Winter in Obihiro

The next night our friend from the University, Kazuki came from Sapporo for a visit. Kaz, Kat, Akamine and her sister, Naka and I all went to bartend at the light festival which lasted until about 9:30. Not having eaten on this freezing cold night, we went to the restaurant market in downtown Obihiro. The restaurant market is one very narrow pedestrian street with little booth restaurants crammed together on either side. The booth restaurants all specialize in something, for example, there is a sushi booth, a ramen booth, a soba booth etc. Each restaurant is made up of one tiny room, probably about 8 meters square in total. This includes the kitchen, the two cooks, often husband and wife teams and a bar style table that wraps around the tiny kitchen and chefs. We went to a ramen house and took up the whole booth with just the six of us. The booth set up almost forces you to talk to the cooks preparing food right in front of you, and makes for a very laid back and friendly meal.

The next day, Akamine's sister left but Kazuki was still here so we decided to go skating in what he called "the forest." It turns out that the forest is not a forest at all, and in fact has less trees than downtown Obihiro. The forest is the name for a complex of arenas in Obihiro that is apparently famous for turning out Olympic speed skaters. We got to the ice rink but it was not open for recreational skating and we ended up watching the Obihiro-Hakodate men's final hockey game.  I never thought I would find myself watching a hockey game in Northern Japan, since I've barely seen a hockey game in Canada, but there I was explaining the rules that I knew to my friends. We left after the first period, there is only so much Canadian culture shock I can handle, and made for the speed skating dome to see if we could try that. We ended up walking in through the back door of the Hokkaido speed skating championships, for those who didn't make it to the Olympics. This is the speed skating dome that is used by the speed skating high school in Obihiro, where promising speed skaters from Japan go to get through high school while maintaining vigorous training schedules. We watched the whole 1 and a half hour race, which was very exciting, and then wandered out again, not knowing if we should have paid or not.  

Kazuki brought peanut balls, my favorite kind from Sapporo, and we crunched away all the way back to the office!

Skinny Dipping on a Frozen Lake

This weekend, Akamine's sister came to visit from their home town which is just east of Tokyo. We were told that that night (Friday night) we would be going out for barbecue and then heading to the igloo village on Lake Shikaribetsu, and then to an onsen. Akamine left the office early (that means before 8pm) to pick up her sister and we rushed out of the office soon after, collected our shampoo, towel and soap for the onsen and headed to meet them at the restaurant. We had a very large dinner of various meats and vegetables to grill on our grill table, including the two local specialties Ghingis Khan (seasoned lamb) and Buttadon (spiced pork). We met Akamine's sister who was very nice, quiet and shy, and I think was especially shy around a conspicuous foreigner such as myself. Full to the brim, we all pilled into the car and headed an hour and a half north through the mountains to Lake Shikaribetsu. Winding through the narrow mountain roads offered a spectacular view of the twinkling lights of Obihiro City far below. 

We arrived at the frozen lake surrounded by forested mountains, that is used as a base for the construction of a snow village, differently themed every year. This year the theme was arctic, so all the buildings were igloo shaped, some themes of the past have been Egyptian pyramid and middle eastern mud brick houses. We wandered through the picturesque village and into all the little igloos where we found a bar, a small movie theater, a theater where they have plays and performances, and a snack restaurant. All the igloos were scattered around a main central pathway lit up every few meters with beautiful snow lanterns. There were also little igloos that you could rent for the night, and a an outdoor onsen which we decided to try out.  Undressing in an unheated igloo in the middle of a frozen lake and running into a hot tub was to tempting to turn down. We made our way to the women's side of the onsen, undressed to the bones and then made the mad dash out of the igloo into the steaming hot pool. It was well worth the run. It was one of those times, those times that everything is just right, you can't help but live right in the moment. I was completely at ease with a full tummy, good company and the steaming hot pool so serene as the centerpiece of the green mountainous backdrop.  

Cheesery

Note* I've been trying to look up the correct way of describing the place where cheese is made, but so far I've had no luck, and I'll refer to it as the cheesery. 

On Thursday afternoon, Takano, Akamine, Kat and I, pilled into the car and headed off to Takano's friend's cheesery. I didn't really know why we were going, just for a site visit they explained and a meeting, turns out we were actually there to present the proposal to the staff of the cheesery, and try to convince them that the project is worth their while. That's where we, the interns come in, we were explained later that not only would this be a good educational opportunity for us, but showing clients that the firm has international student interns will make them seem more serious. The cheesery is not only a cheesery though, it is an educational facility for disabled people who come and par-take in cheese making programs. All the cows that produce the milk for the cheese are also kept by the cheesery owners and incorporated into the day programs, so that people can produce their cheese from start to finish. We had our meeting at the beautiful restaurant, converted from a high ceilinged barn and has now become a very cozy cheese and local produce shop with intricately made corn husk dolls adorning almost everything. Corn husk dolls ploughing, with their corn husk cows, corn husk dolls playing, even a corn husk doll in a corn husk air balloon suspended from the ceiling. 

We received the regular more than generous dose of coffee during the meeting, and since I can never understand much, I manage to drink my coffee faster than anyone else, leaving my cup susceptible to more refillage.  Hence, I often spend a lot of my time enjoying the wonderful heated toilet seats and bidays of the japanese washrooms. Success! They got the bid to design the master plan for the cheesery, farm and pastures, to include more programming, such as nature walks and soap making, facilities for a summer farm camp for children, an outdoor organic community garden and kitchen, and better accessibility for their visitors. Takano and Akamine-san were very happy they got the project, and they couldn't stop smiling and speaking very quickly. It was no surprise to me that we stopped at a cake shop on the way home to celebrate, I have probably eaten my year's ration of cake already and it's only February. 

