And it keeps coming down...

And it keeps coming down... a video by dtk_guy on Flickr.

This was the scene outside my apartment yesterday afternoon. It started coming down around lunchtime. Michael and I had gone to Kappa Sushi and it had been sunny that morning but overcast and cloudy by the time we sat down. About 10 minutes later I looked out the window and the scene outside was like a blizzard! Needless to say the bike ride back home was entertaining. No spills or falls though.

Anyways, I got to witness the city's road sprinkler system in action. They have pipes set into the main roads with sprinkler heads flush with the road surface. The system serves to keep the snow from accumulating on the streets. Although I still wonder about the danger of the whole darn mess being turned into a massive skating rink.

Most parking lots also have sprinkler systems to clear off the snow with. As for individual households and small businesses: there's always the soaker hose. Yes, those hoses which people in North America use to sprinkle water onto their flower beds are used to keep driveways and sidewalks clear of snow in Yonezawa. I know there are companies advertising driveway and parking spot heating systems but I haven't seen any evidence of any in use so far...

Poor Jenny...

Poor Jenny..., a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

"Jenny" is the character depicted in the flash card with the phrase "put away your book"(sic). I taught at the Yamagata school last week and was quite surprised at the reaction to her I got from a class of four boys aged 8-10. I had them open their text books to a dialogue page which introduced the phrases "How old are you?" and "I'm seven years-old". The artwork depicted a birthday party for Jenny. The boys all reacted with protests like "I hate Jenny!", "I don't like Jenny", etc. I've never had any of the kids I teach at the Yonezawa school react like that so I was a bit befuddled.

Later on I came up with a possible explanation: boys that age don't always get along with girls. I'm guessing that the boys in question look at the "Jenny" character as being just like the girls they see at their regular schools. Thus the dislike for her. There could be other reasons but I can't seem to think of any right now.

There are a couple of positive things I can spin out of that situation: One, the boys obviously know the phrases "I don't like..." and "I hate...". So they certainly are learning English. Two, the people who worked on the "Let's Go" children's text books seem to have succeeded in creating a realistic multi-ethnic cast of characters...I just don't think they ever would have foreseen what I experienced....

All for ¥2082

All for ¥2082, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

Alright, I did the math and I'm not sure what to make of the result. I bought two steaks today for ¥400 each. I checked the packages and they weigh about 10oz. Using an exchange rate of ¥75 per C$1 I calculated that they cost $8.53/lb or close to $18.77/kg. Checking the label I believe they're rib eye steaks. Having gotten this far I have no idea if that's a good price or not anymore.

Carrying on with the food theme: I was thinking of making a baked dessert for the upcoming office potluck Christmas dinner. Then I remembered I don't have an oven. So I think I'll make chili con carne. Or maybe I should make something which will definitely raise some eyebrows: SPAM musubi. I know of a store in town that sells SPAM. Hmmm...maybe that'll be my contribution. That or a ramen salad. If I'm going to make that I need to bug my sister for her recipe.

One thing I haven't had a chance to do this past week is head over to Yamaya and see if they sell long grain rice. If I get really lucky they might sell basmati rice. I bought some vindaloo curry mix there last month so I figure there's a small chance they do sell long grain rice. But I don't know if I'm desperate enough to use something like Uncle Ben's instant rice if that's all they sell.

One thing I haven't bought much of since I've arrived is bread. The simplest explanation is that I don't have anything to make toast with. I suppose I'll have to invest in a toaster oven sometime or another. I saw that I've inherited a stove top toaster grill pan but Michael told me that Zubeda found out that the gas range has a sensor which detects if what you have sitting on it is overheating. It gives a beeping warning and he says she told him it would then shut itself off. I suppose I could try out the grill pan and see if I have a bit more luck with it. Which leads me to the next problem...trying to find something other than bleached white bread. I've heard you can get bagels so I suppose there is a small chance that one can get brown bread (rye, sourdough, and whole wheat are probably out of the question).

Anyways...enough talk about food for now...

Mini anyone?

Mini anyone?, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

For starters, I sort of have my doubts I'll see a Mini on the road once February rolls around. Though I don't have any doubts it could be driven but I just think it'll be a rare sight.

Second thought: I sort of wonder how much the inspection fees will be for those Minis. I believe once the age of a car gets above a decade the fees start getting quite high in relation to the value of the car. The fees for a car from the 1950s or 1960s probably would be astronomical.

Today was a pretty quiet day. I had a less than fulfilling time trying to keep abreast of the score of the Grey Cup game being played in Vancouver. Apparently the CBC wasn't broadcasting the game. So I was left clinging to the live blog on the CBC web site for information. I can't get live streaming video from the CBC website so I wasn't expecting that but the utter lack of video coverage from other sources was quite disappointing. Nonetheless I'm glad that the Lions won. It must of been quite a lot of fun in Vancouver this week.

