, where we watched the sun set over the sea after relaxing in the 41 degree hot spring water. It's an interesting way to get to know new friends intimately pretty quickly as nudity is obligatory!! Usually women and men are separated though so you only get to look at other people with the same bits as you!

- Another way to reveal the true you to new friends is at the karaoke box, which is where I went with Canadians Ellen, Rob and Kevin on their last night in Sapporo. The highlight of my set was Cherish, originally by Madonna - Johnny, that one was dedicated to you!!

- The morning after the singing extravaganza I had an early start with a sore throat for the drive to Asahiyama Zoo, a couple of hours north of Sapporo. It wasn't my best experience of Japan and the killer hangover didn't help - 4 sorry, almost deranged looking polar bears were being kept in an enclosure that was far to small and lacking in stimulation for them... Most of the animals seemed happy enough and well cared for but the bigger mammals such as lions, giraffe, rhino, elephant, tigers and leopards just didn't have enough room - it was pretty upsetting, especially after seeing so many of those animals in their natural habitat in Africa only a couple of weeks before... On the plus side, the chimps and gibbons had loads of room in newly built houses but I still couldn't help feeling uneasy...

- Finally, the day before leaving Sapporo I made a return journey to Otaru, scene of the fallopian tube eating incident of previous weeks... The second time, I played safe and went for sushi, which was extra fresh as the fish are sold at the market right there in Otaru every morning. There was also beer ice cream to be sampled - surprisingly tasty and sweet :)

Those are the highlights of my 3 weeks in Sapporo - since then, I've been to Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, where I'm staying tonight. Tomorrow I'm heading south to the island of Kyushu for a few days then some island hopping, and maybe surfing, in Okinawa :) More updates on those coming soon - thanks for your patience and keep writing comments and news from home!!