what do you see?

2007-02-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

I'm moving my blogs to my webspace, at phiine.comPlease update your bookmark for this blog to http://www.phiine.com/blogs/nihon

2006-08-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

[There's a Hong Kong blog now! I'm about 2 weeks behind with it, but working hard to catch upAnd don't forget the pictures on Flickr too.]

2006-08-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

The 7 hours at the hotel passed quickly, as expected! But it was a comfortable night anyway, and we left the next morning in good spirits. The organisation at the hotel was really good, and we got bussed back to the airport efficiently. As we were pulling out of the hotel car park we ironically saw a famous symbol of Japan for the first time ever - the rising sun, exactly as you'd imagine it: an

2006-08-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

When I said "Later" I didn't mean it to be quite so long - sorry! So, what did we do...I'll give you a brief summary in this post (which I've back dated just for tidiness). The first night in Tokyo we went down to Ginza and had a look around a bit for old times sake. We ended up eating and drinking at the Lion beer hall, which was somewhere we'd always wanted to go. Things are a bit overpriced

2006-08-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

And we are here in Hong Kong now, as of yesterday...I'll have to write a longer entry later to explain all that happened!

2006-08-01T03:03:00.000-07:00

Hi - we're here in Tokyo - ah the big city! Got here no problem, and as a bonus we got to ride on one of the ANA Pikachu planes again, upstairs again (just like old times Colin, except the stewardesses weren't so crazy!). We managed to lug our lead cases to the Hotel Kitcho - I literally almost didn't make it up the many many flights of stairs at Ningyocho station. Out to find some food soon.(PS

2006-07-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hi again...well we're sitting in a very minimal apartment at the moment, having got rid of virtually all our worldy possessions this morning. Our boxes went off OK on Saturday too - the postman brought portable scales, tape measure, price calculation booklets...why do they need an actual post office really?So now we just wait for our net-ordered pizza to arrive and then we have the rest of the

2006-07-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

The 3rd and final fireworks tonight were again very impressive. The weather has been really nice for each one which is great. Some good final memories to take out of Japan.I taught my last ever lesson this morning. Quite an auspicious occasion I suppose, although as is often the case I didn't really feel the reality of it at the time.We also got rid of a few more items today (thanks Miwa!) so the

2006-07-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

As you might know, we're saying goodbye to Japan very soon...in exactly a week in fact. So we've been very very busy doing all the pre-saying goodbye kind of things that one needs to do...cleaning up, throwing away, advertising and selling, going out for goodbye lunches and parties...as well as finishing off a little work and paying final bills...the list goes on so I won't bore you with too many

2006-07-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

A post about other blogs today - I wanted to draw attention to a few of the sites in my right-column:I've been reading the newish blog on the BBC, called The Editors recently - sounds a bit dull maybe, but it actually gives an interesting and surprisingly transparent insight into how the BBC runs, including a recent post titled Different Views about how BBC News 24 and BBC World take quite

2006-07-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

This is a very sad post to write. It tells poignantly of the state of affairs in this modern world we live in; a world of disposability and instant gratification.In the picture below, there's a small dark object, barely visible, dwarfed by the neighbouring "mansion" block and left out with the rubbish:What could it be? The truth is somehow close to heartbreaking...As I write this, it's starting

2006-07-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Heat! Warmth! Yesterday the weather finally got its act together, and it reached 29C here in Sapporo (warmest so far this year). And it's surprisingly humid too, for Hokkaido. I'm not complaining (for once, I hear you all yelling)! Unfortunately the weather forecast is suggesting that from here on the weather will "collapse"...as long as it holds out for the first of the 3 big Sapporo Toyohira

2006-07-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

FOR SALE!!This probably won't be much use to most readers, but if anyone is in the Sapporo area (or knows someone who might be interested!), please check out what we have for sale at: http://www.phiine.com/forsale.Thanks!!

