It was pretty good. Very impressive skills, coupled with impressive quantities of snow. Very cold. And crowded. The chocolate covered bananas on a stick the food vendors were selling looked interesting.
Yeah. That basically covers it.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Four city tour
We left Kiroro in the morning and headed back to Otaru, whereupon we caught a train to Sapporo, switched trains in Sapporo and headed north to Asahikawa, where we had to stop for further directions because I forgot the name of our destination.
What was our purpose in traveling three hours to an out of the way city in Northern Hokkadio in blizzard like conditions? A sake brewery, of course.
But not just any brewery. The sake they make is not available for sale outside of Japan. And they brew the sake in traditional ice houses, in small batches, with an emphasis on quality over quantity. In American terms, we were hunting for a micro-brewery.
Fortunately, the local tourist information office had maps of the area in English. And at the very edge of the map corner was our target: the Taka...something brewery. Okay, I've already forgotten the name again. Japanese is hard, okay?
The snow was falling heavily as we braved the icy streets of Asahikawa. The sidewalks were actually an accumulation of compacted snow, many inches thick; we figured we were walking almost a full foot above the proper ground.
After about twenty minutes on foot, we reached a building that could only be the sake brewery. It was a traditional wooden structure, with thick, traditional wooden doors barring entry.
It was closed.
So with heavy hearts and a sadness in our souls we turned around and..no, I'm just kidding. It was open. The real entrance was around the side.
The floor creaked as we walked inside and admired the rows and rows of bottles. All of this sake had been painstaking crafted. Some had been more painstakingly crafted than others, but we couldn't tell. I couldn't read a damn thing.
The nice shop lady came to our rescue. She didn't speak much English, but she knew the only words we needed to hear: 'tasting okay?'
Oh, hell YES! A dozen very generous pours later, we returned to the Asahikawa train station, warm in spite of the weather and weighed down with several bottles of extremely delicious sake. The two most expensive bottles will make the return trip with us to Canada, to share with our friends. The other bottles...will not be so fortunate.
Delicious sake soon to be consumed, we salute you!
What was our purpose in traveling three hours to an out of the way city in Northern Hokkadio in blizzard like conditions? A sake brewery, of course.
But not just any brewery. The sake they make is not available for sale outside of Japan. And they brew the sake in traditional ice houses, in small batches, with an emphasis on quality over quantity. In American terms, we were hunting for a micro-brewery.
Fortunately, the local tourist information office had maps of the area in English. And at the very edge of the map corner was our target: the Taka...something brewery. Okay, I've already forgotten the name again. Japanese is hard, okay?
The snow was falling heavily as we braved the icy streets of Asahikawa. The sidewalks were actually an accumulation of compacted snow, many inches thick; we figured we were walking almost a full foot above the proper ground.
After about twenty minutes on foot, we reached a building that could only be the sake brewery. It was a traditional wooden structure, with thick, traditional wooden doors barring entry.
It was closed.
So with heavy hearts and a sadness in our souls we turned around and..no, I'm just kidding. It was open. The real entrance was around the side.
The floor creaked as we walked inside and admired the rows and rows of bottles. All of this sake had been painstaking crafted. Some had been more painstakingly crafted than others, but we couldn't tell. I couldn't read a damn thing.
The nice shop lady came to our rescue. She didn't speak much English, but she knew the only words we needed to hear: 'tasting okay?'
Oh, hell YES! A dozen very generous pours later, we returned to the Asahikawa train station, warm in spite of the weather and weighed down with several bottles of extremely delicious sake. The two most expensive bottles will make the return trip with us to Canada, to share with our friends. The other bottles...will not be so fortunate.
Delicious sake soon to be consumed, we salute you!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
For the Wiffers, a Wine Review
First, a bit about the differences in finding and consuming alcohol in Canada as compared to Japan . . .
What Lance and I consider one of the best things about visiting Japan, is the proliferation of access to alcohol and the laissez-faire attitude towards its consumption. In Canada, you can only really get alcohol at certain licensed restaurants and specialty liquor stores. The liquor stores are really of two varieties: private owned and government owned. They usually suffer from at least one, if not several, of the following flaws: bad hours, poor selection, and high prices. Also, liquor cannot be consumed in public. At certain events it is permitted, but you can't just crack a can of beer open on a train and go on your merry way.