*Quick note about Japanese Sweets

Traditional Japanese sweets are sweets beans and mochii(a kind of sticky rice paste). There is still a lot of mochii and sweet beans but it seems they have enthusiastically embraced the Western taste for sweets, and cake and pastries are very popular. The cake is different though from Canadian cake, much lighter and less sweet. They substitute slightly sweetened whipped cream for icing, and almost all cakes incorporate fruit in some way. The other day we had a broccoli chiffon cake for dessert, not very sweet and no icing, but very tasty!  Most people in Japan don't have their own ovens because they take up a lot of space, so most baked goods come from the many bakeries dotted around. 

Syonara Sapporo

We finally headed out from Sapporo on Wednesday at noon with Takano.  Takano is just a very noisy man, but it is more endearing than anything. He is always humming little tunes to himself, or talking to himself, or chewing gum, or snorting.  When we left Sapporo and headed out on our 5 hour journey he spent the first half an hour singing "I will fallow you," and hitting his head in various places as if he were shaping a loaf of bread. A little while after he explained he was quite tired, which explained the head slapping. A little nervous about my drowsy driver, I suggested that we stop for coffee and stretch our legs. The rest of the trip involved more japanese american pop fusion humming, but luckily the head slapping ceased. 

Parks and Beaver Tails

Today (Monday), although many of the staff wanted up to continue work on the model, Takano insisted that we go out with our friend Kazuki from the university to Takino Ecological park, an hour south of the office. Kaz picked us up and we headed to the roughly 20 hectare park. During the winter there were cross country and downhill skiing routes, as well as snow shoeing trails. The portion that TLP designed was not open until April, but we got to see the very elaborate exterior. It was the main children's play area and was supposed to mimic animal habitat, in an effort to show children how they live. The area consisted of a human scaled ant habitat, including a series of underground tunnels, peek holes and a large ant nest to climb up; as well as bird habitats, with elaborate nests woven into groups of trees to be discovered. 

The next day we went to a park designed by Isamu Noguchi, a very famous Japanese-American sculptor. It was blizzarding outside though and quite impossible to actually go outside. Luckily there was a gallery inside a very beautiful glass pyramidal building to be explored.  Noguchi had a very difficult upbringing being half Japanese and always moving from Japan where he was rejected by his father, to America, where he was faced with a lot of racism.  In an autobiography he explains that he was interested in landscape design because it has the unique power to directly connect people to sculpture as well as the natural environment. He also believed that is was imperfections that made a thing great and beautiful, and that we should not enforce unnatural perfection standards on anything or anyone. 

That night, I promised Kazuki, to make and his cousin (who came to see the Canadians) a Canadian dessert, if he made his famous Korean food for us. With no oven, and very select ingredients from the grocery store, I found myself making 2 dozen beaver tails in the office kitchen. They were a huge success and Kazuki's very small female cousin ate about six. 

    

Horse Apples

I just found out that the big bushel of apples Takano brought to the office that I have been demolishing speedily, were in fact for his horses. They were given to him by his neighbour who has an orchard, and were apparently not good enough quality to sell to the market. 

Then Takano told me that his horses wouldn't eat them, so he brought them to the office. So I guess I'm a more experimental eater than I thought I was. 

Bribing Children

Warning* (This is an exert from a paper I have to write for school so the tone is more formal than usual)

Tsukisamu Park is a large park located in the south of the city of Sapporo, imbedded in a residential neighbourhood with a few surrounding shops and restaurants. It was designed in the 1960s and is now in need of a revamping, with its three large baseball fields sorely underused, and the children’s play areas fallen into disrepair. While I was doing a field survey of the park, one thing that struck me was how closely it was connected to the surrounding neighbourhood. Just a very narrow street separated the yard-less doors of houses and restaurants, to the open green space. 

We were introduced to the project context and background and were taken to the site to do an initial survey. We then began construction on a very large (roughly 3 m2) model of the existing park; out of wood, plasticine, styrofoam, and paper, for the most part. Making the model very enjoyable and helped me understand the geography of the site as a whole, and its context. Our next big task was to help in the first workshop that the firm was to host for the park. Most of the employees of the firm assisted in the two-day workshop to lead the building of a snow fortress in the park. 

The concept for children’s play in the park, similar to that of Myonnoka and most of Takano’s children’s parks, is to create an environment for creative play, rather than providing static playground equipment. The programming utilizes the commissioned park play leader to help guide the children to creating their own play opportunities with recycled material or naturally occurring materials from the park; such as a jungle gym woven in the trees with rope, or a tree fort constructed out of abandoned timer. The aim of the workshop was to encourage passing by children to join in the building, and demonstrate to parents and children the potential for more creative play using simple tools and naturally occurring materials (in this case snow). 

This workshop was part of a small snow festival the park was hosting, in which the firm contributed a booth where children and their parents could come in to warm up and enjoy a hot drink and describe what they liked and didn’t about building the snow fort, and what they wanted to see or do in their new park. Because of the language barrier, I spent most of the two days building the structure and setting up the booth. I spent about half a day sculpting a face out of snow for above the main entrance of the fort. We are continuing to work on the design of the park and are now to do a quick charette style park design ourselves, to be presented at a staff meeting next week.  