2006-07-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Today, being 7th July, is one of the dates of tanabata - a Japanese star festival, derived from a Chinese one. There are many nice old traditions that are practiced all over the country, including decorating bamboo which is often then floated on a river or burned, dressing up in yukata, making paper cranes...Here, and in some other cities such as Sendai, they celebrate it on August 8th (which is

2006-07-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

So, quite disconcerting really. As I'm sure you all know, this morning a crazed leader launched a rocket.And North Korea launched a few too!!! Harharhar! Boom boom! ! (that's "boom! boom!" as in Basil Brush's catchphrase)Ahem. No seriously though, obviously the NK thing is a bit dodgy and hopefully will get sorted out soon, in a diplomatic way. Even at times such as this though the potential for

2006-06-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

A two-week silence...how mysterious! Well I've been quite busy with this and that. Also went to Hong Kong again for a few days. Here's some proof:So why all the interest in Hong Kong? Well, the news is, to those who don't know yet, that we're finally leaving Japan after over 4 years and moving on to Hong Kong. We think it's the right time to say goodbye to Japan, but not to Asia. We have a pretty

2006-06-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

Wow. 3-1. Amazing.(no sarcasm I promise! It was truly an amazing result. Couldn't get to sleep for ages after that!)

2006-06-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't mentioned the footy yet, so I suppose I should. It's weird to think that this is the 2nd World Cup we've seen while in Japan.It's half-time in the Japan-Australia match at the moment, and Japan are ahead...I won't offer any opinions, I should stay neutral. Although I have to say that during this half-time period I've just witnessed an extremely strange highlight-selection on NHK

2006-06-11T02:45:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we finally climbed up to what we always nickname "the mausoleum" - a continuous presence looming on one of the foothills of Mount Moiwa behind us, which often seems to be watching our every move like a cyclops; sometimes lit up at night - although we know that it isn't a mausoleum at all, but actually some kind of peace memorial.Close up it's actually quite big, although not in

2006-06-09T01:24:00.000-07:00

I'm quite loathe to mention the weather, as it's been terrible for what seems like an eternity. It's really about two weeks I suppose, but it seems like last year that it was sunny and warm enough to sit around in parks in the sun. Anyway, it's bad - rainy, cloudy, cold...the positive thing is that it's perfect weather for going to an onsen, which is what we did this morning thanks to another

2006-05-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

That previous post was really intended as a test...but since it was so swiftly commented on I'll have to leave it!So here's a brief run-down of our Tokyo trip. I think aliental's going to be doing a more detailed account of his trip here once he's back in the UK (he should be somewhere over Russia right now), so I'll leave most of it to him. But I want to put some of my pictures on anyway:

2006-05-29T03:26:00.000-07:00

Hmm

2006-05-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

aliental is in Japan at the moment. We went to Tokyo together earlier this week, for a 3-day see-as-much-as-possible rush-around. It was good, and I'll tell all a bit later. Felt freezing when we got back here though.

2006-05-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

Well..since that last entry 11 days ago (sorry!) things have moved on a lot...cherry trees have busted out in full bloom and are still looking quite nice, although the end is very nigh I think. Anyway, cue picture of blossom in the park:We went to Lake Toya on Sunday, just for a night. We found a good internet deal at Manseikaku, which has some very good onsen baths, including in-room kaiseki

2006-05-06T02:10:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to continue our go-to-new-places drive by going up Mount Moiwa. This is the highest mountain within very easy reach of the city, and one that we always see from our place. There's a cablecar to the summit, but we decided to walk it. It's not very high (1742 feet/531 metres apparently), but high enough to get a good walk and very good views from the top.We started from near the

2006-05-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Moerenuma Park. It's kind of the park of the moment, as it was only opened last year, about 17 years after the designer Isamu Noguchi finished his master plans. It's a bit of a trek to get to (best way is the Toho line to Kanjodori-Higashi station and then a number 61 bus), out near Okadama airport, but worth it I think. It's a nice place to spend a few hours on a sunny day, just

2006-05-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

By the way, it's Golden Week at the moment. Our fourth. Looking back to last year, we did very similar things, taking the opportunity of several consecutive holidays to clean the place and get rid of a lot of accumulated bits and pieces.Cherry blossom report: most trees have fairly well developed green buds now. I'd say several more days and they should be open...

