End of Semester

Man... those finals were rough.

So the first semester of Hokkaido adventure time has ended. And thus begins my amazingly obscene long spring break. Just under 2 months really...

What is Mike planning to do in such a long time?

TRAVEL YOU FOOLS. TRAVEL.

I have been blessed with a scholarship this year, which, when combined with my hilariously minuscule dormitory costs (about 100 USD per month, utilities included), has allowed me a rather ample amount of funding for adventure. Aside from the HD camera I bought, I haven't really spent any money on anything besides food and train tickets. No clothes, no weird trinkets, nothing.

So... with money in hand, I figure now, with all the immense freetime I have on spring break, I can regain my tourist role in society, and see more of this gloriously unique country.

Here I will be announcing my VERY TENTATIVE schedule for the spring break vacation.

Feb 18th-22nd, Nagano. My host family is amazing!!!!
Feb 23rd - 28th, Other Honshu adventures. Osaka, maybe Koyasan, Nara, etc.
March 1st-8th: Okinawa. Beaching it UP
March 9th - 14th: Back to Honshu for more adventure, A brief stay in Nagoya is in the works?
March 15-17: Tokyo. Gotta love Tokyo
March 18th: Fly back to Sapporo


Yes, I am going to Okinawa. I am PUMPED.

Along the way I plan on doing TONS of media content. I've been avoiding video editing because it just takes so long! HD is a lot of data to transfer to a video editing program, and each video, shockingly, takes a good 3-4 hours to fully complete. So obviously... I'm making these videos as a labor of love.

Cause I love you guys!

And of course, I'm really looking to well document what I've done here.

Speaking of video blogs... get ready for a new one soon!

Can I get some feedback on those please? FORREAL! Ideas?

Man I am not used to this freetime...

Up up and awayyyyy.

Vlog: Jacksonville Burger

I am a fool who does "Coming of Age Day" in the most American tradition I know: eating burgers.

Check the vid!

For some reason the video doesn't fit into the screen... hmmmm.

Click the link for a direct youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5sOrV1Wy-k

Japanese Cheetos

Who doesn't know what Cheetos are?

The puffed crispy strips of delightful nuclear orange cheesy powdery goodness, every kid in America has had a cheeto before. And everyone knows exactly how they taste. Salty crunchy, and artificially cheesy.

But alas, perhaps in an attempt to market to different tastes, cheetos, do exist here, but they taste different.

That's right, they taste different.

And no, I don't mean they sell "roasted corn" flavor here and Cheese flavor there (which they do). I mean that A cheese flavored cheeto from Japan tastes COMPLETELY different from a Cheeto from America.

I mean dang they aren't even the same color!

But Alas, as I mentioned before, they have other flavors besides cheese. Perhaps one of the most shocking is "Coffee Nougat flavor". Tirol, a chocolate company, teamed up with Cheetos to make this "collaborative effort"

Aka, a chocolate covered cheeto.

I am an adventurer, and so when I noticed the package labeled "Tirol x Cheetos", I simply HAD to purchase it.

Ohhhhh delightful.

Upon opening the package I was surprised to find that the cheeto itself was rather... boring looking. It almost looked like it just had Dusty Chocolate powder on it.

I mean really Fritos, what a lame looking snack!

But how'd it turn out?? That's the important question!

Kinda tasty actually. Think chocolate pretzel, but more crunchy, less salty, and a bit of coffee on the coating. Also Chocolate. And a cheeto. Wow.

Super surreal though. What a ridiculous snack.


...


What the... soy flour mochi flavored chocolate covered?? TIROL YOU MONSTERS!!!

(I wish there was a better translation for that...)

Japanese Snow

Okay look look, I'm tired of this.

In Sapporo, it snows. ALL THE TIME.

I love snow, I love snow a lot. But I have one problem, my fluffy friend.

When you pack that snow down, over and over again by, say, the feet of a thousand rushing around college kids, things tend to become less fluffy and much more... icy.

Normally where I come from, the good ol US of A, this isn't a problem, since we have the beloved idea of shoveling the sidewalk. Then the way is clear, and walking is lovely. Nice, pretty, beautiful tufts of snow on the lawns, the trees, etc.

BUT IN SAPPORO, OH NO NO NO, shoveling the sidewalk DOES NOT EXIST.

I don't really have much to say about this one, except the ice is PACKED on, usually around a foot high at this point. The only time you see cleared sidewalks is when a company pumps hot water underneath the concrete to melt the stuff away via pipes built there, but if people don't have that, then they're just too lazy to clear it, and you get slick icy sidewalks. No salt, no shoveling, nothing.

They barely even clear the streets! I've seen cars skid EVERYWHERE.

The closest remedy you'll see is perhaps, some kind soul will sprinkle charcoal on the ground to embed itself in that caked-on mess of ice, providing a bit of traction.

But that's it.

Blows my mind really. I mean in America there'd be people suing as far as the eye can see with such a situation.

Last year over 1000 people slipped and had to go to the hospital in Sapporo ALONE. And not ONE of them sued?

WHAT A COUNTRY!

Time for some noodles...

Nature and Hokkaido

Now I know I've been slacking on the photos of Japan's scenery. Which is a darn shame.

I live in Hokkaido, and we have some immense beauty.

To me at least, this is most prevalently displayed in the vivid distinctions nature creates.

About a month ago, as fall hastily closed, the last few leaves falling, is about when I noticed this trend.

Rather than bogging down the blog with my analysis of beauty in nature, I'm just gonna show some photos, and stay clear of overly talking.

