Skiing at SENA

This weekend I went skiing with my buddy Kuni. We got up at dawn and drove to Hakusan City, where a bunch of ski slopes are located. We ended up deciding on Sena, which was pretty good as far as size and difficulty are concerned, but there wasn’t a lot of snow and in patches it was already giving way to solid ground beneath.

We started nice and early, and already there were throngs of people getting set up for a day on the slopes. I was able to borrow a lot of equipment from people, but I ended up renting ski boots. I’ve skiied enough in the past, but on Sunday I decided to try short skis, which as the name suggests are pretty short and don’t have poles to go with them. If you ski a lot, you’ll see a lot of kids going straight down ski hills on them.

Anyway, it was my first time on these, and when all’s said and done they weren’t that different from regular skis. It was a bit more leg-intensive, because you didn’t have poles to help out, and it was also a bit more difficult to brake cuz the length of the skis are shorter. You also feel bumps more and end up being pretty susceptible to ice patches, but I didn’t really fall at all and it was super easy to stay on them. It was a bit like skating down the hill. Kuni was snowboarding, which he’d done for 14 years, so he whipped down the hill, but I kept up ok. I think next season I’ll try out snowboarding, just so I can say I’ve done it, but if it takes forever to get the hang of, I’m switching back to regular skis.

Not surprisingly, I bumped into people I knew, despite the ski slope being nowhere near where I live. I met a teacher I work with at one of my elementary schools, and then later a few more teachers from various schools, plus a couple of students, who were of course mortified to have seen me in public. Yesterday at school a little second grader who I’d never spoken to before yelled “Hey, English teacher!” and then proceeded to tell me how she’d seen me skiing on the weekend. Unbelievable how connected everything really is. If I pick my nose in the dark I’m likely to hear about it at school.

During the day, Kuni and I also bumped into some Russian grad students who were doing their theses at a university in Kanazawa. Their level of spoken Japanese was next to perfect, and because it was the language we all had in common we ended up communicating predominantly in Japanese, but it was a little weird talking to white people in Japanese and not English.

In other Kuni-related news, I might be starting a private tutoring gig. Kuni’s English is impressive enough but his daughter’s language skills are shoddy at best, which in Kuni’s mind means there’s a lot of room for improvement. Also, she’s 3 years old. But when you show up in an English-speaking country and can’t open a bank account or book a plane ticket, age alone isn’t going to save you.

So Kuni and I worked it out that if I come over an hour a week or so to play with his daughter and a couple of other toddlers in a purely English environment, they’re bound to pick some of it up pretty quick. Plus I’d get free dinner! So that’s probably going to happen starting in March.

Dai-snow-ji

Today was a good day. It was one of those days where I felt like I had a purpose being here; where I had no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision moving to Japan. Actually, in almost every sense it was a regular day--nothing really spectacular of note--but it was completely satisfying. Some days you go home feeling like you coulda done something better or had a different attitude, but this was like baby bear's bowl of porridge--juuuuust right.

That's also the first and last time I'll ever make a goldilocks reference in writing.

So anyway, got up at dawn and it was still snowing from the day before. Over the weekend, it dropped from a record 19 degrees to -2 this morning. Showered, got dressed, threw on my kanji tie, ate breakfast, and then headed out to meet my ride at APIC, the local mini-strip mall (...?).
When we got to school (junior high) the kids were all really friendly. It had been snowing sideways so the scenery through the windows of the school was completely white. It really reminded me of Canada, especially with the near-constant drivel of snow/hail/snow & hail covering everything.

I "taught" two 3rd grade classes (15 year-olds) jeopardy, which was awesome, cuz they have great english AND they were in to it, which is a huge plus. I love how 15 year-olds still love getting cute lil stickers as prizes. Kids were talking to me after class (i.e. "I saw you walking out near city hall 5 days ago!!!" and stuff) and in the hallways, and I even had a "conversation" with one girl who is taking an english proficiency test on the weekend. It was hilarious how nervous she was. I told her, "Look, you live in the countryside. Talking to a real-life foreigner is a great chance to work on your english. So let's chat: what's your favourite colour?...", and then moved on to other equally sophisticated topics.