2006-04-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we "climbed" Maruyama - it's only a small mountain, well perhaps it should officially be called a hill if you use the 1000-foot rule...but anyway, we climbed it.This is another place with a reconstruction in miniature of the 88-temple pilgrimage on Shikoku. Each of the 88 temples is represented by a small group of jizo statues, adorned with the usual red caps and bibs. This made it

2006-04-30T01:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry if this post sounds a little ranty, but I've had another run in with the law...well kind of. Let me explain - the police have really been out in force recently, doing extra cyclist monitoring ...and checking up on foreigners it seems. So once again I was made to feel like a criminal on my way home from an honest day's work. A police cruiser (a normal one fortunately, not some kind of

2006-04-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is the site I've been looking for all my life: Leon's Random Band Name GeneratorKeep reloading the page to see a list of totally random but plausible band names. First time I tried I got:In Concert:TINTINABULATION-LIKE PANSWith special guests:ANOTHER THREE CHICKEN WINGSFANKIEHATEFUL CALVINISTAFTERFRANK GORSHINTHE WATERMELON QUARTETTHE POLISH HIGH JUMPERS

2006-04-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

On a slightly different note, I need to extend my apologies to the customs guy at New Chitose airport, for inadvertantly trapping his fingers in our suitcase. It was an accident, really! You see, in order to get the case to open, it helps to push down on the lid after unlatching it. I didn't notice he was helpfully trying to open it himself and already had his fingertips in...

2006-04-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

Well, once again I can say "we're back"! From where? Hong Kong! Again.This time we stayed in Kowloon for the first time, which was good. The view from the waterfront looking at Hong Kong island is really, but apart from that I think I still prefer to be on the island.We spent a lot of time walking around looking at stuff, getting very hot and drinking lots of water (how's that for a detailed

2006-03-26T02:58:00.000-08:00

We managed to score free tickets for the "25th Regular Concert of the Sapporo Kita High School Chorus Club" in the main hall at Kitara tonight, as a student of Christine's was taking part. It was interesting actually, and a good chance to see the pretty impressive main hall for the first time.

2006-03-22T03:40:00.000-08:00

This was the snow still left outside our building this morning. The stuff on the street has all melted, but our steps seem to have a mysterious ability to preserve snow. It's still there even now.

2006-03-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

I really should know better by know. Sunday afternoon: walking on clear asphalt at last, basking in the 7 degree warmth, feeling a finally significant sun on my face, seeing hope in the form of fresh green shoots pushing heroically out of newly thawed earth, like tiny versions of one of their more gutsy counterparts, I make a casual observation to my companion. "So, do you think the snow will

2006-03-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday was a very early start for Christine, who had to attend a kindergarten "graduation" (this to me, being from England, seems very incongruous - graduation from kindergarten is surely just automatic, right? I mean you don't really have to do much, just turn up (or rather get dumped off there), do some blowing-bubbles-in-paint and sticking pasta on paper and then you're out!).So after

2006-03-03T20:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the doll festival / girl's day here. This is a picture of a small display made for us by one of Christine's students (from cotton-buds (=Q-tips) and real kimono material). There's also a shell containing two tiny dolls at the front.

2006-03-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

No leeks for us yesterday unfortunately.Anyway, another shameless plug...there are lots of exciting things happening with the E-Square website at the moment. We've just launched a new "One-point English" section which will be updated every day with a new English sentence, translation and explanation. A nice way to study a little every day. And there're more cool things coming up soon. Don't ask

2006-02-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Just my usual "Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant Hapus!!" today.