In Japan, the situation is quite different. You can readily find alcohol for sale at convenience stores, in vending machines on public streets, and even at train station kiosks. While it's considered rude to be walking around in the open eating and drinking, it's perfectly acceptable to eat and drink while sitting down on a train or bus. In fact, many seats will have flip down trays and/or cup holders to make it more convenient for you. Also, many of the bottles that have twist off caps, now come equipped with little pull tabs, so you can very easily open your beverage.
Now, to set the stage for the wine review . . .
We were heading back from Asahikawa (where we had just visited a sake brewery, sampled, and purchased some bottles to bring back home) and it had been a very long day. We were faced with almost 2 hours on a train to get to the city where our hotel was (and we didn't really know exactly where in the city our hotel was located, so there was that adventure still to come), we had done a lot of walking, and my ankle still hurt like hell. And did I mention we'd just been walking around in the snow in -10 degrees Celsius? Anyway, we got to the train station and had a bit of time before our train was set to arrive so we stopped for snacks and drinks. They had mostly beer and a few bottles of wine, so I decided to pick one up for the train ride ahead. Here are the basic details (keep in mind, this is what I could discern from reading the label, which was mostly in Japanese).
Now, the wine . . .
As for how it tasted, I thought I could actually detect a hint of Lavendar in the wine. But, it might have simply been the suggestive power of the bottle. since it was one of the few English words on it, and it had a picture of a Lavendar field on the front of the bottle too. It was a fairly sweet wine, and I found it pretty good after the long day we'd had. Probably not something I'd serve with dinner, but to kick back and relax a bit while travelling back to the city on the zoo train filled with hyper children and life sized stuffed animals at the front of every car (I kid you not), it was very much worth the price. I'd give it a solid 3 out of 5. Oh, and it paired pretty nicely with the Pocky too.
On a purely side note, I'm quite glad I opted for the white over the red variety, as you can't see at all where I spilled the wine all over the front of my pants when the train zigged just as I was pouring another cup for myself (did I mention they were tiny, jello-shooter size cups?)
Should I feel so inspired, I may pick up another variety at some other locale on our trip and post another review.
What Lance and I consider one of the best things about visiting Japan, is the proliferation of access to alcohol and the laissez-faire attitude towards its consumption. In Canada, you can only really get alcohol at certain licensed restaurants and specialty liquor stores. The liquor stores are really of two varieties: private owned and government owned. They usually suffer from at least one, if not several, of the following flaws: bad hours, poor selection, and high prices. Also, liquor cannot be consumed in public. At certain events it is permitted, but you can't just crack a can of beer open on a train and go on your merry way.
In Japan, the situation is quite different. You can readily find alcohol for sale at convenience stores, in vending machines on public streets, and even at train station kiosks. While it's considered rude to be walking around in the open eating and drinking, it's perfectly acceptable to eat and drink while sitting down on a train or bus. In fact, many seats will have flip down trays and/or cup holders to make it more convenient for you. Also, many of the bottles that have twist off caps, now come equipped with little pull tabs, so you can very easily open your beverage.
Now, to set the stage for the wine review . . .
We were heading back from Asahikawa (where we had just visited a sake brewery, sampled, and purchased some bottles to bring back home) and it had been a very long day. We were faced with almost 2 hours on a train to get to the city where our hotel was (and we didn't really know exactly where in the city our hotel was located, so there was that adventure still to come), we had done a lot of walking, and my ankle still hurt like hell. And did I mention we'd just been walking around in the snow in -10 degrees Celsius? Anyway, we got to the train station and had a bit of time before our train was set to arrive so we stopped for snacks and drinks. They had mostly beer and a few bottles of wine, so I decided to pick one up for the train ride ahead. Here are the basic details (keep in mind, this is what I could discern from reading the label, which was mostly in Japanese).
Now, the wine . . .