After the game I wandered off, got some cash out of the nearest post office ATM, paid a bill at the nearest branch of Yamagata Ginko (bank) and then headed into a shop selling coffee which I've walked by many times but never gone into. It was a nice little boutique style shop. They were selling coffees from a variety of places. I picked up 200g of their Colombian beans. Will see how it tastes tomorrow morning.

My co-worker Michael had shown a bit under the weather on Saturday. He cancelled the Mexican food night he planned at his place and stayed at home on Sunday (I had gone to the gym without him). This afternoon he sent me an e-mail asking if I could cover his evening classes. I said I'd do that for him. So I signed onto the Japan Post website to reschedule the delivery I had requested for this evening. It goes without saying I was a bit surprised when I got a phone call around 6:30pm from a fellow saying he was at my door with a package. Looks like the updated delivery request didn't get to him. Oh well. I directed him towards and school and signed for the package on the street corner.

The first class was a smooth affair. No problems with that one as Michael had left the materials on his desk and everything was in order. The second class was a bit trickier. The lesson was only 60 minutes long and was like a private lesson but there were three students. And one fellow had only attended two lessons in the past twelve weeks. So for his benefit I backtracked in the text and essentially scrapped my lesson plan. The next thing which made this a tricky class was the fact that they're not exactly the most talkative trio. So getting them to say anything in English was like pulling teeth. It took about 25 minutes to get them warmed up. In the last part of the class they were a bit more relaxed and it wasn't a such a chore to keep a modest level of energy running in the room. For me that is an important aspect of teaching. We're a conversational English school...the whole object of the exercise is not for the teacher to be talking for the length of the lesson.

That's it for this edition. I'm still waiting for that first big dump of snow for this year's winter.

Same Same but Different

Same Same but Different, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

I tried these "donut holes" at MisDo this morning. They're okay but they're nowhere as good as Timbits. Now I really miss Tim Horton's.

I suspect this weekend is when the civic election is going to be. I guess I'll find out once the noise pollution from those speaker equipped campaign vans ends. I did have a chuckle when listening to one. I caught it at the point where the tape was going on about "Sorry for disturbing you....(yadda yadda yadda)...Thank-you very much. Thank-you very much. Thank-you very much.". Yes, the recording had someone saying "Domoarigato" repeatedly.

Kimura Supermarket...It's not all Bad

One thing I picked up yesterday at the Kimura supermarket I visited was a package of FG-1E fuses for the neon light in my "washiki" room (Japanese style room with tatami flooring). I had originally thought it was the tube which was burned out but after replacing it and finding the new one didn't light either then I knew the problem was the fuse. I was going to hike up to Yamada Denki or somewhere else equally distant but I'm happy I found the required fuse at a store within walking distance.

One other thing about shopping here: often produce is labelled with the name of prefecture where the produce was grown. Thus I chose not to buy the daikon (giant radish) which was grown in Tochigi and Ibaragi. Those two prefectures are in the Kanto region south of Fukushima. A co-worker was going on about a report from an international team of investigators who said that there shouldn't be any produce from Fukushima being sold due to radioactive contamination. They found a hotspot down in a field in Chiba last month and the aforementioned two prefectures are north of Chiba but south of Fukushima. Just being safe...

Yes, I did buy this...

Yes, I did buy this., a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

Okay...the last time I saw "Oh My" as a product name it was...oh, never mind. ;)

I made a quick run down to the nearby Kimura supermarket today. I forgot that they don't sell Starbucks coffee there. I think it's sold at the Yamazawa supermarket. Then again, I could be wrong it might be Max which carries it. Maybe I should just have Michael buy me some whenever he goes up to Yamagata. Anyways, I came home with onions, ground pork, some peanut flavoured snack food and this pasta. As I had said in the description of the photo, perhaps I should've bought penne at Yamaya but the idea of there being Hello Kitty branded pasta was silly enough so I fell for it.

I suspect that Yonezawa's civic elections are coming up soon. I've heard a number of cars going around blaring away messages of some form or another. I think I heard one mention someone's name (it followed up with "Thank-you" and other pleasantries). I also saw a sign board near the Machi no Hiroba square which has spots for candidates to put up their posters. I'm a bit amused at the idea of late fall, early winter civic elections here...it'll be fun to see if voter turnout is related to the weather conditions on voting day. The more snow they have, the less voters they have(?).

For the record: I believe the iTunes Canada store has a better selection of content than the iTunes Japan store. There are no TV shows available on the iTunes Japan store. There are plenty of Western movies (subtitled in Japanese of course). And you can dig up some obscure Western artists on the Japanese side. I checked and found that they had three albums by Art Bergmann (former K-Tels/Young Canadians front man) on sale. I really have my doubts that there are any native Japanese who know who Art is (I've seen him in concert with both YC and his later band, Poisoned).