My ice planet Hoth 2.0

It is that time of year again where I complain about the cold. As a Samu garai (person who is always cold) who grew up in Africa I am not particularly used to wearing 5 layers of clothing just to get cold.

This year seems to be worse than the last. There has certainly been more snow, and twice already it has actually stuck around to be turned into mushy missiles.
This weekend, and up until this Monday morning, has been the coldest ever for me in Kunisaki. I am just grateful to my harassers for forcing me to move out and into a flat that is on the warmer side of freezing.

On Friday it was so cold that I was forced to get up 20 minutes later than usual. The clothing I had left outside overnight to dry was frozen stiff. Literally stiff.
When I finally made it into my car and attempted to defrost the windscreen by spraying water on it (which in my defence usually works) the water immediately froze to the windscreen.

Puddles on the way to work were frozen over. Not even the birds were out. According to one teacher it was roughly 3 that morning and could probably be attributed to the lack of cloud cover the night before. Usually it rains puffs snow at this time of the year. So when the weather is clear the temperatures suddenly drop. This morning was even worse. With the snow residue left over from the weekend the roads had iced over and my rather steep drive way was made even more perilous. I had to dodge ice all the way into the school building and the school corridors are unbearably cold. I feel sorry for the students, because, like Hudson Park, the school values uniform aesthetiques over acceptable student body temperature. Though most depressing was the kitty paw prints in the snow that had iced over.

I don't mind the cold if there is something to enjoy about it. Like snow or movies or diabetes inducing amounts of chocolate. At least over the weekend it was blizzardy enough to justify the frostbite. I had visitors this weekend and it was challenging enough trying to entertain them as Kunisaki is devoid of everything except gambling, drinking and bugs. When only place for surly, rebellious teenagers to lurk about is the discount supermarket then you know it's time to move on up to Springs. 

Anywho. My guests and I drove into the mountains to try and find some ancient culture. As we left “the city” it started to snow. And it started to blow.

Usually the snow just gets spurted out and gently falls to the ground where it melts before making contact. Saturday it was getting blasted about. When we got into the mountains everything was wonderfully white – not deep but enough to be covered in snow.

As could have been predicted we took a wrong turn up a narrow road that only just took the width of the car, complete with serious gaijin (foot deep ditches) on either side. It was, as my adopted little brother put it “epic” even though my best friend was panicking like a crazy person in the background. The kind of thing that you don’t forget, that makes an adventure really memorable. That and the snowball fight that took place around the vehicle as it was slowly reversed back down the scary mountain mini road.

From then on it was blur of exploding snowballs and constant snow for the rest of the day and night. We managed to find the shrine and eventually navigate our way through the blizzard into Bungo Takada and back round the peninsula. Though it was icy and I think our driver was a bit nervous at times.

Sunday morning saw the whole of Kunisaki covered in snow. Which melted by lunchtime despite the fact that it did continue to snow for the rest of the day.

I just wish it would stick.

My new(ish) car

My new ride - a Diahatsu Mira Classic. It is in such good condition that the previous owner didn't even remove the plastic protection from the steering wheel logo. I have to say it is a vast improvement on my last car and my students seem thrilled that I am moving up in the world.
 

My meal

I do try not to write to much for fear of boring people with my writing. However, I thought I would just write up a quick post about my meal last night.

One of my favourite meals in Japan is Gyudon. It’s basically fried beef and onions on top of rice. It’s not very fancy and is the meal of choice when you are on the go. It was my very first meal in Japan and I came by it as a result of lucky dip.

After traipsing around Shinjuku us fresh-faced ALTs found a tiny restaurant where you had to buy a ticket from a vending machine, which was then handed to the chef. When my meal arrived, and I have to be honest, it looked awful. I assumed it was some kind of butchered meat on top of rice. The meat was barely identifiable. But this was Japan and I knew it would only get worse from here on with regards to bizarre cuisine.

It was delicious.

Since then I try to grab some wherever I can. I am not aware of anyone in my town who makes it, except for Hotto Motto, whose food isn’t great. So, last night I attempted my own.

It came out very differently but it was delicious none the less. I stole the recipe from a site called Noob Cook, who I like just for their title.  When I got to the till of the supermarket last night with all my ingredients, the friendly cashier (who knows me by now) was obviously very surprised to see the foreigner buying mirin (seriously Japanese cooking staple). I told here I was attempting Gyudon and she was somewhat impressed and checked if I had soy sauce as it was missing from my basket. I assured her I did and then proceeded to check that the beef I had purchased was okay for my grand ambitions. This was then followed by a friendly reminder not to drink and drive (due to the bottle of KWV that she had just rung up).

Ingredients:
200g thinly sliced beef
100ml white wine (I used KWV)
70ml water
70ml mirin
2 Tbsp caster sugar
11/2 onions sliced into half moons.