2006-02-21T00:42:00.000-08:00

Spring is here..!..? Or probably not quite yet, but it really feels like it today. This leads to three unfamiliar sensations: walking on real solid roads, actually feeling warm while doing the walking and getting splashed on the legs by over-zealous drivers during the journey.Anyway, I'm knee-deep in taxes today, so can't stop long.

2006-02-19T01:25:00.000-08:00

On the strength of another recommendation from a student, we went out to a Belgian bar/cafe called Paul's Cafe last night. It's in a very non-descript basement corridor underneath the Century Royal Hotel (the kind of hotel homage to the 70s that Japan does so well) near Sapporo station. Run by a friendly Belgian guy from Antwerp, it offers a pretty authentic Belgian experience, with loads of

2006-02-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well I did it and survived.Last night I went out to a restaurant in Susukino with some work colleagues. It's one that I've noticed many times as it has a slightly murky tank of squid outside, but it turned out to be a lot bigger and better than I had expected. I actually didn't detest the squid this time, and ate most of my ika-somen (raw squid prepared in thin strips, in the style of noodles)

2006-02-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

I really don't like to blow my own trumpet, but I know some of you have been wondering, so I'll just tell you that I passed the JLPT level 2 test!Also, I looked at the HBC Odori web cam yesterday to see the shocking site of the snow sculptures being unceremoniously ripped down by a JCB (= bulldozer(US)). I shouldn't have been shocked, as looking back at my archives I can see that last year was

2006-02-12T04:45:00.000-08:00

Sapporo Snow Festival 2006 looks a little like this:

2006-02-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

We went up to Otaru last night to see the first night of "Snow Gleaming" (Yuki-akari-no-michi) - a smaller and quieter counterpart to Sapporo's festival. It was pleasant, with lots of candles decorating the streets; small ones in ice-domes and larger ones cradles in small sculpted branches.Along the former railway line and banks of the canal there were various igloos and snow sculptures, and

2006-02-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

I know I know, long time no post, but I've been quite shaken by a comment just received on a really old post of mine that seems to say I am not "real"...interesting existential connotations there. Still, if you want to check out the REAL Phil Taylor's wonderful site, feel free. Just makes me even more relieved that I decided not to consign myself to a life as a software developer. Anyway, I'd

2006-01-30T05:41:00.000-08:00

Ramen Pie!! I want to try it. I must be mad, but it might just work...

2006-01-24T23:40:00.000-08:00

It's a balmy -1.5C here in Sapporo today, so the dreaded puddles are starting to form.I fell over once more since my last entry - maybe I should have read up more on safe walking in winter!

2006-01-18T04:19:00.000-08:00

I haven't said much cos there isn't much to say - same as last year really: snow, cold, ice and more snow...at least this year I've only fallen once thanks to the attachable spikes we bought in December.Anyway, on the way back from England recently, we stopped over in Copenhagen for a night. Here are a few pictures!Ice skating (not us):Nyhavn restaurants/bars:Mysterious figure in the citadel:Some

2006-01-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well just to let you know, belatedly, that we're back in "snow country" (as the taxi driver from the station called it). More later...

2006-01-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

...and a Happy New Year!Happy 2006 everyone! Sorry it's a bit late for you lot in Japan, but we're only 9 hours in to it back in the UK.

2005-12-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I hope everyone had a very peaceful and relaxing Christmas. We definitely did here. It seems today has been dubbed "Christmas Tuesday" this year - another Bank Holiday. And the sales started at 5:00am (we weren't at them).Other news: snow! A few centimetres, but enough to create "treacherous" driving conditions, weather warnings and an excuse for weather forecasters to use expressions like

2005-12-23T07:35:00.000-08:00

Just to let you all know that we're now safely ensconced somewhere in the UK, and ready for Christmas.

2005-12-21T03:25:00.000-08:00

Apparently Sapporo streetcars/trams have been decked out for Christmas! Well, in our opinion, one of them has. And I finally got to go on it today, yay! And that's the news... (sorry, I was going to give a link to the story from Hokkaido Broadcasting Corp, but it's been removed :-( )

2005-12-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

Well we've had some snow here, and cold weather, but nothing more than normal. I think the main island, Honshu, has had a lot but we escaped it somehow.