Birthday Cakes and Throwing Beans

n the morning before we took off, Yamagi mentioned quickly that tonight was the night that 'we throw the beans.' I had no idea what he meant by this, and by the time 10 pm rolled around I figured the beans were off,  but I was wrong. Murata-San (another employee who had just returned from working on a project in Samoa) and Yamagi-San had gone out, but I've gotten very used to having no idea where people are going or when they are coming or what I'll be doing in 15 minutes, and generally not knowing what's going on; so naturally, them going out seemed perfectly normal. They returned however with three big bags in tow and immediately started cutting out cardboard circles. They then drew scary faces on them and tied a string to make a mask. Yamagi put on the mask and we were to throw the blessed peanuts at him and should "go away evil spirits", and "come good fate,"in japanese of course. We took turns (except Kat) wearing the mask and having peanuts thrown at us, and then Murata-San announced abruptly that it was now time to eat, which I really wasn't happy to hear after I had just eaten a huge dinner. He handed everyone something like a very long role of sushi and explained that this year the lucky direction is South-West so we all have to turn to the direction and eat the roll without talking or turning until we finish the whole thing. I was really stuffed and the idea of eating the entire roll was very daunting, so I tried to leave little bits, but Murata who took the process very seriously kept glancing in my direction every few seconds to check my progress. I finished at last and could relax knowing that I won't be haunted by any evil spirits this year. I started walking back to my desk when they explained I could not sit down until I ate 20 peanuts (one for every year I have been alive), I was only greatful that I wasn't Ueda-San who had to eat 57 peanuts. 

The next night Yamagi's girlfriend came from Nara to celebrate Yamagi's birthday. Although most don't know the meaning of half the words, everyone knows the song Happy Birthday in english and sing it on people's birthday. Generally, very few people people in Japan have ovens, so they bought a cake from the bakery and I made smores in honour of the day. After a bottle of Sake was cracked open, Yamagi struck up a conversation in english about how when he dies he wants to sees giant redwoods and baobabs. He actually meant to say, which took us about half an hour to decipher that he wants to see them before he dies. He then started drawing lumber jacks and how large he imagined the redwoods to be in Canada, so wide that 30 people could stand around them holding hands. I drew a line through his tree and tried to explain that they were not so wide, which led to an even more confusing conversation when he became convinced that Canadians were chopping their trees in half and then just leaving them. 

No birru at the brewery

Without anything to do monday we decided to go downtown Sapporo for a wander. In Japan all cities have a subway system and a train system that is connected to the national train system, so there are two networks of public transportation which crisscross and meet sometimes to create a confusing system unless you're in the know. We arrived at Sapporo's main station where all subway lines, train lines, and bus lines meet, needless to say it was huge and very confusing. To add to that there is a giant underground shopping mall and restaurant area, probably the size of the eaton center buried under everything. We finally escaped and made our way to the famous Sapporo clock tour which was once part of the University of Hokkaido. The city of Sapporo was established after Japan's long period of cultural isolation at the end of the 1800's. The politics of the country changed dramatically there was a strong interest in westernizing the country. Because Hokkaido was barely touched before this time, the foundations of the city could be built up in the western style. The agricultural university was taught mainly by americans  who introduced new methods and machines for farming. They even insisted that the Japanese speak only english and take on an American diet, defined as mostly bread, milk, pork and ice cream, to have a true cultural immersion. We then went to a large department store called Tokyu Hands, which is in theory supposed to be a craft supply store, but this 6 storey shop sold a lot more than craft supplies. Valentine's day is a big deal in Japan, and women traditionally make sweets to give to their sweet hearts and friends. Not only did they have kits to make truffles and cakes, but had equally as many to make plastic sweets, and decorative cakes. The store also had three different kinds of bamboo ear wax pickers and hand towels that were folded so they looked like various desserts. 

The next day I went by myself to the botanical gardens of the university and went inside the various greenhouses, as the outside portion does not open until spring. I then went to the first city hall, which is in a western style like most historic buildings in Hokkaido, with beautiful red bricks and a large garden surrounding it. And of course like all trees and shrubs in Japan, all the ones in the city hall park were wrapped up beautifully with bamboo stakes, twine and burlap to protect them from the harsh winters. The building has now turned museum, and they had a full two rooms devoted to propaganda about the three islands that are pseudo shared with russia, just north of Hokkaido, and how the Japanese should take ownership. I then walked over to the Sapporo brewery hoping for a brewery tour or beer tasting. I arrived to the beautiful red brick building, very much in the style of the distillery district in Toronto, and wandered around looking for something beer like. There was none to be had! Just one room with old boilers, beer cans and tv commercials. The old building was filled with small artisan shops with specialty goods from the Sapporo area, mostly shortbread and pumpkin filled (my personal favorite) cookies and chocolates with dehydrated strawberries inside (also very tasty).

I

Voulez-vous coucher aver moi se soir?

Exhausted from the day before, I woke up late Monday morning, to hit my head as usual on the light in the stairway, and then the entrance to the office, and then again on the entrance to the kitchen. We spent the day getting acquainted with the very quirky Yamagi-San, who sounds very french when he speaks his broken english. This is because, as he informed us, he learned english from a french intern who came over who taught him useful french words of which he was forever repeating after he heard I spoke french. Some of them included "vichyssoise, bbouillabaisse and voulez-vous couchez avec moi se soir, etc." He added that he used the last phrase on a group of french interns that came over and as a consequence they avoided him the whole two months they were here. Yamagi is an amazing chef, and we eat very well while he is around, on monday we had chinese style food and then the next night we had a japanese style seafood curry. 