I also did the special ed class, where the kids are always horrifically behaved, but they're awesome outside of class--they just hate the structure of learning lol. So I buttered them up with cool Canada souvenir pencils, and they were still horrible, but I did reach a couple and we were able to really get on with the activity more than I've been able to in the past.

After work I went to my language club, which is always a blast, and drilled one of the members on answers to english questions that they'll get asked by Americans when abroad (like, "so, are you chinese?" or "how come you're not wearing a kimono?").

Afterwards I made my way home in the quiet, dark Daishoji night, threw snowballs at some people, ate some ice cream, and here I am now. This is the life.

Happy (late) New Year!

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted something worth posting. Time to catch up a little. This will be a monster post.

Firstly, Happy New Year! Out with the old, in with the new. For me, that means getting rid of the spare tire I’m beginning to grow around my mid-section. ‘Why have a six pack when you can have a keg?’ gets thrown around from time to time, but despite a certain charm that my alarmingly quick descent into love handle hell has in the cold winter months, I remain a firm believer in the principle that if you roll sideways out of your futon onto the cold floor every morning because sitting up is too much effort, it’s time to get some exercise.

That’s about the extent of my New Year’s resolutions. I attribute a large part of my present predicament to my recent gastronomical adventures in Hong Kong, but before that I’ll quickly recap December.

Work-wise, December wasn’t too intense. The holidays were looming, so most of my lessons were Christmas-oriented. At junior high school, this entailed discussing some of the cultural traditions we have in the West, comparing and contrasting those with Japanese commercial, nonreligious, KFC Christmas dinner-eating customs. At elementary school, it meant going through the exact mechanics of how Santa goes down the chimney and what happens to kids whose parents were foolish enough to buy a house without one—all done in conjunction with about a million Christmas pictures and props to really press the point home that not only does Santa exist, he’s weirder than we ever previously imagined.

About mid-December, I got pretty sick with a nasty cold that kept me home for two days, but I figure it was a good investment, because now my immune system is strengthened, making me invincible for the rest of the winter. Right…? Oh, here’s a cultural tip: in Japan, when someone becomes ill or wishes to prevent becoming ill, he or she wears a mask, much like people in Asia did when SARS broke out. So while I was initially shocked, wondering what kind of plague had been released, I have become used to seeing dozens of people wearing masks every day and even wear them myself when I or people around me become ill.

On to the fun bit: on December 23rd I went to Hong Kong and took a much-needed break from work. I took a kind of limo-taxi service all the way from my house in Daishoji to Kansai International Airport outside of Osaka, and then took an early flight to HK. Upon arriving, I met up with my Osakian friend Takashi and together we went off in search of our hostel. Turns out that despite our initial reservations about booking a sketchy place (lol get it?? ‘reservations’??? as in ‘hang-ups’?) for several days, it was not only in a prime location in Kowloon where we had convenient access to hand-bag peddling Indian street vendors, the twin room we got put up in was actually pretty decent. The first night we went out and found ourselves some Macaenese food, including their world famous egg tarts.

The following day we got up and went out to meet Geoff, who I hadn’t seen since Hawaii in May and who had also arrived from Vancouver the previous day. After wandering around a park (and very nearly a mosque) we finally found Geoff at the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station and the three of us headed off to the water. By mid-day it was already plenty warm—a balmy 20-degree December day—so we decided to make our way along the star walk by the bay. Hong Kong was definitely hazier than I expected it to be, but there was still a pretty sweet view of the boats in the water and the skyscrapers across on the island.

After that we hit up a museum to get the lowdown on Hong Kong’s history (apparently it used to be a British colony…?), and then basically bummed around Kowloon while the weather was still nice. That night, it being Christmas Eve and all, we strolled down Nathan Road, one of HK’s busiest streets, and found ourselves an outdoor table at a nice restaurant from which we could easily observe the thousands of people walking along the closed-off streets. Perhaps prompted by some of the things we’d seen in the museum that day, Christmas dinner was permeated by discussions of the Pacific War and a 3-hour debate about the present Japanese generation’s responsibilities. It was a bit sobering and not exactly timely, but still interesting. While Geoff made his way across to Clearwater Bay, Takashi and I walked around enjoying the Christmas light show and hit up an irish bar, where a proper trio were singing carols. Everyone was required to join in. It was a fun night.