2005-12-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it's officially cold here now - Japan Today says that it is, so it must be true! Penguin-walking is back. And, er, that's it.

2005-12-09T18:41:00.000-08:00

It's later than last year, but it seems that the subtle build up of snowy weather has started now. We've had a few small snowfalls recently. Most of the snow has melted away, but the snowstorms are getting more frequent, so not long until we have permanent cover...and it's only -4.4C at the moment.

2005-12-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

Well the test is over for another year. I'm not going to analyse it all now, let's just wait until mid-February for the results...

2005-11-29T06:09:00.000-08:00

Today, an extravaganza of pictures from part of our weekend. We had a friend visiting so we actually did quite a bit...:Sapporo beer museum (the old brewery) which is a really nice brick building. You can take a tour with some efficient if slightly robotic female guides, and sample some of the products for a nominal price: Some ramen at "Sapporo Ramen Republic" (satisfyingly alliterated

2005-11-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to any American readers - sorry it's late, but I suppose you were too busy eating turkey yesterday to be reading any blogs!We had a good meal last night with a homemade cranberry sauce improvised from dried cranberries, homemade stuffing, various other trimmings and of course chicken in place of turkey.

2005-11-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

The good news is we were warned. A notice through the door that there would be some kind of maintenance work on the water pipes, over a 3 week period. They would endeavour to keep noise to a minimum but please cooperate (a popular Japanese expression, perhaps better translated as "put up with it!" - see Nana's blog for another example...). More good news: barely any sign of the work for several

2005-11-13T01:42:00.000-08:00

Just to let you know that email is working again now. And we're not cold - we're freezing!

2005-11-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

Email problems!! Due to a problem with one of my mail company's servers, I haven't been able to send or receive mail for the last 24 hours or so...it will be anything from a few hours to another day before the service is restored. How irritating.

2005-11-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

And so it begins... (please ignore the urban desolation and enjoy the chunky first Sapporo flakes of the season)

2005-11-06T04:30:00.000-08:00

We went out this evening to one of our favourite places, a yakitori shop (chain) where we enjoyed many skewers of goodness! Chicken, pork with kimchi, mushroom, quail egg, grilled rice, bacon and mochi (pounded rice)...good stuff.

2005-11-04T22:38:00.000-08:00

Here a few pictures of the late autumn colours in Sapporo:

2005-10-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

Just to report what I think is the first snow of the season in Sapporo - the top of one of the ski-slopes visible from our place had quite a dusting this morning.

2005-10-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

Well nothing so controversial today. Just that I now have a great definition for a dragon, thanks to one of my students' t-shirts today:Is a mythical creature with sharp teeth and nails it spits fire DRAGON

2005-10-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

I don't want to make any accusations, but we're starting to get a little annoyed at the *ahem* random customs checking on re-entering Japan...it's just a little strange that out of the hundreds of (mostly Japanese) people coming off a flight, we always seem to be singled out for luggage checks, all our careful practiced packing getting messed up in the process.Actually, there is an amusing side

2005-10-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well we're back. And after a few days of tropical warmth, Sapporo has it's coldest day of the season so far...it's not even 9 degrees C yet and something tells me it's not even going to make it :-(

2005-10-19T02:56:00.000-07:00

By the way, we're going away from tomorrow 'til next Monday, so there'll most likely be a gap in the posting. I'm sure you'll miss me!

2005-10-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ah, the sour stench of corruption in the afternoon, it's almost enough to put me off my fizzy cola bottles but I thought I'd share something that my attention was drawn to today: this year's "Corruption Perceptions" report, showing how corrupt various countries are regarded as being.I'm (fairly) proud to see the UK in joint 11th, ahead of the USA at 17 and Japan at 21 (!). Hong Kong is doing well

2005-10-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

We went to a new international food shop called "Jupiter" today (in Esta B1F) - recommended by Miwako I should add. It has some good stuff, including a decent amount of pasta (not only spaghetti as many shops here tend to).There are some pictures from the E-Square Niseko trip on the E-Square site now - follow this link.More will be added during the coming few days, so please check back!And with

2005-10-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

Separated at birth...? Paul Daniels and Iwakura Tomomi, a Japanese statesman who played an important part in the Meiji Restoration.