Goats and Curry

We didn't get to sleep in this morning, instead we were swept off back to the Kindergarten school for the morning with Akamine-san to meet her friends and show them around. After bonding with the ponies and feeding them little bits of my apple, we were off again, this time we were going to a friend of a friend's restaurant in the outskirts of Sapporo, which actually turned out to be in the forest. The restaurant specialized in goat's milk products, especially bread and cheese, which is what I had for lunch. After we ate, we went on a tour to see the building behind the restaurant and house, which we discovered housed all the goats they milk, as well as chickens, bunnies, and storage space for wheat. The restaurant, run by a husband (also a an architect) and wife team, produces all the food for their restaurant, including vegetables, cheese and bread on site, so they only use seasonal ingredients. 

We left the restaurant and headed to a park that Takano had designed on top of a mountain offering a view to the entire city and the ocean beyond. From there we drove an hour to an onsen that was high in the mountains, and from the hot pools outside there was an amazing view to the snow covered valleys. The onsen had a curry restaurant, and as I was ordering I was very surprised to see a whole kitchen full of Indian men speaking perfect japanese while shaping Naan bread. It was very sureal. But I have to admit, I don't think I've ever had better Naan!

Beef Deluxe

After finishing the fortress, all the under thirties, there were 6 of us, went to a beautiful onsen. This one had many pools of different temperatures and several outside that were dotted amid a traditional Japanese garden. After warming up and cleaning off we went to a barbecue restaurant, that they told me was being payed for by the principal of the school who gave us 20 000 yen for dinner to thank us for our work. We sat around the barbecue table as the eccentric yamaji-San ranted about the Spanish intern who came a few years ago who wouldn't stop taking pictures of him and everything. According to him, he would take over a thousand a day. They then informed me that they ordered the beef deluxe for us to share and grill. I was relieved and surprised we were eating something as normal as beef, no, it couldn't be, something's up. It was as I suspected, beef deluxe was actually a sampling of various body parts of the cow, even some, that the waitresses couldn't identify. There was however cow stomach, liver, tongue, heart and skin. I didn't eat the skin, but the others were surprisingly okay, although the stomach was very chewy.

 I'm definitely going vegetarian when I get back. 

Kinder-topia

Today we (all the employees and I) left the house bright and early for a kindergarten school on the edge of Sapporo that we were giving a workshop at. The school called Myonnoka, although I'm sure that spelling is wrong, is right at the edge of the forest on a high hill that offers a beautiful view of the City. The school's mission is to immerse children into the natural environment and teach them about living closer with nature. They have kindergarden classes during the day, and offer after school and weekend programs for older children. They have also started offering art and activity classes for parents and adults. The school was almost solely designed by Takano Landscape Planning, even the buildings and interiors and programming were chiefly designed by the firm. The design process taken was described to me by Takano as ecological democracy, so that all people, plants and animals have equal rights, and everyone's needs are balanced. By involving all the people who are going to share the space as much as possible, not only will a more successful place result, but a respectful environment, where children, parents, teachers, plants, and animals are treated equally, working together to create a sustainable space for all parties. The school is centered around a large-ish round pony pen. They have 7 ponies that the kids ride and take on treks through the woods and fields. They also have their own ski slope that all the kindergarden kids learn to downhill ski on. All the buildings were designed to focus on one ecozone. The main office building is built into the natural hill and on top they have a large vegetable garden and bee hives that the kids plant and harvest. On the natural cliff that extends from the building, is a rock climbing wall disguised into the stone. Another main building focuses on the pond ecosystem and extends from the top of a hill to sit over part of the pond on stilts, with a deck in the front. The third main building allows children to study the air, and is a large greenhouse, that is kept sodded in the winter to use as playing field and storage space for the school bus, and transforms into a swimming pool in the summer. The Main building is a large converted barn with a very large open room for all the classes to gather, a secret loft with ladder for kids to play in, and class rooms with views to the mountains. The buildings are not connected, instead teachers thought it was important that kids should be aware of their outside environment, and so a slightly raised boardwalk connects the main buildings, so they can keep their slippers on. They have treeforts in the forest and mini hot springs in the hill, and even a tipi that they use for campfires. 

We were here however, to help them build a large snow fort that would serve as a winter classroom. When we arrived they had already piled a 10 by 10 meters, and probably 2 meter high snow mound for us to start shaping. A student from the landscape architecture department of the University of Hokkaido was also there to help (Kaz) who was very friendly and spoke english very well, so well he could even ask us if we liked karaoke, and after hearing my positive answer invited us to come out on Friday. Anyways . . .  after giving my presentation to the kids about the Canadian arctic culture and igloos, we began construction. Takano was the chief visionary for the project and decided where the three main doorways would be as well stairs and a large snow slide. The kids were really cute, and very useful at hollowing out the hill because they could fit into the little tunnels. It is Takano's ongoing joke that when ever there is a task to be done up high, the tall Canadian should do it! Even when there were men who were just as tall as I was, I think he enjoyed calling on me when he couldn't reach, "We need a tall Canadian over here!" after which he would laugh jovially and adjust his furry earmuffs. The mound was hollowed, complete with tunnels and secret passageways, the stairs were carved, and everything was decorated with snowballs, and snow sculptures. All the kids had constructed their own flags and they all ceremonially placed them on the roof of the fort. After the principal and teachers gave permission, the kids were set loose on the fort and went wild. Some were jumping off the roof, others had found candles that they were using as torches, and they were all generally having a great time with their new jungle gym. When it hit 6, parents finally got impatient and started collecting their kids who in some cases buried their feet in snow so they didn't have to leave. After most had left he told me that "these are the times that give landscape architects the most pleasure, when you create a space that is loved."