Directions:
1.    bring water and wine to the boil. Add beef and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
2.    Add sugar, mirin and soy sauce and cover with a lid and again leave it to cook for a few minutes.
3.    Finally add the onions and leave everything to cook until the onions are soft and transparent.

Serve on top of rice.

Mine doesn’t look like much but I assure you it was delicious. It came out a lot darker but I assume it is due to the ingredients I used.

My weekend in the hells

Having my two best friends move to Oita has been great. Asides from the obvious bonus of good, tried and tested company, they are still in the doe-eyed phase where Japan is the most amazing place in the world while I am busy trying to quell my insane road rage.

So this weekend we decided to go foreign. Sunday was spent in Beppu doing the tourist thing. We had intended to take the cable car up the mountain to see the changing maple leaves but when we got there the mist was too heavy, reducing the chance of any photo opportunities. So instead we headed back down the mountain to another of Beppu’s attractions – onsen.

Beppu is the hot spring capital of Japan with the largest number of springs in the country. All of which are considered sacred. In fact, Beppu has the largest volume of hot water in the world after Yellowstone Park in the US. The entire mountainside, when viewed from a distance, is covered in plumes of steam, and when walking through the streets of Kannawa you constantly pass steaming pipes and vents.  This is all very well but because of the sulphur, Beppu has a distinct eggy smell. However the most interesting are the main geothermal hotspots (of impending doom) known as The Hells.

The Hells are a collection of nine hot springs in Beppu. There are seven in the Kannawa district and 2 in Shibaseki. These are not for bathing as the water that comes up here is a toasty 50 to 99.5 °C.  As Wiki travel puts it so eloquently “multicolored volcanic pits of boiling water and mud”. But it is excellent for boiling eggs. In fact, the local trick is to boil eggs in the springs for tourist consumption. I didn’t try one but I got the point.

Kannawa district:
Umi Jigoku – the Sea Hell
Oniishibozu Jigoku – Shaven Monk's Head Hell of boiling mud pools
Shiraike Jigoku – White Pond Hell
Yama Jigoku – Mountain Hell
Kamado Jigoku – Cooking Pot Hell
Oniyama Jigoku – Monster Mountain Hell featuring crocodiles
Kinryu Jigoku – Golden Dragon Hell

Shibaseki district
Chinoike Jigoku – Blood Pond Hell
Tatsumaki Jigoku – Spout (geyser) Hell

The water can range from bright orange to milky white to turquoise. We visited Umi Jigoku, a large turquoise hell, which looks very appealing accept for the jets of steam blasting out from between the rocks.  You half expect dinosaurs to rise up out of the water, due to the distinct Jurassic feel.  Within the Umi Jigoku grounds there is also a small orange spring, which is distinctly more ominous.

I got into trouble with my companions as there is an overwhelming desire to stick ones fingers into random pools of water to see how warm it is. This is a habit that probably shouldn’t be performed in front of small, impressionable Japanese children – especially in front of the “do not touch” signs.

We just stopped at the one spring (¥400) but if you are intending to visit you can get a 9 ticket pass for ¥2000. The Kannawa area has quite a nice walking path between the springs and, of course, there are numerous bathing onsen in the area too.

Pics here

My Kitkat snack time pack

Hokkaido Cafe ole with coffee - a gift from one of my English teachers.

 I also discovered some SA products right here in Oita - including Sally Williams. Happy Day!

New Kitkat day!

Hokkaido Cafe Ole

My Q & A

First off I would like to apologise to my large group of fans for not having posted in a while. To be honest not that much has happened of late and considering it is that phase 2 time of year I have been trying my best not to be too negative.

So on a positive note it was a whole 16 degrees this morning!

Though in all honesty the weather has been amazing. Autumn is still clinging on, despite winter’s best efforts. In fact the weather has been reminding me of the Highveld (and when it rains CT) – clear and cold and sunny. Which doesn't help the homesickness but doesn’t make it worse.

So, while I do love Japan and their postal system, I am having a Phase 2 grump and have compiled a list of the top 3 most disappointing things about this country:

   1. The Sushi
   2. The TV
   3. Technology

The above also happen to be the things I get questioned about the most.   So I have decided to make today question answer day.


Q: So do you eat a lot of sushi? I think if I lived in Japan I would eat sushi everyday.
A: No and no, you wouldn’t.

