The Akan Adventure

I just returned from the latest HAJET event in Otaru and came to realize that I still haven't posted about my last HAJET adventure, the mid-September Eastern Welcome Party at Lake Akan.  So now, with no further delay (it's been 2 months already!), here are the haiku.

TLDR; Cool temperatures, cooler place, coolest people!

Even six hours

is not too far to travel

to feel its splendor.

Oo la la!

Feet in an onsen,

fleece-lined wool hat on my head.

Who cares that it's cold?

Cold air, toasty toes

A slow march of flames

illuminating our route

from lake to village.

Just ignore the slight pyromaniacal grin...

Marimo (moss balls):

the cutest algae I've seen!

See: small souvenirs.

Lots of woodcrafted stuff too!  This is a very touristy place...

A rooftop onsen.

The aches of last night's camping

slowly melt away.

No Maddie!  THAT'S NOT AN ONSEN!!!

Gorgeous coastline drive.

How could I have forgotten

Japan's an island?!

Ocean?  What's an ocean?

Bad English Bonus!

This is why I have a job.

Singing Songs about Bears

When I first found out that I would be teaching English to kindergarteners every week, I thought that it would be fun to teach them an English song.  With my paranoia about bears at an all-time high, it's not surprising that one of the first songs I considered was the camp classic that goes "The other day, I met a bear..."  Imagine my surprise, then, when I hear my little four- and five-year olds singing a Japanese version of that same song in preparation for their school recital!  Of course, the Japanese version is a bit different from the English one...  Here it goes!

One day in the forest, I came across Mr. Bear,
on the blooming forest path, I met Mr. Bear.

Mr. Bear said, "Young lady, please run away."
helter-skelter quickly otomatopoeia

However, Mr. Bear follows behind me.
briskly with small steps/trotting otomatopoeia

"Young lady, please wait!  You dropped something--
a small white shell earring!"

Oh, Mr. Bear, thank you!  Let's sing in thanks!
Lalala lalalalala lalala lalalala

Certainly a different feel than the English version!  If the American bear is a grizzly, then the Japanese bear is Winnie the Pooh.  (Or perhaps, since we get a polite fellow when we expected a monster, the Japanese song is more like Beauty and the Beast?)

Bonus:  Plug the Japanese lyrics below into Google Translate for a particularly colorful translation fail!

ある日森の中　くまさんに　出会った
花咲く森の道　くまさんに　出会った
くまさんの　言うことにゃ　お嬢さん　おにげなさい
スタコラ　サッササノサ　スタコラ　サッササノサ

ところが　くまさんが　あとから　ついてくる
トコトコ　トコトコと　トコトコ　トコトコと

お嬢さん　お待ちなさい　ちょっと　落とし物
白い貝がらの　小さな　イヤリング

あら　くまさん　ありがとう　お礼に　うたいましょう
ラララ　ララララ　ラララ　ララララ

Ana and the Snow Queen

One girl just calls me Elsa...

With french-braided hair,

Some say I look like Elsa.

But not really, no.

A common question:

Is Ana in your country?

Well, it is Disney...

The real question is:

Where haven't I encountered

this new Frozen craze?

At the Obon Festival:

     One ambitious group

     paraded as the whole cast.

     (Yes, that includes Sven!)

In Nayoro:

     Four young girls on bikes

     stop to say 'hi' and tell me,

     "You look like Elsa!"

In the second-hand store:

     Anna and Hans dance

     to "Love is an Open Door"

     across an old screen.

In the supermarket:

     Hidden speakers play

     "Let It Go" relentlessly

     above the cheeses.

In the teachers' room:

     In from the hallway

     drifts "Ari no mama de"

     sung by young voices.

At the school arts festival:

     The school culture club

     goes beyond Japanese crafts

     with Frozen medley.

I hope you like it,

'cause no matter where you go,

you can't escape it!

Hump Day Wisdom

Wise words to help you through your Wednesday:

The nostalgic aroma of nature...

Can you hear it?

The leaf is breathing in the air.

Calm your mind.

Don't forget.  Small nature is next to you.

Life is graceful when you sit

in time ticking slowly.

(Found on a plastic gift bag at the bottom of Pinneshiridake.)

Car keys and Good Omens

After one long month

of watching my car mock me.

My wait is over.

THE KEY!!! (and the car, too, I guess...)

A car and its keys:

It’s a match made in heaven

(or maybe Detroit)

Define "freedom" (noun):

Having a car, keys, gas, and

places to explore!

