We spent three days at Niseko Village. I love Hokkaido in the winter. It doesn’t remind me of home, though lots of people in Japan think that Northern Ireland should be a snowy wonderland in winter. It looks like the sort of winter you see on old Christmas cards – more like Narnian winter than reality. If it wasn’t so cold it would be perfect.

We had wanted to try using a snowmobile for a while and this time we managed to hire one.  I didn’t have to drive, M did that, I just had to hold on.  That mostly worked but towards the end of the drive we managed to get stuck in a snowdrift and we both fell off the machine.  We were out with an instructor who was able to come to our rescue.  It’s certainly safer to fall off than a motorbike as the snow was very soft and deep. We also weren’t going very fast at the time as we were driving up the mountain.  It took a lot of effort to get back up as snow is surprisingly heavy when you end up buried in it.  It would also have been easier if we hadn’t been laughing so much.  It was a lot of fun and I would certainly try it again.  Maybe next time I’ll be braver and will try driving.

I have a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days.  I’m not strict with it.  It doesn’t have 101 things and once the 1001 days run out I reset the dates, carry forward the unfinished goals, and add new ones.  I like the name even if I’m not great with the concept.  It does show me that I achieved some of my personal goals in 2015.

I always have plans to write more though I fail at regular blog posts. I did take part in NaNoWriMo and managed to write 50,000 words of fiction in under 30 days.  This year I attempted to write something in third person, which felt quite different than the 1st person prose I have written in the past.

I read more than 100 books. I’m not sure what made me choose that number last year as it wasn’t a challenge as I’m fairly sure that I do that every year.  I did add more non-fiction books to my list and also read a few classics that I had been meaning to read for years. I picked “The Great Gatsby” as my 100th book.  I worry that classic books won’t be anywhere near as good as they are hyped to be but it is worth reading.

I saw Elton John in concert.  He was wonderful.   He played for 2 and half hours and I was surprised by how good he is live.

I learnt to crochet.  This something I have wanted to do for years.  I had tried before but got confused.  This time I asked a friend to help and I was really surprised to find out that unlike knitting it didn’t matter that I was left handed.  I have managed to make hats, scarfs, gloves, and a shawl since I started in August.

I wanted to learn new songs in both English and Japanese.  I wasn’t so good at the Japanese part but I did meet my goals in relation to English songs.  I also took part in a stage production with Body n Voice studios.  It was the first time I had performed in a musical since my early 20s, so it was a bit scary.  It turned out to be a lot of work so thankfully it was also a lot of fun.

Christmas always feels strange to me in Japan.  It’s a time for couples.  It’s a time for eating chicken and white sponge cake with strawberries.

Just like in the U.K. the shops are playing Christmas music but they are doing it in their own crazy Japanese way.  My local grocery store was playing four things at once today.   “Sleigh Ride” at a really fast speed, “All I want for Christmas”, some squeaky J-pop song, and someone was giving store announcements.  And then at the checkout area the “calorie mate” adverts were playing on little T.Vs.  I should really take earplugs when I go shopping to prevent the feeling that my head is going to explode.

I saw one nativity scene that made me laugh as it had polar bears and penguins. Odd looking Christmas trees are appearing across the city but I haven’t seen any yet that are actually made of tree.

 

I still get amused by the concept of food courses in Tokyo.  Last night I had a nine course meal.  We started eating at around 7pm but by the time I got home shortly after midnight I was feeling hungry again.  The food was lovely, but the courses were incredibly small.  I’m not sure that in Northern Ireland you would get away with describing one small mushroom as a course.  Or one grilled scallion, or two tablespoons of shredded radish, or six ginkgo nuts.  Thankfully the eel, which was the main part of the dinner, was a decent size.

I wonder if the “no photographs” policy was to ensure that pictures of the tiny courses didn’t appear on the Internet?

 

 

Coming up to Christmas we get a lot of post.  The Japanese postal service and the various couriers that are used are impressive.  I have received many parcels addressed incorrectly in English.  Sometimes these find their way here because the couriers ring the apartment in advance to check the address.  Lately we have received quite a few parcels with the wrong apartment number, and they usually work that out without asking.  My favourite though was a parcel addressed to:

MINAMIZE JUST

Which is the strangest spelling I’ve seen yet of Minami-senju.

 

November is passing quickly.  Sweeney Todd rehearsals have eaten up most of my spare time and will continue to do so for a few weeks yet.  I have finished making my costumes so that should free up some time.  I had hoped to crochet and knit some presents for Christmas, but I haven’t even started on that.  The other November time eater is NaNoWriMo – my annual attempt at writing 50,000 words of fiction in 30 days.  I’m on target for finishing on time with 25,004 words written.

Pal of my cradle days
I’ve needed you always
Since I was a baby upon your knee
You sacrificed everything for me
I stole the gold from your hair
I put the silver threads down
I don’t know anyway could ever repay
Pal of my cradle days.

– Ann Breen

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. – William Morris

I have clothes in vacuum sealed bags, some of which have not been used since I moved to Japan.  Today I threw out about half of them.  I have kept some that don’t fit but that qualify as beautiful.  Some are beautiful because of the memories associated with them.  I’m not going to throw out my wedding veil simply because it has no use.

Next, I need to tackle the wardrobes.

I went to the gym today. I can’t be the only person that has a head full of excuses. It seems I would rather do laundry and wash dishes than go.  And I’m not really sure why.  Once I’m there I always manage to get through my workout, but I have to drag myself to the place.  The gym was incredibly busy.  There had to be at least 50 people using machines and the classes were filled to capacity.  It certainly seems like other people can make the effort to get there.

I need to change how I feel about the gym or I need to find some other suitable form of exercise I can do elsewhere.

When I first moved to Japan I found it hard to understand how to sort out garbage.  (I used to call it rubbish, but no-one knew what I was talking about.) There were so many things that need separated.  Burnable waste, non-burnable waste, PET bottles, glass bottles, cans, cartons, cardboard, paper, and white food trays.  There is also a separate garbage collection for items that are bigger than the 45L bags that we are expected to use.

We’ve been renting in Tokyo for a while and lately have been thinking of buying.  When we went to look at new houses I saw a yellow basket sitting outside one of them.  I haven’t had to deal with communal recycling baskets since we moved to this apartment.  I stared at it trying to remember if it was for cans or bottles… and then all the horrors of garbage came back to me.  I have learnt how to separate garbage but I no longer have to worry about when it needs put outside.  In our current apartment we have a garbage room.   It’s an amazing place full of bins for all the different types of garbage.  I no longer have to wait for the two days in a week when I can get rid of smelly food stuff from my apartment, and I don’t need to know which days are the right ones for different types of recycling, and I don’t need to store garbage in my apartment unless I’m too lazy to move it.

If I had a house I would have to learn the garbage cycle again.  Every day I would be putting out a different type of garbage.  I could end up responsible for washing out the baskets in the street, there would be crow nets, wild cats, and cleaning garbage off the street when a mess was made.  I would end up cleaning other people’s garbage off the street as I’m sure just like the last place we lived that they would blame the foreigners every time a crow attacked or some other person put their garbage out too soon.  I don’t actually mind helping out if there is garbage lying in the street as I love living in a clean city, but I disliked being blamed for this.

I did like the giant crows.  They seemed to know the schedule better than me and would sit on the electric cables outside our home just waiting for something tasty to be taken out.

Maybe houses are a better buy, because of the associated land, but I would miss my garbage room.