Oh I forgot to mention the name of the second man-Yamaji-San!

Coffee and Cigarettes

On friday morning I found myself packing up all my worldly possessions as we were all to leave the Otofuke office by noon and head to the firm's Sapporo branch. We were going to be there for at least 10 days, and I thought I should be prepared for any event in case they make us climb a mountain or give a speech to the CEO of a big bank, which now seems completely plausible. So I filled my big backpacking knapsack about half full and headed to the office to help pack. I arrived to see everyone else's bags lined up next to the car, they all had grocery bag size bags of luggage which looked like mini smart cars next to my hummer of a bag. I felt really North American as they unpacked everything from the back of the car in order to fit my beast in the trunk. 

The five of us, me, Takano-San, Katherine, Naka-San and Akamine-San pilled in to the car and started the 4 1/2 hour journey through the mountains to the coastal city of Sapporo. We quickly stopped at Takano San's house to pick up some supplies we would need for the week. Takano lives with his wife in an old farm house that they completely renovated. Their house is a traditional Japanese farmhouse with all the original hard wood floors, high ceilings and large wooden beams. They also have a guesthouse or entertaining house he called it that was converted from a cow barn. The entertaining house had a very long and low table that would probably seat about 20. It also had grills set into it all the way along for hot pot or barbecue paaty. There was also a loft level with tatami floors where mr and mrs Takano do Tai chi in the morning. Takano is not only a leading architect in Japan, but also casually dropped in that he is ranked 5th in Japan for horse jumping as he showed us the two horses he kept. 

The 4 hour journey through the mountains was spectacular, the road wound around the hills and up the steep slopes through little villages and farms. Higher up, the farms became beautiful coniferous and deciduous forest weighed down with the 2-3 meters of snow. I felt as if I was driving through a winter wonderland snow globe. 

We finally arrived in Sapporo, marked by a lovely 'Curves' fitness for women just as you enter the city. The office is close to downtown and tiny. There are three small rooms downstairs plus a kitchen, and two bedrooms upstairs. We arrived at the office and pretty much simultaneously Naka, Akamine and Takano got to a desk and started working. Not even a nod to the other employees at the office who didn't even lift their heads as we came in. Very confused about the whole situation, Kat and I also sat down a table and started checking our email. I went into the kitchen and couldn't believe the volume of cigarette butts in the compost maybe over 70, that was until I looked over at the desk and saw even more in various ash trays on the desk. I attempted to make some coffee, but there were no filters left, and looking around I found a large cardboard box under the counter that was full to the brim with coffer grounds and filters. I resolved to have tea instead.

About 15 minutes later the other two men working at the office, Ueda-san (mid forties project leader type) and  (late twenties crazy but hilarious type), came over and introduced themselves. Almost as soon as we had finished introductions, everyone started packing up again, and pilling into the car to what I finally found was a lecture about urban design at the University.  It was the usual crowd, business men in black suits, a few women and me, looking out of place as ever in a bright pink shirt with disheveled blonde hair to compliment. There turned out to be no pictures in this two and a half hour lecture about urban design in Japanese, but it became very productive doodling time. We went out for dinner after and finally arrived home, and then set up our futons upstairs. I was really exhausted but had to finish a presentation on the inuit and igloos that I had to make at a kindergarden school the next day. 

I went to bed late, frustrated and cold, but was humoured by a fleecy quilt with sleeves on my bed. 

Conveyer food

Most of our time in the office is spent doing not a whole lot. Today however we were tasked to edit the firm's english brochure. Most of the work involved moving the subject of the sentence from a yoda type structure (Running children to get to school) to standard english structure (Children running to get to school). 

There was a big snow storm today, and in light of the bad weather, Maeni-San offered to drive us the 2 minutes from the office to our house. Her english is not strong and when we got in the car she struck up a conversation in Japanese, to which I responded with many smiles and nods. We got to the driveway of the house and oddly enough the car wasn't stopping, was there something I missed? Where were we going? Should I trust this Japanese lady who feeds me cookies and candies everyday? Was she fattening me up for a reason? 

I chose to trust her in the end, even after we left Otofuke, and then Obihiro, and our trip home had now turned into a 40 minute trek to nowhere. At last we arrived at our destination, which was to my relief, a restaurant. All the tables were placed around a large conveyer belt in the middle of the restaurant. The conveyer belt which probably measured around 50 m in total was carrying all sorts of sample sized sushi, sea weed salads, fruit, jellies, rice ball things, spring rolls, and faux American food. In the center of the oval shaped conveyer belt were 4 chefs who's job it was to stock the conveyer belt. We sat down at our table, as I watched the food move along past my shoulder. Maeni-San, like everyone here seems keen to make me try different Japanese foods, so on this occasion I sampled octopus and scallop sashimi and a few variations of sea weed salad. As the little plates of strange food piled up on the table, I was comforted by the biyabon (traditional japanese stringed instrument) covers of familiar Michael Jackson songs. To pay for our meal, the server simply came over and scanned over our plates with a zapper machine to decode the prices embedded in microchips in the plates. 

 

Oh I forgot to mention that after the dinner party Friday the men were eating peanut balls!

Part 7- Dori Won't You Blow?

