Jet lag diminishing

 

Settling In

[ Local vegetables, fish, and soba noodles for dinner ]

It was a little touch and go for about 24 hours for me. I had a strong dose of culture shock and jet lag going on that amped up my anxiety level for about a full day. Ruminating thoughts of: what have I done? can I really drive in the snow? what, no dryer in the house? I'm going to miss my family too much, and will I be able to use that aggressive weed whacker after Tom leaves? set in on a grand scale. On top of that our hot water heater was not working and we were all enduring freezing cold showers on the daily :) .

I started yesterday morning with a phone call home to my mom, which really cheered me up. Then, I watched a beautiful, fluffy fox stride across the soybean field behind our house - she stopped to look at me for a long stare before carrying on ambivalent to my presence. That was magical. Next, one of my work mates showed up (the data manager) with lots of information and a friendly personality to answer a lot of the questions that I had. And finally, the landlord and his wife, and a repairman came by to fix the hot water tank. All was coming together once more in the world. I felt much better about everything and the rest of the day went swimmingly. 

[ Our neighbor, Gen ]

One of the neighbors stopped by, Gen Hisamitsu, to introduce himself. He was so friendly and curious about why were living in the nighborhood! He is a high school English teacher and he has written a book of short essays about his experiences. He went back home and brought us a copy of his book, Interactions with People are the Most Valued Treasure in My Life.  The book is available on Amazon and has both the original Japanese text and the English translation which he translated himself. 

[ Gen's Book ]

Later in the day, we found the local farmer's market where summer vegetables from local farms are sold. Each stall has a photo and information about the farmers and their work. We purchased some beautiful produce to bring back for dinner last night, along with a local wine and fish. We had a lovely evening cooking and enjoying the moment. 

[ Local Farmer's Market ]

Our next challenge is to solve the complex puzzle that is the trash. There is a very complicated separating of trash system with specific bags, specific preparations, and specific trash days that Norah has been investigating and problem solving. We did manage to find the trash depot for our neighborhood as a starting point. More on this later. 

[ Tom investigating the neighborhood trash depot ]

Under the Volcano

 

Narrow roads, switchbacks, and rain

[ View from the back deck ]

Welp, I did switch backs up the mountain in the van yesterday during a downpour. It wasn't a nail-biter it was straight up white knuckles. We left Chitose around 11:00 a.m. and the urban landscape dropped off rather quickly as we started the climb to higher elevations. The road dipped and turned, inclined steeply and offered up several hairpin turns. The rain created near hydroplane situations along the berm of the road. Along the steep embankments above the road I observed double, sometimes triple layers of snow fencing staged along the hills. The edges of the road on both sides were demarcated with a string of vertical arrows which hung at the tree line and were illuminated in red lights, dangling over the pavement berm. I am guessing they are used in winter weather to make visible the edges of the road for drivers ascending towards ski towns in and around Niseko. My stomach tightened at the thought of what this road must be like to experience in a snow storm.  I vowed to never leave my hilltop perch until the snow melted.

[ Lush foliage and hairpin turns ahead ]

We arrived in the driving rain to our new home, a Japanese chalet perched on the edge of a field. The volcano was hidden behind clouds off the back deck. The interior of the house is simple, elegant, and lined with pine wainscoting and ceilings. There are two tiny bedrooms and a loft above the living room. A tiny expired bat was curled up on the floor beside the wood burning fireplace.

[ A view from the living room ]

[ The kitchen ]

We unloaded the suitcases for the last time and wondered where on earth we were going to store the clothes that we had packed. Inside we found one bureau and a teeny tiny closet in the downstairs bedroom. This was a conundrum that demanded too much cognitive energy to resolve so we decided to go out and find some food instead. We drove to the village of Niseko to eat a meal at the Farm Table, a small restaurant in the center of the village that had a farm to table menu and a friendly staff. We shared pasta with chicken and anchovies, short ribs with roasted radish, lava cake, and a few glasses of wine. This was a moment of heaven on our first rainy night in town. And our bill came to less than $50. 

[ We use the tambourine to alert our waiter ]

[ Menu items ]

[ Norah google mapping our route home ]

By the time we got back to our house we were pretty tired. We made up our beds - a combination of futons, mattresses and comforters - and crashed. Unfortunately, I was awake by one o'clock in the morning trying to figure out how I was going to stow my clothes and other sundries without closets and bureaus. This kept me up all night and by the time the sun came up at  4:00 AM I was wide awake and frazzled. I made some coffee and sat outside just staring at the volcano for answers. It was a beautiful morning and a cuckoo bird was calling somewhere in the trees. I am not trying to be poetic, I mean for real it was calling. Anyway, Tom soon joined me for coffee and he came up with a solution to the storage challenges - a trip to a store called Nitori (Japan's version of IKEA) in the van. In the mean time he was dressed and ready to go to work. He cleaned out the garage, got rid of spiders, swept the front porch and found an old sun umbrella and chair in the garage. 

[ Notice the hydrangea behind Tom ]

Well, we worked until 6:00 and then stopped and made some breakfast in our sweet kitchen, which has a very high-tech cooktop. When we did not turn the burner off, the cook top spoke to us in Japanese and told us to turn it off. 