Furano wine. Lavendar fragrance. A white. 360 ml Bottle with aThe very nice girl at the check out was kind enough to ask if we wanted cups, to which I responded in the affirmative. As I said, it had been a long day, and when I grabbed the bottle, I hadn't really given any thoughts on HOW I would drink the wine, just that I wanted to try it. Once we were settled on the train, I pulled the cool bottle out of the bag, and my heart sank a little when I realized that it had a real cork. My husband came to my rescue though and pointed out that the girl at the store had also put a little corkscrew in the bag. Yup, they provide tiny cups and a corkscrew too. Oh, and did I mention the price? It was 480 Y, which works out to around $5.
real cork - no screw cap. Best served between 6 & 12 degrees
Celsius. A decent 12% alcohol. The little blurb on the front of the
bottle seems to indicate that this might be an expermental brew --> "Furano
viticulture and enology experiment station Shimizuyama Furano Hokkaido
Japan."
As for how it tasted, I thought I could actually detect a hint of Lavendar in the wine. But, it might have simply been the suggestive power of the bottle. since it was one of the few English words on it, and it had a picture of a Lavendar field on the front of the bottle too. It was a fairly sweet wine, and I found it pretty good after the long day we'd had. Probably not something I'd serve with dinner, but to kick back and relax a bit while travelling back to the city on the zoo train filled with hyper children and life sized stuffed animals at the front of every car (I kid you not), it was very much worth the price. I'd give it a solid 3 out of 5. Oh, and it paired pretty nicely with the Pocky too.
On a purely side note, I'm quite glad I opted for the white over the red variety, as you can't see at all where I spilled the wine all over the front of my pants when the train zigged just as I was pouring another cup for myself (did I mention they were tiny, jello-shooter size cups?)
Should I feel so inspired, I may pick up another variety at some other locale on our trip and post another review.
Dear Vancouver,
We found your snow. It was in Hokkaido. Evidentally, it had been drinking heavily; it certainly kept falling down the entire time we were there.
Ha ha. Ha.
But seriously, folks. We left the comfort of the Dormy Inn and caught a bus to Hotel Piano at Kiroro resort. We arrived mid-morning, too early for check-in. Instead we stuffed our bags in lockers, rented snow equipment, and went skiing. My wife is a wicked awesome ski demon. Zoom zoom! Away she went. I ran into a sign.
It was a good thing, really. The sign was the only thing I could find to prevent me from entering the speed mogul ramp. That would have ended very, very badly. Jenn did the moguls later, just to prove she is more awesome than me.
After a few runs, they closed down the course we had been skiing and opened up the night runs. We decided we'd had our fun and went back to the hotel.
Remember when I said food was cheap in Japan? If you don't, you should go back and read the old blog posts. You obviously weren't paying attention the first time. It turns out, you can find an expensive restaurant if you look really, really hard at the top of a remote mountain. And it's french cuisine.
Our table was on a balcony that overlooked the hotel lobby. Below us a grand piano had been retro-fitted into a player piano and we dined to the sound of jazz piano classics. The meals themselves were a set course: you could chose big, bigger, or biggest, and you could choose your drink. (We opted for gin and tonics).
The amuse bouche was a light carrot mousse. This was followed by seven courses, each artfully arranged upon our plates. Each course was small, and very delicious. The entire meal was choreographed over 90 minutes, and involved a supporting cast of 11 different utensils, and equal number of plates, one very attentive waiter and two very satisfied Canadians.
And, yeah. We forgot our cameras in the room so no pictures.
Ha ha. Ha.
But seriously, folks. We left the comfort of the Dormy Inn and caught a bus to Hotel Piano at Kiroro resort. We arrived mid-morning, too early for check-in. Instead we stuffed our bags in lockers, rented snow equipment, and went skiing. My wife is a wicked awesome ski demon. Zoom zoom! Away she went. I ran into a sign.
It was a good thing, really. The sign was the only thing I could find to prevent me from entering the speed mogul ramp. That would have ended very, very badly. Jenn did the moguls later, just to prove she is more awesome than me.
After a few runs, they closed down the course we had been skiing and opened up the night runs. We decided we'd had our fun and went back to the hotel.
Remember when I said food was cheap in Japan? If you don't, you should go back and read the old blog posts. You obviously weren't paying attention the first time. It turns out, you can find an expensive restaurant if you look really, really hard at the top of a remote mountain. And it's french cuisine.
Our table was on a balcony that overlooked the hotel lobby. Below us a grand piano had been retro-fitted into a player piano and we dined to the sound of jazz piano classics. The meals themselves were a set course: you could chose big, bigger, or biggest, and you could choose your drink. (We opted for gin and tonics).
