Decemembered

Here's an update without the usual heart-wrenching pathos, thought-provoking themes, and literary sleight-of-hand that usually characterizes my blog updates. It is, if you can believe it, a collection of mostly-pointless unrelated blurbs. Shocking, right?

Last week I posted about the Sapporo Orientation. I then proceeded to get snowed out of Monbetsu, and had to stay overnight in Asahikawa as the major expressway that runs through the mountains was closed due to blizzard. It looked like this outside:



I actually took this picture because of the political poster, which is my favorite one in the world and features an older Japanese guy leering like he just saw Sailor Moon's panties. You can't really make it out that well in this picture, but it's really the worst-advised political portrait I've ever seen. Regardless, it also serves to show that it was very snowy! Note the person in my side mirror, who will soon try to pass me because I have the audacity to only speed by 10km in a blizzard.

On the plus side, I got to eat some delicious curry.



This particular restaurant, CoCo Curry, allows you to add on spiciness levels to your curry for extra money, up to a spiciness of level 10 for something like an extra 500 yen. To go beyond level 5, however, you need to have a card proving you've eaten a level 5 before and didn't die or sue anybody (the menu includes the gastronomically ominous phrase, please consider the consequences). Since I'd never been to this restaurant before, I had a five. It was delicious, but I don't think I'm in any hurry to go up to a ten just yet.

Back in Monbetsu, I finally got to try my hand at ping-pong in an environment other than an elementary school. As it turns out, the school is the probably the right place for me. I went to the local sports center on Tuesday, which is when the Church of Ping-Pong meets, and when it became evident that I was no match for anybody there I was kindly and gently schooled in the proper art of the game for two hours.

Linguistic note: When I went to the sports center to ask about it, I was told that the "Ping Pong Kyoukai" meets on Tuesdays. At this point, "kyoukai" meant "church" to me; so I thought that's what the guy said. I later discovered that a homonym for "kyoukai" is "society", which makes more sense but is less entertaining.

This weekend I once again went to Asahikawa, because I never learn. I had dinner with friends and failed at bowling, but made up for it by being able to reap the bounty of Kaldi, the local foreign foods store:



Mangoes, Mac n Cheese, and cayenne pepper. Yum!

Lastly, I turned in my form today indicating my intent to seek re-contraction for 2011-2012. So, Monbetsu until July 2012! Hooray!

Kancho to the heart pt. 2

I have suffered my greatest personal disappointment thus far in Japan.

As you may be aware, karaoke is one of the factors that holds Japanese society, like a layer of duct tape on a high-powered engine valve (or something, I don`t know cars). Since JETs are masters of cultural adaptation, we tend to do our duty and adapt to the culture of karaoke with great enthusiasm. It was in this spirit that I went with friends to karaoke in Asahikawa this weekend. Far from a normal outing, however, this trip was special; I had recently been practicing a new song, with which I planned to blow everyone out of the water and most likely launch an multinational music career.

The song was Come Sail Away by the incomparable Styx. If you don`t know the song, look it up on Youtube and you`ll probably recognize it. It has all the elements I like in a karaoke song; namely, it`s extremely theatrical and dramatic, and the bulk of the vocals are well beyond my actual range. Needless to say, I was quite excited to have a chance to bust out my new song.

We got to the karaoke box, began queuing up songs, and I looked up my song and... nothing. They had Styx, but not Come Sail Away, so what`s the point? I was ruined. In despair I ended up doing Wolfmother - Woman, which turned out to be one of those songs I like in real life but which has two lines and a two-minute guitar solo. Not the best choice for karaoke.

Despite this terrible setback, I still managed to have a good long weekend (monday was Respect for the Aged day, a national holiday) full of shopping and food. I tried soup curry for the first time, which is sort of a Japanese vision of what Indian curry might look like. I also bought a vuvuzela, cementing my place in the world as a hipster three months past current.

This week is a short week, with Monday being a holiday and Thursday being another. On Friday, I`ll be playing ping-pong at one of my schools, something I`ve developed quite a taste for against all odds. Updates to follow.