The next day we met up with Geoff again and took a ferry to Macau. Macau was awesome! Some say it’s pretty much the same as HK, but I found it to be pretty distinctive, especially architecture-wise. There were a lot more cobbled streets and south European-styled buildings fused with the idiosyncratic air of ‘China’. We rushed around the first evening to see as much as we could before dark, but turns out that Macau is in fact best experienced at night anyway. With the casinos exploding with their characteristic modern glory, Christmas banners hung espousing Portuguese messages of good will, and weird holographic images dancing on the waterfront, it was the place to be. After visiting the ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral and seeing the old fortress overlooking the city, we ate some Chinese food, stopped by the Grand Lisboa casino to check out the tables (but not gamble cuz we didn’t have the cash), and then made our way to a faraway tower that boasts an awesome view of the city from high up. Unfortunately it closed right before we got there, but it wasn’t a complete waste, cuz they had a movie theatre where we ended up watching that Keanu Reeves movie where he’s an alien that wants to destroy the world but then inexplicably doesn’t.

The next morning, we did a self-guided tour of Macau’s historic area, but only after Geoff was propositioned by an old hooker at a casino after exchanging money. It really resembled Europe a lot more than Asia (the historic district, not the prostitute). Our Filipina hostel owner had given us some tips on where to go, and it was worth the extra few hours. We left by ferry to go back to HK that afternoon and a day later Takashi and I moved to a new hostel on the remote top of a mountain on HK Island. We were joined by Takashi’s buddy, Minami, who chilled with us the rest of the trip. The hostel we were staying at was meant to be the least dodgy of the places where we stayed but it ended up having the worst services and quality, compounded by how remote it was. On the bright side, the inevitable hike down the mountain to the nearest bus stop every morning at least helped stave off the ill effects of eating too much Chinese food every day. Needless to stay, I didn’t spend much time at the hostel, and when I did, it was only to have the odd fitful night’s sleep or cold shower.

The next day, while we were waiting for contact from Josh or Jane, Geoff and I went to Clearwater Bay, where he was staying in a residence of the uni that he used to work at. When we finally did meet up with Jane, the first thing we did was eat dinner at a toilet-themed restaurant, which featured drink-receptacle urinals, toilets for seats, and chocolate “poop” ice cream presented on a squat toilet bowl of real ceramic. Real top-notch stuff.

The next day the group met up in Central where we were joined by Josh. This effectively completed my HK dream—>the Kingston housemates (eses for those who know) were finally reunited—but in Asia! We spent the day eating dim sum, drinking bubble tea, eating some more, take the ferry and double decker trams all over the place, eating some more, trying to get into convention centres that were closed, and checking out markets and malls around the island. That night we hit up a hookah bar in the ‘fun’ district and proceeded to asphyxiate ourselves for the next few hours—>this proved pretty successful.

The rest of the trip was more or less along those lines. I got to finally meet Mrs. Chan, who I’d had loads of conversations with back in school, I got a ride in my first chauffered Rolls Royce, I ate food all day everyday, I met tons more Saints kids (no surprise there—I’ve probably met half of Josh and Geoff’s graduating class) and had a kick-ass New Years out by the water watching the fireworks erupt from the top of the IFC building. The only things I didn’t really get to do were go to Repulse Bay or check out Lantau Island in any depth. Oh, and I also didn’t manage to get the visa necessary to cross the border into China, but Takashi and Minami were able to. We joked that they would be mugged and wake up in a bathtub full of ice with no kidneys, liver, or heart, but they came back fine.

All in all, it was a sweet trip. In fact, it really couldn’t have been better. Hong Kong is a great place to go, especially for food, shopping and warm weather. Plus it has maybe the best public transport system I’ve ever experienced. Coupled with the ‘Octopus Card’, which you can top up with money and use instead of cash all over the city, the lifestyle is pretty convenient. But more than all that, it was great to hang out with all the people I haven’t seen in so long.