The amuse bouche was a light carrot mousse. This was followed by seven courses, each artfully arranged upon our plates. Each course was small, and very delicious. The entire meal was choreographed over 90 minutes, and involved a supporting cast of 11 different utensils, and equal number of plates, one very attentive waiter and two very satisfied Canadians.
And, yeah. We forgot our cameras in the room so no pictures.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Otaru
Otaru was a lovely city. The highlight of the town is the Otaru canal district, which features several old buildings. The city has worked hard to maintain the historic ambience of the port. A very nice stroll, though not a long one.
To make up for that fact, we did the stroll about six times. Because we were not looking for the canal district. We had come to Otaru with a purpose. We were looking for a long lost cousin.
Ages ago, Vancouver sent a steamclock to Otaru as a gift. It is an exact duplicate of the steamclock located on Granville street, except that it is slightly larger in all dimensions, and it actually functions as a steamclock.
The steamclock is located in front of an orgel music box shop, at the very end of a picturesque boulevard. We probably would have appreciated the boulevard more, except it was -10 C. and we'd been walking for a very long time. We went inside the orgel shop to warm up.
The shop itself was an old brick and frame warehouse building, about three stories tall. The entire interior was one large room. And everywhere you looked were music boxes. We stayed for about a half hour, admiring the quality of the workmanship - both of the music boxes and the building itself. Eventually, we'd warmed enough to brave the trek back.
To make up for that fact, we did the stroll about six times. Because we were not looking for the canal district. We had come to Otaru with a purpose. We were looking for a long lost cousin.
Ages ago, Vancouver sent a steamclock to Otaru as a gift. It is an exact duplicate of the steamclock located on Granville street, except that it is slightly larger in all dimensions, and it actually functions as a steamclock.
The steamclock is located in front of an orgel music box shop, at the very end of a picturesque boulevard. We probably would have appreciated the boulevard more, except it was -10 C. and we'd been walking for a very long time. We went inside the orgel shop to warm up.
The shop itself was an old brick and frame warehouse building, about three stories tall. The entire interior was one large room. And everywhere you looked were music boxes. We stayed for about a half hour, admiring the quality of the workmanship - both of the music boxes and the building itself. Eventually, we'd warmed enough to brave the trek back.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A few pictures to complement the montage . . .
One of the things we learned from our first visit to Japan, was 'when in doubt, follow the school children.' It worked this time as well. The picture is a bit blurry because I was taking it while walking up the stairs of the Kamakura train station. It's a smaller tourist spot and we didn't really have a map of where anything was. But, when we got off the train and saw hordes of school children, we just started following them, and sure enough, they knew their way to all the different tourist locations already.
Yes, we ran across an Amish cafe. Did not stop in to eat though. They might not have let us after taking a picture of their sign.
The second largest Buddha in Japan. I think it would look bigger if the original surrounding building were still there. But I guess they were only willing to rebuild it so many times after various disasters before they finally gave up. Did Lance mention that you could go inside this one? Yup, for a measely 20 yen per person (which works out to about 20 cents) you can walk inside. You go down super-steep unlit stairs and then you're inside the Buddha. People were slapping his belly from the inside because you can't reach it at all from the outside.
And finally, Anata-no Warehouse. This is the outside of the arcade Lance mentioned.
And this is what the inside of the ladies room looks like.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Quest!
One Piece is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. It is a cartoon about a boy who sails off to sea to become the Pirate King and beats up a lot of people along the way. It's practically Shakespearean, except nobody dies.
Lawsons - the 24 hour convenient store and my primary vendor of Pocky - is sponsoring a One Piece celebration. The store has printed up awesome quality images of the One Piece crew's wanted posters. Eight in all.
After some back and forth, we established that they do not sell the posters. You get a poster free, if you buy a Bunch of specially marked items in store. After even more back and forth, we established the magic number at Two.
We have so far collected two posters. And by the Power of Greyskull, we shall collect them all!
Lawsons - the 24 hour convenient store and my primary vendor of Pocky - is sponsoring a One Piece celebration. The store has printed up awesome quality images of the One Piece crew's wanted posters. Eight in all.
After some back and forth, we established that they do not sell the posters. You get a poster free, if you buy a Bunch of specially marked items in store. After even more back and forth, we established the magic number at Two.
We have so far collected two posters. And by the Power of Greyskull, we shall collect them all!
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