On Sunday we woke up early to go on an bird watching boat tour in the Tokachi river. Still pretty tired after barista-ing till late Saturday night, I pulled on my regular three pairs of pants, 2 sweaters and 3 pairs of socks and headed to the car and slept on the way there. Once at the meeting place, we piled into vans with the other bird watchers and headed to the place where we would put our boats in the water. The was in particular for eagle watching, as this area attracts two species or really big eagles from Russia. I didn't understand anything that our guide said which was pretty frustrating, but we were lucky enough to see two eagles quite close, as well as several interesting ducks and cranes by the water's edge. 

As soon as our tour ended we dashed off to the Otofuke band's quarterly concert at the Tokachi ecology park and centre, also designed by the firm, including the interiors and building concepts. The place was overflowing with children and so accordingly the band played songs from popular anime songs, featuring a woman dressed in high socks, a fuzzy white poncho, marching around with an umbrella. They also played bizarre versions of Western songs including "I've been working on the Railroad" with Dinah won't you blow substituted with Dori won't you blow (a japanese gilr's name).  

Aside-the shower situation

Showering in our tub at home is a particular adventure. The shower room is not heated, so in order to get into it, you have to brave the cold of getting into the steel tub with no clothes on. The pressure is also not very strong, so hot water only reaches isolated regions of the body, leaving others wet and exposed to the freezing air. 

They are fixing the heater in the bathroom soon. But until then, we'll go to the public baths frequently.  

Part 6 - Lighting up the cold

As I was discussing with the other intern the other day, this is not an experience that an inflexible person could handle. If you are a picky eater or have to sleep at certain times or have to correspond to people everyday, or just are not good at going with the flow, THIS IS NOT THE TRIP FOR YOU. Even I who consider myself quite flexible am finding it quite frustrating at times.

Tuesday

The staff at the firm are not very comfortable with english, and as a result they don't always keep us informed about what we will be doing, or not doing. In the office we usually don't do a whole lot, so on Tuesday when I came to the office expecting to do not a whole lot and was informed half an hour after getting to there that I was going to a fancy lunch party thing that I had to dress up for, I was quite annoyed. I ran home and changed into a dress, hopped in Takano-san's car, and off we went to a hotel in downtown Obihiro for a New Years Party hosted by one of the owner of one of the largest banks in Japan, who also owns a newspaper company in Hokkaido. We parked the car and headed for the entrance when we were met with a wall of people from the press awaiting the arrival of the bank man and his son, who was taking over the newspaper. After pushing our way through the cameras we had entered what seemed like a sea of Japanese business men in black suits. Needless to say I stuck out like a sore thumb being a blonde girl in a bright turquoise dress. As we climbed the stairs to the main hall, Takano-san as usual started introducing us to all his friends, which are plentiful. At this particular event I met about 35, including the leader of the slow food movement in Japan, and the owner of the bank. We entered the main hall where there were about 2000 business men assembled . . . and me. The room was filled with beautiful food, 20 kinds of pastries, fruits, sashimi, every kind of tempura, roast beef, potatoes, chicken, fish, rice, seaweed, cheese, and Takano insisted that we try everything, as well as every drink! After filling up and feeling pretty light headed from the 5 varieties of sake he made me try, we piled in the car and headed to what I thought was going to be the office.

Little did I know that we were actually going to help out at the light festival the firm was designing in the tourist town of Tokachi Gawa (Tokachi is the region and Gawa means river). Luckily I brought a pair of pants to put over my tights which made working outside in -15 possible. The main light display was already set up and consists of large triangular and globular paper like lanterns on about 3 football fields worth of hill and field. The light festival which was designed completely by the firm includes the main display as well as a little log house to sell local products from Tokachi, a te-u (hot tub for your hands) a tobogan slide, rides on a big rubber raft pulled by a snowmobile and a clear vinyl house, basically a plastic greenhouse to house a restaurant cafe and the ashi-u (hot tub for feet). It's put on by the surrounding hotel owners and is free for everyone, and I guess attracts lots of tourists to the area mostly from southern Japan, Taiwan and china, who have never or seldom experienced the comparatively wild north. The designers and the hotel owners and chief staff were also responsible for setting a lot of it up, and in effect us the designer interns. The landscape architect not only designed the light displays outside, but the interiors, the menus, the signs and whatever else needed designing.

we spend Tuesday forming 300 giant snowballs with the other hotel owners for later construction of giant lighting cones to go at the entrance of the vinyl house. It was very cold and wet. The sun goes down at around 4:30 and then it gets really cold. We figured we would be leaving when it was dark outside, but the kindly brought us a light so we could keep working until the meeting with the electricians was over at 6:30. We finally headed back to our house, which takes about half an hour, but stopped for an hour to pick some things up that we needed from the store, to get home at around 8:30, I'm glad I had a big lunch!

The next day we left the house at 7:30 am, to arrive for a breakfast meeting with the hotel owners at 8. I have eaten many strange things since arriving but none as strange as the beans I had for breakfast that morning. Strange and stringy and very strong tasting I couldn't help but gag very loudly while they were discussing the menu. It started a wave of laughter that rolled down the table and it was then that they decided to eliminate the beans from the menu. The hotel owners are really nice and although I can't understand them most of the time, they are still really hilarious and are obviously way to comfortable with each other. The next two nights were late and cold as well, running out the door early and munching my breakfast of rice crackers, almonds and apples in the car. The highlights of my day running in to the heater in the vinyl house every half hour or so to defrost my hands, and laughing at the hilarious hotel men. 