[ Preparing for bacon and eggs ]

After breakfast we took a stroll down our road. We met one neighbor who was also out walking. Here are a few photos from the neighborhood.

[ A new house getting built ]

[ Love this view ]

[ A wine bar ]

[ The bus comes by six times a day ]

Planes, trains, automobiles, and beer

 

East Meets West.

[ A breakfast of local fish, miso soup with seaweed, and a perfect omelet ]

We were awake at 6 o'clock this morning to a sunny day and mountains visible in the distance from our hotel window. We spent a slow morning with coffee and a beautiful buffet breakfast with vast offerings of local fish dishes. I could not decide on what to choose so I partook from the cuisine of both sides of the world. 

[ Waiting for an RL train to Sapporo Station ]

[ Navigating the ticket kiosk ]

We spent most of the day resting before heading out to the Hokkaido International School in Sapporo to attend their annual fundraiser, a three-day international Bare Bear Beer festival. Thanks to my friend Polly we knew exactly where to go despite our jet lag and the subway ticket kiosk information written in kanji, hiragana and katakana. Once we reached Sapporo Station we switched to the Namboku subway line to Sumikawa where we got off the train and walked up an enormous hill to the school. Once there, we found gathered in the school's gymnasium a welcoming community and beer on tap from around the world. 

[ A local IPA ]

I was the designated driver for this event because the superintendent of the school handed me the keys to a van that I would be responsible to drive to Niseko tomorrow. So as dusk approached,  I backed the van out of the school parking lot (Tom, Wiley, and Norah as my passengers) to start the drive through Sapporo back to our hotel in Chitose. My nerves were nearly shot before we made it out onto the street as everyone watched me back out, maneuver through a narrow driveway and try to turn right onto the opposite side of the street. While sitting on the opposite side of the car. I put my foot on the gas pedal and turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal and then accidentally put the van in reverse. Everyone gasped and closed their eyes. Wiley was the navigator beside me and he steadily coached me through it. We pulled to the street to the curbside shouts of "you can do it!" and sped away towards downtown Sapporo during rush hour. It was a nail-biter as I adjusted to turning left and right, finding the edges of the road from the opposite side and retraining my hands to use a turn signal instead of the windshield wipers every time I changed lanes. There were a few moments. 

[ A nail-biter on the streets of Sapporo ]

We did make it to the hotel. Tomorrow we will be leaving and heading to Niseko. I just need to take a minute here and express gratitude for the superior technical performance of the hotel room bidet. The seat is gloriously heated, although there is a warning label that states that sitting for an extend time could cause low-temperature burns. 

[ Hotel honourable mention ]

Arrival Sapporo

 

Time Zone Travel.

[ Tokyo from the airplane with Mt. Fuji on the horizon line ]

Well, we left for the Raleigh airport at 6:00 in the morning on Wednesday and arrived in Sapporo at 10:00 on Thursday evening. It was a long day but with delights and adventures. From Raleigh we flew to Chicago O'Hare, then to Tokyo Haneda and finally to the New Chitose airport in Sapporo. Several little charms along the way:

[ Tom's fresh kicks and L.L. Bean bag! ]

[ Rice cracker airplane snacks ]

[ A view of Alaska from the air ]

Our travels went quite smoothly until we arrived in Tokyo Haneda Airport and realized we had to take our checked luggage from customs (seven LARGE checked bags), take them out to the street, flag down a shuttle bus, load the bags on the shuttle bus, and travel several miles to a different terminal at the airport. I will say that we had excellent team work to get this done, despite running on 14 hours of travel at this point. We had to muscle our way onto the front of the shuttle bus in an assembly line type fashion of passing the luggage between us and piling it onto the seats in the front of the bus (my first moments of real shame as an American with too much luggage!!); I just accepted the buffoonery of the moment and tossed luggage in a heap on the front seats without making eye contact with passengers on the bus who were looking on in horror. 

[ Tom preparing to muster at the shuttle stop ]

Once we arrived at Terminal 1 the madness continued. We had to squeeze our piled up carts of luggage into a VERY SMALL elevator while maneuvering through hoards of travelers with dainty suitcases. When we arrived at the gate we had missed our flight! I did some yoga breathing. 

[ Making the best of the situation ]

The Japan Airlines staff were very kind and helpful and were able to book us onto the next flight. We were very relieved to offload our ridiculous amount of luggage at least until our final destination in Hokkaido. We were rewarded by the presence of this little doggy at the checkin gate. 

[ A potential friend for Casper ]

Once in Sapporo we piled the luggage into two cabs and arrived at the ANA Crown Plaza hotel in Chitose and settled into very nice rooms by eleven o'clock pm. I think I was dreaming by 11:01. 

Cape Fear to Japan

 Leaving a Place (for a little while).

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." -Jawaharial Nehru

A final week of saying good bye to friends and family for a little while. 

Feeling grateful for all that I have learned and experienced during the past fifteen years of living and working along the Cape Fear Coast.

I can't wait for the Adventures of Norah & Vicki to begin!

See you in December, Casper!

Nutmeg Seed Pod

Fresh nutmeg wrapped in its protective pod.

 Here is the tree 

in the back garden.

Here is the sister who has plucked it.

Still Life with Coconut

Fresh coconut.

Finely ground.

Fire, griddle, coconut milk, expert cook.

A perfect morning in Kerala.