Sushi in Japan is very different from South African sushi. I would kill for a California roll, or even a hint of avo in my nori. The truth is that most sushi in Japan is actually sashimi. South Africans love the fact that they are so cosmopolitan and LOVE  to go out for sushi. The truth is our sushi is American and pretty timid – a tiny slither* of salmon sandwiched in rice (like a 5 year-old at church between two giant tannies) wrapped seaweed and then drowned in soy sauce. Or, of course, the other Saffer favourite of combining it with copious amounts of avocado. Either way there is very little fish. Few so called “sushi-lovers” order up hard-core sashimi. I know a few brave souls that eat sashimi, but then it is almost always salmon or tuna, which, face it, is soft and delicious.

The sashimi that gets placed in front of me usually consists of a variety of unidentifiable fish. Except for the raw octopus, it’s hard not to recognise the red suckers (and even harder to suck up, chew and swallow). I never knew fish could be crunchy. And if you do go to a conveyor belt restaurant, one in every 20 or so bowls is maki of an identifiable nature. In fact 1 in 5 bowls are not identifiable at all.

This is probably the most frequent and annoying question. I also have this annoying habit of being honest in my answer (see above), which is almost always met with looks of disapproval and a slight hint of “do you know how lucky you are?” This almost always come from the same people that would rather commit seppuku with chopsticks, than have to chew their way through raw octopus.

Call me unappreciative if you wish, but I would kill for a fashion sandwich OD-ing in mayonnaise and avo.


Q: Japanese TV is awesome. Do you watch a lot of TV?
A: No it is not and no I don’t. (Again, looks of shame and disappointment).

Japanese TV is not awesome. Takeshi’s castle may be awesome but Japanese TV doesn’t  equal Takeshi’s Castle. It is also over 20 years old and an excellent example of SABC budgetary powers. Besides I much prefer Most Extreme Elimination Challenge – the comedy dubbed version.

So basically:
Japanese TV ≠ crazy game shows
Japanese TV ≠ anime

A friend, who recently arrived in Japan, was subjected to a torturous month where local Japanese  TV was the only available entertainment (well that and a copy of Twilight, which is like a choice between SABC and Mill’s and Boon)

Japanese local free TV is like the SABC, only with fewer international shows. There are slightly more channels showing a variety of variety shows, historical dramas, adverts and lots and lots of talk shows. They also love to show audience reactions - the preference being something to do with food. My friend saw one that involved some female presenter cooking her favourite dish – from purchase, to boiling and finally consumption. The eating it part being the plucking of the eyeball from the head and scooping out the brains with chopsticks. Still feel like sushi? Oishii yo ne!

There is very little anime on TV, and the game shows are not that exciting. And while I would pay for DSTV in South Africa it is not worth getting satellite here when I have ADSL Telkom can only dream of.


Q: Japanese technology must be awesome. I imagine the gadgets are amazing – and cheap.
A. No. Wrong again.

Technology here is something to behold in its disappointment. Yes there is a lot of it, but it is certainly not cheaper. In fact it is more expensive because almost all of the brands on sale are Japanese. Japanese nationalism says you will not buy international products  - especially anything from China. You will certainly not see a Korean or Chinese car on the road. Friends of mine recently bought a Zojirishi rice cooker. Zojirishi is the Merc of rice cookers. They are pretty expensive. Theirs was a third of the normal price because it was Zojirishi made in China and not Zojirishi made in Japan.

My school still uses floppy discs. One of my school computers is running Windows 7 – the rest run on windows Vista. I had to get permission to use the school projectors with my computer in case I transferred a virus to the projector. Most Japanese people don’t have computers at home and many of them still use dial up Internet. I am pretty sure there are yet undiscovered tribes in the forests of Brazil that have faster ADSL.

My same friend order super high speed ADSL when he arrived here only to find that the hardware provided by the company, as part of the package with the super high speed line, wasn’t even properly equipped to handle the full download speed. 

Japan is not a country I would suggest coming to if you want to buy technology.

My other joy in life is not having Internet banking. By the time I got to the point in my life where I had to pay for stuff, internet banking was up and running. I don’t think I have ever paid rent in any other way. Now, once a month, I have to go to the municipality with my rent slip and pay my rent in person. Every time I have to do a bank transfer I need to ask the only broken English speaker at my bank to help me. Paying off my credit card requires a trip to a store in Beppu to do an ATM deposit. This may seem whiny but just imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t use internet banking for rent, electricity, water, cell phone, DSTV subscription, Telkom, internet, car payments, account payments, bank transfers etc – and no cheating by doing everything at Pick ‘n Pay.

So while it was a bit of a gripe about Japan, it is a still an amazing place and only yesterday I had to catch myself and remind myself what an amazing experience it is. I also wanted to put into perspective that the grass is certainly not always greener, in fact there is very little real grass here because if it is not a rice paddy it is dense spider filled forest.

PS If anyone would like to challenge me to a game of “You’re wrong about the sushi”, I’ll meet you at the local rock pool. Bring your own chopsticks.


*No, that was intentional.