And now, two haiku courtesy of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, whose novel Good Omens features a fictional disaster of a Japanese car.  The Wasabi "had been programmed by someone who not only didn’t understand English, but didn’t understand Japanese either,” resulting in warnings such as “Prease to frasten sleat-bert” and “Oil plessure arert.”  Unfortunately for me, this "Engrish" is not far-fetched at all!  Fortunately for the fictional car, it undergoes a transformation such that it issues “its voice-synthesized warnings in a series of exquisite and perfectly phrased haikus, each one original and apt.

Late frost burns the bloom

Would a fool not let the belt

Restrain the body?

The cherry blossom

Tumbles from the highest tree.

One needs more petrol."

Inspired, I have attempted to create picturesque haiku about my own car experiences in Japan so far!

In gray morning light,

mist creeps down the mountainsides.

Ignition success.

The gentlest breeze

whispers in the empty streets,

Drive on the left, please.

My lovely village in the early morning fog.

Bonus: A haiku about the summer I drove the Subaru in New Hampshire.

A majestic moose

grazes in a twilit lake.

Cruise control is locked.

I strongly encourage you all to write beautiful haiku about your own car experiences and post them in the comments below!

Conquering the bento

It's well-known that I'm not a morning person, so it should come as no surprise that I've been cooking my bento (lunchbox) rice in advance and storing it in the fridge until needed.  Unfortunately, what I didn't realize was that this dries out the rice and makes it, as one middle schooler noted, barabara (scattered, loose, a failure as rice, a shame to Japanese civilization, etc.).  When I woke up yesterday morning to find my rice stash depleted, I managed to convince my rice cooker to steam some up before heading to school.  The result?  Beautiful, sticky white rice!

            

The barabara bento

White rice perfection!

Of course, one of the main kindergarten teachers noted with surprise that "your bento is washoku (Japanese-style food)!"  Considering that it is fairly difficult to get Western ingredients in Japan, let alone my town of 807 people (yes, that includes me), it's not that shocking.  Here are some of the main ingredients that my bread-and-cheese-loving self has been learning to cook while here.

The haul from my first trip to our (tiny) local grocery store

Plain white short-grain rice:

toss on some furikake

and your world will change.

The purple yukari is pretty and tasty!

Renkon (lotus root):

easy to cook, tasty to

eat, nice to look at.

Don't judge a vegetable by its outside...

Hijiki (seaweed):

makes for a messy bento,

but also tastes quite good.

Stewed hijiki, featured in the success!bento above

Kabocha (pumpkin):

So I bought a 3 lb. squash
Now what do I do?!

Grill it, puree it, stick it in a stew...

Umeboshi (plum):

liven up your plain white rice

with a pickled sun.

Japanese people will be especially impressed if you like these
and use them for a Japanese flag-style bento (see bento above)

Enoki (mushrooms,

the only kind I can stand):

grows in fat bunches.

Looks weird, tastes good

Nasu (aubergine):

smaller and cuter than ours,

but taste just the same.

RIP the eggplant dropped in the fish griller when I attempte dthis meal

Tofu (soy bean curd):

don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it!

Mmmm… protein-iful. 

Nomnomnom

Introducing myself

"Hello.  My name is _____.  I like ______."

I'm from the United States.

Def. jikoshokai:

(lit.) a self-introduction; 

(JET) your life story.

This is my family.

Remember "All About Me"? Like that.

This is our cat.  She likes to sleep a lot.

In just five school days,

I have met nine different groups

with one lengthy spiel.

                  

I like moose...

... but I don't like bears.

(Well, three different spiels, 

the shared elements being

myself and a moose.)

My favorite food is pizza.

And now the students

at the middle and high schools 

know about quidditch!

Can you guess what they are playing?  (No.)

And, last but not least,

here’s the short and sweet version

(for normal people):

はじめまして。メイリーです。どうぞよろしくお願いします。

I like skiing.  I am looking forward to winter here!

And now, a special I-have-way-too-much-spare-time bonus: 

The etymology of “self-introduction"

self- < OE self, seolf, sylf “one’s own person” (pronoun also used in compounds such as selflice “self-love, pride”) < P.Gmc. *selbaz “self” < PIE *sel-bho-, suffixed form of root *s(w)e-, pronoun of the third person and reflexive.

+

introduction “formal presentation of one person to another” (1711) < “an introductory statement” (mid-15c.) < “act of bringing into existence” (late 14c.) < O.Fr. introduccion < Lt. introductionem “a leading in” (past participle stem of introducere “to lead in, to introduce”) < intro- “inward” (< PIE *en-t(e)ro-, suffixed form of preposition *en “in”) + ducere “to lead” (< PIE *deuk- “to lead”)

[Note: I no longer have access to the OED, so these etymologies were taken and adapted from http://www.etymonline.com/ ]

Eating out and Enkais

A hidden turn, then

Sapporo's Ramen Alley,

waiting to delight.

