September 16, 2016
Well....I knew it would likely be days before I'd be able to post online to this blog again but I sure didn't plan on it taking this much time for me to be able to get back to writing my notes! The last couple of days have literally flown by and by the time you finally get to read this you'll understand what I'm talking about.
I guess I should begin by telling you that the island of Hokkaido was hit by several typhoons over the past few weeks and the worst of those was on August 31 and centred in the Tokachi District - right where we're headed! The good news is that no one was injured and the bad news is that there is extensive damage (wind and flooding). Consequences of that flooding are many and one that will affect us and our trip is that the train tracks we planned to travel on have been washed away in places which means we have an opportunity to embrace the adventure of travel and "roll" with a change in plans. Our friends in Toyokoro jumped to our rescue and sent a bus to Sapporo to pick us up at out hotel so we were not long without a plan and on the morning of the 14th we made our way down from our rooms and found our bus waiting for us ahead of our 10:00 a.m. scheduled time. Not only had they sent a bus to rescue all of us but they'd also sent an additional vehicle to transport the overflow of our luggage! Those vehicles had left Toyokoro at 5 in the morning and here we were turning around to drive right back across the same roads again. Now those are some mighty GOOD friends!
The drive from Sapporo to Toyokoro across the island (west to east) was both beautiful and sad in the spots where we could see the damage caused by the extreme weather. We stopped along the way to stretch our legs and snap a few photos and before we knew it we were rolling into Toyokoro town and City Hall where everyone was lined up to meet and greet us. I cannot describe the feeling of seeing all of those men and women in business suits lined up to meet us....I'm thinking it might be the closest any of us will ever come to being celebrities. Well....in Toyokoro I guess we kind of are celebrities for this week anyway!
In addition to a tour of city hall facilities, our welcome reception included an official tea ceremony. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that one of our friends in Sapporo has only ever experienced the tea ceremony once in his life and here we are all being treated with that ancient art and the honour that goes with it. As part of the ceremony we each had a beautiful little sweet bean cake that was of a design created just for this 20th anniversary and our visit! When it was our turn to receive a bowl of tea we learned how to receive it in our left hand and turn it with our right. When the bowl of tea is presented to us the tea maker has determined the most beautiful part of the design on the bowl and she turns the bowl until that beautiful part of the design is facing us and then once we've appreciated the design it is our job to turn the bowl so the design is again pointing away from us so others can appreciate it too. Like so many traditional customs the world over, the tea ceremony is filled with subtle symbolic elements that are too complex for us to understand without spending the years of study required to learn them.
From the traditions of our ceremonial reception we were off to our accommodation at Aisin Lodge. The lodge is right in the heart of this tiny town (population just over 3000) and is owned by Toyota, who also has a fairly large testing facility nearby. The lodge is used to house the Toyota employees when they are working here and luckily Toyota and Toyokoro are able to make arrangements for us to stay here too. Our rooms are compact but comfortable and as they have only single sized beds in them each of us has our own room, even the married couples. For many of us (perhaps especially the couples) the novelty of a room to ourselves is a welcome surprise. :-)
Our Toyokoro hosts have kept us busy and as usual everyone is enjoying themselves far more than they'd anticipated. From tie-dying activities to town tours and Daikon processing to the autumn salmon harvest in Otsu harbour there hasn't been a dull moment! Touring the schools was another highlight. There are only 5 kids in the elementary school in Otsu and there are just 26 at the pre-school (ages 1-5). The elementary school in town and the Junior High boast much higher populations but still there is opportunity for individual learning support. One example of that is the Assistant English Teacher that Toyokoro employs from Summerland. At present Janet Jory has just begun her two year term as AET working with kids ranging from pre-school to Jr High. She also teaches adult classes for community residents and is kept busy in any spare time she has from all of that working on her own Japanese.
One new building we visited this trip is the Hidamari Cafe (council of social welfare for the town operates this space). It is a great space where anyone and everyone can make use of the facility and where special programs link the very young with the very old and where their cute little coffee counter is always serving (well....at least during their hours of operation).
We also visited the town pool (adjacent to the Jr high school), the farmers market, and the fire hall where we learned that their emergency response team is called out at least once daily on average. That seems a lot for a small town but....I'm sure they know their stats and if they're called out that often then it's a good thing they're here at the ready! Takai San was used as a demo dummy on the ambulance stretcher and in short order was ensconced in the back of the ambulance and ready for transport to the hospital had that been needed. A moment after Takai was off the stretcher Hannah took a turn to try it out too and everyone had a good laugh when the emergency team went to tighter her straps on the gurney only to be instructed (quite aggressively I might add) not to tighter her chest straps!! Now it's not that Hannah did anything wrong at all....it's just that those straps went right over her bust and in classic Japanese conservatism they chose to err on the side of caution...much to Hannah's relief I'm sure. :-)
Darlene and I have had a couple of extra special treats this trip too. While the rest of our group was enjoying a fantastic lunch hosted by the Toyokoro Lions club, we were being hosted at the home of Mr and Mrs Hirose. Our private lunch was in celebration of the original people who are still involved after 20 years of sister city activities so included: Hirose and his wife, Kanagawa san, Anda san, Darlene and I, and then Shima san joined us for dessert. It was a really lovely couple of hours and one thing I will always remember from that day was the friendship that bridges communication gaps and the gorgeous driveway leading to Hirose's home. That drive is long and straight and lined on both sides by countless white birch trees that are like natures version of an honour guard for any who should pass that way.