On Friday was the grand opening of the festival and with half an hour to go we finally finished setting everything up. One of the hotel owners announced that I should be the bartender/barista of the vinyl restaurant because the way he saw it people would be impressed by a foreigner who has come so far just for the festival. Bad idea. I had no idea how popular the event was, I was bartender with two others Friday, Saturday and Sunday with crowds of a few hundred every night at least. Getting people drinks in a busy restaurant is one thing, but when you can't understand the people you are serving it makes is a great deal more difficult. I understood the obvious things but often they would just start talking to me, or talking about me or asking me questions, at these times I smiled and said yes. If this failed I would look confused until they asked someone else. Eventually I got moved on to production of drinks as people slowly realized that maybe I wasn't cut out for the job. I did however get on local television twice while working! Both times consisted of me handing the TV person a hot chocolate and saying "tastes good!" 

I knew by now that it was good to fill up on food while I could because I didn't know when the next feeding would be. Naturally I filled up at the opening with Japanese style hamburgers and rice burgers. Only after the opening did I realize my mistake, when Naka-San let us know that we were off to the after party at a restaurant in downtown Obihiro, and one of the hotel owners told me that we were sleeping over at his hotel because we would be too full of "drink" to go home. 

We arrived at the restaurant and we had our own little room, and a large table already filled with sashimi, 2 big hot pots, and skewers of meat and veggies. we were not there two minutes before they started ordering sake and beer and almost everything on the menu. After a few drinks the hotel guys were getting even more hilarious and asking Kat and I which one of them was 'our type,' this was followed by a group palm reading session, a game to get the canadians try as much strange food as possible, and an english lessons to give them street cred in Canada. words such as comeback and dis were particularity popular. That night I managed to get down sashimi octopus, boiled lamb brain and some kind of fish gill. Much of this has been documented on film which I promise I'll put up soon!

We ended our night at the hotel at around 1am, but before we went to bed we went to the onsen at the hotel for a late night dip in the extremely hot water.

warm at last.

Part 6- Peanut balls

My commute to work is about 5 minutes walking, but this distance seems to have made me even more tarde. I was rushing to work today and brought breakfast to go in the form of these really tasty peanut balls (peanut covered in rice cracker and seaweed). I got to my desk and started working when one of my co-workers spotted my peanut balls, and started laughing. She said something in japanese to the others, releasing a chain of hysterical laughter at me and my peanut balls. I learned later that these cracker things are only eaten by old men when they are very drunk. I still think they're delicious.   

Part 5- Japanese TV and beyond

Last night, Katherine, Naka-San and I sat down to play Japanese monopoly while watching a strange show on TV. It was a two hour long special about elastic band guns, and featured about 20 people testing out different weapon designs by seeing how many paper cups they could knock down. This was followed by a program about a group of transvestites helping a young guy get into University. Most airtime is taken up with melodramatic to the point of hilarious dramas, and equally over-the-top game shows. 

Part 4- Paaty!

Last night my house mate Naka-San took us to a hot-pot party with some of her friends. It is kind of like fondue, with a big bowl of broth and lots of vegetables instead of cheese, and you dip in thin strips of meat. It was very tasty, I didn't understand most of the conversation but I know how to say "Yum" and "thank you" in Japanese and those seem to be serving me well. There was an ex-TLP worker, an architect woman and a farmer man, all were in their early-mid twenties. I am getting good at smiling and nodding when I don't understand, ironic that one of the few japanese phrases I know how to say is "yes, I understand," I mean really, when is that going to be applicable. Kat told me later how they in fact had a whole conversation about me, and how it was so strange to see someone so tall and so blonde. They had these strange wooden pegs, painted as japanese people, that were in fact instruments to perform acupuncture massage. They ended up getting all these diagrams out for me to know where to apply pressure and what part of the body that affected. They didn't know how to say the body parts in english so it became a game of charades, guessing what body part they were talking about. After that we went to the onsen again because our shower is still broken, more naked ladies walking around, although I'm getting used to it now.

 I slept in this morning till 10, but as soon as I got up Naka-san let me know that Takano-san (head of the firm) and his wife were coming to pick kat and I up momentarily to take us to the Otofuke village new years party. The party wasn't really much of a party, mostly people in suits watching the mayor talk and then there was lots of food. Takano-san introduced us to most of his friends, and apparently he is friends with a lot of people. It was really funny to have all these Japanese people just start talking to me and asking me questions in Japanese, even though I have no clue what they are saying. I usually answer in a Hai, Daniella-San (my name), Toronto ni, or Canada-jin (Canadian). This time though Takano-san translated a lot so I was able to carry out some conversation. I also met the mayor or Otofuke and his wife! The party thing lasted only an hour and a half, and as soon as it was announced ended, people cleared out really efficiently, and the staff came and just started packaging the left over food and handing it to people. Kat and I looked very confused and of course I am foreign so they wanted to give me lots of 'traditional japanese style food,' so we ended up taking home about 4 big platters of food, a carton or orange juice, a bottle or sake, and lots of little sweets. Takano-san then took us to a famous sweets factory, and bought us cake, and his wife bought us these traditional snack things. We felt really guilty have just acquired so much food and generosity.

There is another party on Tuesday and another one for the opening of the light festival on friday. Too much birru! 

Part 3-Working at Takano Landscape Planning

There was an earthquake last night, just minor vibrations, apparently an effect of the haiti earthquake. 

My new name here is Daniella-San.