2005-10-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well I spent an interesting Sunday/Monday in the Niseko area with E-Square - our first school trip. We ate some famous mushroom soup, visited some famous toilets (<-Japanese link, but basically these toilets cost 100 million yen to build in the late 80s when there was a lot of money being thrown around in Japan. They include a 3 million yen automatic grand piano, marble walls etc. Now they look a

2005-10-07T22:55:00.000-07:00

Mysterious. A large ferris wheel has appeared in the city, and is clearly visible from our balcony. It seems to be somewhere near Mitsukoshi, must be in Odori Park. What are they up to now...?

2005-10-04T02:15:00.000-07:00

OK, now that I've collected the dry cleaning and settled down with a cup of tea, I've thought of something that happened the other day. Maybe not that witty but I'm getting desperate here.I went into a convenience store on the way home, wanting to send a fax. I couldn't see the required machine so I asked the girl behind the counter if they had a fax machine (in what I'd hope was adequate

2005-10-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a lot of proofreading work recently, which has kept me very busy on top of my other stuff. So there honestly is nothing much else to say. I wish I could think of some kind of witty anecdotes but alas.... Anyway, it's got a lot colder recently which is something. The leaves are subtly starting to change on a few trees and occassionally the smell of kerosene asails my nostrils in

2005-09-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I almost forgot about blogging! Unforgivable I know. But I really don't have much to say...I'll try and do some more pictures soon as they seem popular, and Colin thought it was a good idea too.

2005-09-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

Yay, road safety rubbish bags!! The main writing translates roughly as "Traffic safety begins at home".(compliments of the Sapporo City Traffic Safety Exercise Implementation Committee)PS: SJT has started the ball rolling, so please leave your comments on the possible meaning of this!!

2005-09-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

In order not to end up wasting my time today, I actually Made A List! Here it is:

2005-09-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we'd started to get that Autumnal chilly feeling on odd occasions recently, but then yesterday was actually hot again. We had to abort our planned walk down the river to Makomanai Park, and ended up just hanging around Nakajima Park instead, which was good enough for us in our recent slightly torpid state (a product of too many - unasked for - days off I think). There was a big flea (or is

2005-09-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

Nice skies (but bear in mind that these sunsets happened just around 6pm. The planned introduction of Daylight Savings can't come fast enough, I tell you)Sunset tonight ...and a few days ago

2005-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, perhaps unwisely I couldn't stop listening to the match last night, and ended up going to bed after 2am having heard the slightly strange end to an amazing match. Although England had definitely won it, the rules said the match couldn't just be ended (as one of the test match special commentators said "It's cricket....you can't just end a match because you want to!") but had to play on

2005-09-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

England 177-5 with only a few hours left to go...

2005-09-11T05:54:00.000-07:00

I want to say how happy I am to be celebrating 6 years with Christine today!We went to Nopporo Forest Park (shinrinkoen) for a walk and picnic lunch, then after coming home for a short rest went out to dinner to Yoshimi (in Parco), pegged as "non-genre cuisine". We had their monthly set dinner which was really good, with 8 different mini-courses including stuff like smoked sea-bream, homemade

2005-09-07T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well it really was a damp squib after all. It's windy and rainy today though, but quite warm and humid as always after one of these storms comes through.

2005-09-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

The typhoon moved on from Kyushu and is sneaking up the back of Japan as it did last year, ready to hit Hokkaido from behind...it's getting weaker and moving quicker so I'm sure it won't be too bad by the time it gets here. But it's raining a lot already and I have to go out and get soaked very soon...