Actually, an alley of 6-seat ramen shops!

Bamboo shoots, pork, egg;
Although not instant ramen,
it disappears fast!

So much ramen, so little stomach...

When in Sapporo,
drink beer as the natives do.
Wait, that's Asahi!

There is a "Sapporo" brand beer...

Here I have found it,
onigiri perfection:
omelette-wrapped rice ball.

Available at a Lawson's near you!

Mmm... Matsuri food!
The perfect yakisoba
in a plastic box.

Not pictured: grapefruit chuuhai

Define "enkai" (noun):
1) lit., banquet or party;
2) work drinking fest...

A delicious enkai spread

The enkai high points?
Meeting new coworkers and
eating fresh melon!

Biking in the rain

It's been over 2 weeks after my arrival in Japan, and finally we have reached the beginning of the fall semester!  From tomorrow, I will get to spend most of my time at the schools, teaching English (and probably learning much more!)  As I commuted to the Board of Education through the perpetual drizzle for the last time, I thought back to my first week here when I wrote the following (essential!) guide for myself and all future JETs.  (Hey! A lot of good advice is based on personal experience!)

How to bike to work:

1.     Leave early for your second day.

2.     Get caught in a downpour as you leave the apartment.

3.     Bike like mad through the rain, laughing hysterically as you go.

4.     Show up five minutes early, hair wet, skirt drenched, tights mud-specked, dignity lost, smile on your face.

5.     Discover that the former mayor saw you en route.

For the record, raincoats do absolutely nothing to prevent your skirt from getting soaked by the rain.  The Japanese have all mastered the art of riding a bicycle while holding an umbrella.  However, since I like my life as it is (ongoing) I guess I'll deal with wet skirts or leave myself more time to walk.

This guy's a pro.
(photo from telegraph.co.uk.  Did you really think my town had that many people?!)

Biking in the rain:

If I weren't going to work,

it would be quite fun!

Recipe: Blueberry Banana Bread (in a rice cooker!)

One ripe banana.

One bag frozen blueberries.

Ok, fruit. It’s on.

The Goal:  Rice cooker bread

While I am one of the lucky few who has a microwave/oven, my very well-equipped kitchen is somehow lacking a loaf pan.  So I decided to put to the test the rumor that you can make banana bread in a rice cooker.  What I did below was the result of modifications to my favorite banana bread recipe and these instructions.

Note: I only had 1 banana in the fridge and adjusted the recipe accordingly.  This made a fairly thin banana bread.  If you choose to double the recipe, please remember that it will probably take longer to cook!

Mmmm, raw ingredients

Ingredients:

1 very ripe banana

¹/₆ cup melted butter (guesstimated)

½ cup sugar (or slightly less--it will still be delicious!)

½ egg, beaten (fry up the other half for a mini omelette the next day!)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 – 1½ teaspoons baking powder (or ½ teaspoon baking soda if you have it)

¾ cup flour

½ cup frozen blueberries (or chocolate chips, chopped nuts... whatever else you like!)

Yep, it's really that easy

Directions:

In a separate bowl (do not use your rice cooker bowl!), mash the banana with your rice spoon or a fork.  Stir in the butter.

Mix in the baking powder and salt.  Stir in the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract.  Mix in the flour.

Defrost the frozen blueberries under warm water, then fold into the batter.

Use a paper towel to coat the inside of your rice cooker bowl with canola oil so your bread doesn't stick!

Pour your batter in, close the lid, and start cooking on a normal rice cycle.  (My bread took 2 cycles to cook.)

Carefully take out the bread and serve it upside-down so the yummy baked side is showing.  (In hindsight, this would probably look even tastier with powdered sugar, blueberry sauce, or chocolate sauce on top.  Your creativity's the limit!)

Itadakimasu!

Rice cooker success!  Now on to white rice...

Surviving Sapporo Orientation

First day: no cell phone.
A desperate facebook post.
Mary rescues me!

How a JET networks:
"Oh, hey, you live somewhere cool!
What's your name again?"

More orienting.
From classroom games to must-see sites,
we covered it all!

Passive sightseeing:
pausing to take a photo
en route to meetings.

The Akarenga

The main takeaway:
Hokkaido's cold, lonely, vast,
and by far the best!

(The other message?
Join HAJET, join HAJET, join
HAJET, join HAJET...)

Meeting the mascots

Look at this critter—

Hokkaido’s tourist mascot.

His name is Kyun-chan.

Deer, love, greenery!

But who needs him when
out here we have Otokkii,
our little tree friend.

Lumber, forestry, soba!

He likes black soba,

protecting the pine forests,

and seasonal hats.

Who would win a fight?

We might never find out, but

those chopsticks look sharp!