I work in an old school house in the village of Otofuke. The house still functions as a community center so there are always farmers coming in and walking around the office, sometimes with their animals, and on Thursday's the Otofuke band practices in the music room, which makes for a pretty absurd workplace. As well as a music room, the house has a big gym where people play badminton and volleyball sometimes, a kitchen with the world's biggest rice cooker, and the main office which is where the old classrooms were. 

It's very cold here. All the buildings in Hokkaido (north island of Japan) are not insulated and have no central heating, so all heat comes from kerosine space heaters. There are only three in the house, two in the office and one in the kitchen, so if people have to leave the rooms, they usually have to use any other room, or change rooms, they usually run, or at least walk at a very brisk pace. Every 20 minutes of so people have to leave their desks and head to one of the heaters to defrost for a bit. 

Landscape Architecture Rant . . . . . . 

I work with only 4 other people here, the firm has other branches, and I was told more people are needed in the cities. One of the projects that the firm is working on is designing a light festival in a nearby city, all the lanterns are to be constructed out of snow, and we are also designing the interiors, and selecting all the furniture to be used etc. The design process here seems a lot more holistic. It seems that the title of landscape architecture here does not define what projects the professionals can take on, so much as describes the professional's expertise and commitment at connecting people to the landscape and the natural environment. There is a much wider range of what the firm designs, from festivals to parks to whole communities. They also take local material use to a whole new level, trying to use unprocessed stones and other building material, instead of standardized pavers etc. They also believe that to create a space that will be enduring, cherished, and hence taken care of by the users, they must encourage as much democratic participation by the potential users as possible; in the design process as well as utilizing people in the construction of the site. 

 

Part 2-Plane to Sapporo

After waiting in the airport long enough to be good and jet lagged, I boarded my next flight to Sapporo and sat next to a korean man, who looked about 19-20, but who I later discovered was in fact 30. He was very nice and could speak english quite well, and was studying Japanese at the University of Sapporo with his girlfriend. He later invited me to his apartment in Sapporo for the snow and ice festival at the beginning of February. Apparently he has many international friends that speak english and 'very much like karaoke.' We continued chatting and he revealed that he has a strong interest in Canada because his favorite movie, The Notebook, stars Canadian actors. He explained how even after the 10th time watching it, it still made him cry. He would also frequently pray that the plane wouldn't crash. 

I arrived in Japan and my new friend helped me find the right train to get on and I was off on my way to Obihiro, where I would be picked up and taken to Otofuke, where the firm and my house is. There were no seats left on the train and hardly any place to put baggage, all the cars are really miniature, so I ended up standing at the entrance of the car for two hours. There was still a window though, and I was able to get a taste of the very mountainous and snowy landscape. At last I arrived in snowy obihiro, but as I was leaving the train station I was stopped by a train man at a wicket who though I was trying to get onto another train. He of course didn't speak a word of english, so it made it very difficult to explain to him that all I wanted to do was leave. It was not long before the smiling but very confused man summoned a big possy of teen-aged girls to help him understand. But even with 5 girls, nobody seemed to understand the word out or exit, and those were two words I failed to memorize before I left. After about 15 minutes, I remembered I had a dictionary in my bag and finally found the word exit! 

The next challenge was calling the firm to pick me up. Luckily I did know the word for phone and by looking confused and repeating "denwa" a few times I got the attention of the group of girls who showed me how to use it. The other intern, Katherine, who can speak english, and one of the staff, Naka-san, a 24 year old woman who can speak a bit of english, came to pick me up. After picking up some groceries and getting stared at quite a bit at the 'supa' (supermarket), we headed to the house where I will be staying for the next 3 months. It's pretty basic, but comes complete with tatami floors, lots of slippers by the door, and sliding panel walls. 

At this point I figured we were just staying put, but before I knew it we were rushing off to a traditional japanese barbecue restaurant, after picking up another employee. This was a traditional restaurant, so we all kneeled around our table that had a grill in the middle. The server started bringing out plates and plates of diverse raw meat for grilling. Not wanting to make a bad impression, I ate everything that they suggested, including lamb stomach, cow liver and raw pork. I guess I'm giving up vegetarianism for now.  

After we finished, about 10pm, they informed me that we were off to the onsen, Japanese hot springs, that can be outdoor or indoor. we entered the female wing of the building and went into the change room. I took my coat off and put it on a chair and as I turned around to talk to my co-workers when it struck me that they were all casually completely naked. Realizing the task at hand I rushed to strip down too, and entered into a room full of naked women from age about 18 to 75, bathing in the various pools. we finally got home, and I set out my futon matress and went to bed almost immediately. 

Part 1-(Not a very interesting start skip to part 2)

It's 4:30 at the Seoul airport and I find myself wandering around with this pleasantly plump father (not the religious kind) from Montreal, who insisted we stay together because we're both Canadian. He got to be a little annoying, always asking questions and wanting to investigate things in a forceful way. The Seoul airport looks really similar to Pearson, glass, steel, concrete etc. but it has really beautiful orchids everywhere not to mention a lot more koreans.I don't really understand why all airports have so many windows, when all there is to look is asphalt with only a few painted traffic lines for contrast. I still don't feel that out of place, I guess most of these people are used to seeing foreigners. The flight was great, very roomy, and korean air is wonderful. All the crew were wearing matching sea foam blue and white satin uniforms, with scarfs around their necks that stuck up about a foot in the air. Well soon I'll board my flight to Sapporo Japan; for now I'm stuck sitting next to this very tanned very blonde Australian man and his son who keep talking to me about snowboarding. I accidentally agreed with him when he asked me if I was going skiing because I can't understand half of what he's saying. 

Jet lagged and a little homesick.