The second special treat we enjoyed was dinner with Mayor Myaguchi and his wife, Takai San, Yoshida San, and Kaori (Kato San). This dinner was like nothing I've ever experienced before! We went into Obihiro to a fancy restaurant that only the mayor had visited previously. We were seated in a private dining room and then the courses started to arrive. Each one was an elaborate work of art on the plate and the only thing I regret from this whole trip is that I didn't have a camera to capture the progression of plates that arrived at my seat. The first was an array of exotic appetizers ranging from squid with uni to tiny tempura fish and sesame tofu with crab to a seaweed something or other. There were other little bites on that first plate and I ate them all and they were all really quite delicious. They were also all absolutely brand new to my palate. They were setting a stage for the dinner that was to follow and there was not a single bite that I'd ever tasted or seen before. The second plate was actually more like an upside down triangle bowl that was filled with ice and topped with sashimi. There was eel tail, white fish, tuna that had just been flown in from Tokyo, and a prawn that was standing up looking at us. Again, it was all delicious and a perfect example of the Japanese intention that we should eat with our eyes before we put anything in our mouths. The eel tail had an interesting story attached to it. The belief is that the tail represents the progression of anything moving forward as the eel goes from skinniest at its tail to widest at its head. Our third course was paper thin slices of Hokkaido beef that is so marbled it is barley pink in colour. Also on that plate were several vegetables. We were also given a bowl of water over a very hot flame that we were to place all the veggies into to cook. While those veggies were cooking we would take the beef piece by piece and swish it in the water to lightly cook it and say shabu shabu in imitation of the sound it makes as it hits the boiling water. That beef literally melted in my mouth! There were two sauces to choose from. A sesame cream sauce and another that was soya and citrus. Both were delicious but at the end of that course I could see that my bowl of sesame sauce was almost empty so I think it was my favourite. The next course was another work of art in the form of oysters wrapped in pastry topped with foi grois and slivers of crispy burdock. I'm pretty sure this was my favourite course....it was unbelievable! That is all I can say about it! The next course was sushi....yes.....now we were on to sushi! We were all sooooo full but we did our best to chow down on perfect mounds of sushi rice covered with all the same fish we had in our sashimi course. There were also a couple of gorgeous rounds of avocado roll on that plate. This course was followed by a bowl of delicious miso soup and our final course to end the meal was a perfect ball of black bean ice cream that was again as beautiful to look at as it was to eat. The entire meal was absolute perfection....I honestly can't do it justice with any description I might provide so I'll just leave you with this.....I will NEVER forget this dinner!
I know it seems like there is a lot of talk about food in this blog post but I guess that is because they feed us a lot of really great food. From the ladies in the kitchen who serve us breakfast every morning at our accommodation to the Yakatori house we went to in the park tonight...food is a common theme. I wish Summerland had a Yakatori house - what a great way for people to connect in a new and unique way! Everyone sits around a long brick BBQ and cooks their food and eats their food and drinks their drinks and visits while they cook and eat and drink. The Yakatori house is screened in to keep the mosquitos at bay and I can attest to the fact that the place was rocking with fun and laughter tonight! After dinner we played Bingo and there were prizes enough for everyone to win so we all went home winners in every way.
Tonight after the Yakatori house it was back to Aisin where 2nd party was soon underway and the laughter and fun continued. There is almost always a 2nd party in Japan. There will be slightly fewer people at 2nd party than there were at the first one but there is no shortage of fun and laughter at either.
Some of my observations this trip already include:
Shoes come off and slippers are donned inside every building; even city hall, schools, and other public spaces.
The people and this culture could not be any more welcoming.
Cars drive on the left hand side of the road.
Most cars are white in colour.
Toyokoro crops include: sugar beets, daikon radish, potatoes, corn, soy beans, and carrots. In addition there are several dairy farms in the district.
The sun has been shining since our arrival even though the forecast was for rain before we got here!
Cranes are black and white and HUGE! When you're lucky enough to see one it will bring you good luck.
The Toyokoro bakery has the best cream filled donuts in the world!!! In fact, everyone I know who has ever visited here talks about those donuts long after they return home and I for one look forward to enjoying them again at every return visit.
It gets dark here by 6:30 pm and is completely light by 5:30 am. This seems strange as its only the middle of September and the latitude here is actually south of Summerland.
School is in session Mon-Fri full days and 1/2 day on Saturday. School is closed for 25 days winter break and 25 days for summer break in this region. All students are required to participate in one club activity outside school hours. Club activities range from sports to choir. Almost all janitorial work in the schools is done by the students themselves (beginning right from kindergarten). They believe that by caring for their schools in this way the students will feel more ownership and that coordination of the jobs to be done fosters cooperation and leadership. (I tend to agree with them and can tell you that their schools and their community in general is spotless)
There is no vandalism and crime is quite rare.
Shrines are Shinto and Temples are Buddhist (usually). Shrines are for celebrations only (weddings, births, etc). Temples, churches, mosques, etc are accessed for those same celebrations and also are where people go for funerals.
Okay....that's enough for tonight....I am dead tired and tomorrow is another full day.
Sayonara,
Darlene and Lorrie
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