2005-09-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

We're on the downward slope towards winter now. Evenings are definitely cooler, which is nice actually, and days are a few degrees less warm too.There's a big typhoon hitting Kyushu at the moment, which looks forecast to make its way up here in a couple more days. I'm sure it won't be as bad as the big one last year (see the September 2004 archives and scroll down a bit) or anything as terrible

2005-09-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

I played park golf on Wednesday with my dear ladies group (AKA "the Karaoke Group") somewhere out in Ishikari city. Park Golf is a Hokkaido-born summer sport (a bit like pitch-and-putt in England). The holes are anything from 30-100m long, and you use a club with a big head and quite a large heavy plastic ball. It's very popular with older people but it's fun for anyone I reckon. ...something

2005-08-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

Ah, there's more info about the crazy campaign laws here which explains what I was talking about yesterday..."The regulations stipulate that each candidate can only distribute 35,000 postcards and 70,000 leaflets during the official election campaign period. TV and radio spots can be used by parties, but not individual candidates. "The law effectively bars all other media, preventing candidates

2005-08-31T00:42:00.000-07:00

So, general election fever is gripping the country at the moment, here in Japan. Rowdy campaign vans are out on the streets (they are allowed to use their megaphones from 8:30-5:30 apparently) being largely ignored by most of the populace as usual...but here's a quote I really don't get though, from Mainichi again:"The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) deleted a summary of a policy

2005-08-24T05:34:00.000-07:00

What's the consensus on talking on your mobile in a bookshop? I mean, it's not a library, but still it's quite a faux pas right? So, I was killing some time browsing in Kinokuniya again today (the really nice new big one to the west of the station) when this little incident happened...A moustachioed balding man, possibly Canadian, was browsing nearby when his phone started to ring. Not only was

2005-08-24T00:46:00.000-07:00

Very nice, very warm, very sunny.(PS - If you write a comment here or on Nana or Miwako's blogs you'll now have to do a security thing where you enter a sequence of letters. This is to avoid spam comments which have started popping up around the place quite a lot recently).

2005-08-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a mysterious story...I couldn't find mention of it on most other news sites - apparently an English teacher went missing in Hakodate last week. Let's hope they find him soon.- Although I've just found a web-site findandy.org that it looks like has been set up by his family and friends. Might be worth a look.

2005-08-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Since we're stuck indoors waiting out a major downpour (about time too) I'll take the opportunity to write something...now what was it...Oh yes, in case anyone else is wanting to start Japanese study, the book Colin mentioned is called Talk Japanese, it's here on Amazon. It's a good starter course and teaches some good basics - the only drawback is that it's all in romaji so doesn't help much

2005-08-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the kind words Colin! I bought a preparation book at Kinokuniya the other day, which concentrates on grammar and is well difficult actually. I decided to practice what I always preach, and use an entirely-in-Japanese book.I'm enjoying my nice office at the moment; a big step up from being in a corridor as I have been up to now!

2005-08-17T04:58:00.000-07:00

The JLPT is coming again! That's the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Nihongo nouryokushiken). I passed level 3 last time, and really feel I have to take level 2 this year. It's only once a year, which is kind of annoying. It's quite a big step up from level 3 and so seems a bit soon to try this year (on December 4th to be precise) but then again it's just too long to have to wait until next

2005-08-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

Quake alert. You might have seen reports of an earthquake "in Northern Japan" - it was a pretty big one centred around Miyagi and Sendai - a swimming pool roof collapsed there apparently. It was felt "as far away as Tokyo" and also as far away as here in Sapporo. Although it was only about 3 on the Japanese scale (shindo) where we are, it was very long with a lot of sideways movement. To be

2005-08-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm annoyed. The phones that we wanted are unavailable, at least in a reasonable colour. We had settled for white ones, as the other almost-black was no longer available. But then a call from the earnest Docomo lady to say that white had also "stoppu". So rather than pink or a too bright blue we'll have to look for a different model all over again...*sigh*