At the end of fall... the mountains in the back started to frost over. I thought the white was pretty striking in comparison to the bright yellow. This is the sight that kind of made me realize, and in turn begin to appreciate, what it is I am surrounded by on a daily basis.


A better view, check out the mountains in the back.

Keiteki, my dorm, also has it's own vivid colors.

As an example, a lot of the leaves that fall from the surrounding trees turn WHITE when they dry out. Crazy color.

Not photoshopped :p

But the vine on the side of building turns BRIGHT RED.


Naturally, as it's winter now we have the amazing contrast of black to white.

After a VERY rough 15 inch blizzard, my walk to class looked like this.


And just outside of the student center?


I could get used to this sort of life... Winter wonderland.

Happy holidays everyone.

Okinawan Food

Okay look look look, yes. I know.

I know.

I knowwwwwww.

Too much food stuff right?

Pardon me while I break down the necessary link between food and culture.

Argument goes as follows (thanks Mr Basl for this argument flow chart format!)

1. People cook based on their tastes, their likes and dislikes.
2. People can be classified into cultures.
3. Cultures determine the way people behave.
THEREFORE
4. Culture can determine a given diet.

Duh kids. Duh.

SO

In a culture related way, I'd like to talk about my Friday.

I am blessed enough to be taking a class from a VERY cool medicine teacher (don't ask how this situation came to be, what a story that is!). He's so cool that last week he decided to cancel class and INSTEAD, take the students to an Okinawan restaurant. In Hokkaido.

For those who don't know, Okinawa is one of the prefectures of Japan, consisting of hundreds if not thousands of tiny islands south of the main four. I'm not here to give a history lesson, but basically, this cluster of islands is fairly detached from the centralized country that focuses on Tokyo/Osaka culture. 標準語, or standard Japanese, is really just Toyko Japanese, which due to centralization within the culture, gradually became "normal'.

But to avoid a tangent here, because this area is somewhat detached from the "center", the culture, and in turn the food, can be quite distinct.

Yes, they do have their own dialect. I won't go into that either.

This is a point that needs to be addressed; Japan is not just a single likeminded country. People act, speak, look, and think VERY differently from place to place. If you took an Okinawan and an Osakan and made them speak in their respective dialects, the two wouldn't understand each other. It'd be like Spanish and Italian.

The problem is that we, as people on the outside, just SEE the culture as being Tokyo-ian or Osakan, because of this center ideology within the country. This is "Japanese", Tokyo is the hub, everything shoots out from there. But if you are to understand a country's culture, focusing on a city will give you a very narrow outlook on it.

I mean c'mon, do people from New Orleans act like people from New York? I'm not saying anything new here!

So with that in mind, let's focus on Okinawa, a prefecture SO far from the rest of the country, in many ways it's like it's own country. But it's Japan! It's JAPAN!

For 2500 yen, you get a multiple course meal and all you can drink. I dig it. Thanks teach for the hook up!

And the food is CRAZY different. Maybe this is partially the genius of the owner/chef, or maybe it's just the way Okinawans do cuisine, but let's see. Here's some of the highlights:

Squid Ink Yakisoba, with special Okinawa style soba.

Squid ink, for my Japanese word nerds, is quite literally in Japanese ALSO "Squid Ink" or イカ墨.

Anyways.

Then they brought out a special Okiawan style Shochu, which is a clear distilled alcoholic drink similar, but much stronger than, Sake, usually served over ice. It has a similar smell to some whiskey, but contains far less alcohol. Here's what they served it as:


This one was especially smooth. But the nose was a little off putting... kind of musky. Still fairly enjoyable. It paired extremely well with one dish in particular, which was a small block of Tofu covered in a red miso sauce.

Perhaps the reason this tofu worked so well with the sake was because it had been soaked in the alcohol itself. But the texture of it was really marvelous, It has this kind of butter, smooth, rich mouth-feel, the kind you associate with foie gras or something. Explains why it came in at less than 1 cubic inch to be shared by 3 people. Riiiiich. And pretty dang impressive. I've obviously never had tofu like that.

But surely, to everyone, the highlight of the night was the following dish, which actually came pretty early:

The title of this dish in romaji is "Gooya Champloo". Nerds recognize the name Champloo imediately from the popular anime Samurai Champloo. Champloo in Japanese is ACTUALLY チャンプルー, pronounced "Chanpuruu", and it refers to a stir fry dish, a "mash up" of sorts. The name of the anime actually is derived from this "stir fry/mashup" idea, as the story combines multiple genres and ideas, even stories themselves.

AND, Gooya, oh gooya, means "Bitter melon". Those green things you see? Bitter melon.

I googled bitter melon to show yall, they look like this:

Mmmmm, bitterrrrr

VERY different taste on this one folks. It's hard to describe bitter melon, something like a root vegetable but with less aroma, a slight bitter kick, better texture. But it's as Okinawan as it gets. Stir fried with some tofu and a little ham (which was shocking for sure, you don't see ham much in Japan), And it was TASTYYYYY.

And that's Okinawan food.

So what have we learned here?

Well what HAVEN'T we learned here? Food is indeed a mirror to a culture, and despite the idea that a country can have it's own style, regions make variations on the diet extremely distinct.

I mean, what IS Japanese food?

Where have all of Mike's Frequent blogs gone?

Well kids, to be short and sweet. I've been up to a lot.

A lot.

Adventures and school. Yippie!

As such, my ability (and even desire) to blog has been limited. But don't worry one bit folks, it's more like I have SO much to discuss, I haven't gotten around to posting up MASSIVE thoughts and analysis of this lovely world.

More coming soon, hang tight!