Sunday, May 28, 2006

Squelch!

This morning starts with another AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

It’s getting closer and closer to the time that I have to go back home and I don’t want to go :’(

I leave the hotel and go for a walk. Almost immediately it starts to rain, making my melancholy even worse (Apparently the word ‘melancholy’ comes from the Greek word melancholia. Melan = black and chole = bile. The condition was once thought to be due to an excess of black bile in the body. Er…nice!)

Anyway, I continue my exploration of Sapporo, stopping for a cup of tea at Mc Donald’s which I purchase with the usual “point and ask in bad Japanese” method that’s proved very successful on previous occasions.

I was on the look out for the Japanese science fiction film “Zeiram” while I was here (this is a live action version of a popular anime) so I also stop to look around a large book and DVD store just north of Odori Park. This place isn’t that big, but it’s well stocked, with shelves jam packed with a huge amount of stuff. It’s almost impossible to find anything as it is, but with all the signs being in Japanese too (as it would be) I decide to give up my quest and try somewhere else.

The sky turns a dirty grey outside and the rain has really started to come down now, but luckily I make it to the Tanukikoji shopping arcade just in time (It’s become almost like a second hotel the amount of time I’ve walked along it! If it wasn’t for the fact that the seating is all padlocked in the ‘up’ position every night, it would be easier for me to sleep here!) The forecast says that it’s likely to rain the rest of the time that I’m in Sapporo, and I think that they could be right. All I have to do now is make it from the arcade back to my hotel without getting too soaked.

Back at the hotel, I squelch up to the reception desk, collect my key and go to my room to change and have a bite to eat. I watch a bit of TV while eating. It’s quite addictive actually, even though I can’t understand anything that anybody is saying.

Afternoon arrives and I meet with Phil and Christine again and head up towards the shopping arcades in Sapporo Station. It’s still raining quite heavily but luckily I remember to wear my coat this time. Unluckily though it’s also turned quite windy so the hood spends most of the time not actually on my head.


We’ve come to a place called Village Vanguard which is located within a huge shop called Loft. It’s mostly kitsch that’s on sale here, but they do have a few nice items as well (including a book of cut out Japanese street scenes!)

With a few minor purchases made (some stickers!) we take a look around some of the other (mostly clothes) shops. You may be surprised to learn that I didn’t buy any t shirts Gasp!!!

Shopping done, Phil and Christine head back home while I go back to the hotel to dry off for a second time in one day. It's a good job that I packed more than enough clothes for my trip as otherwise I would of had to consider using the trouser press in my room to help dry out some clothes!

Evening arrives. I get ready and wait for Phil and Christine down in the hotel lobby. Using the free connection to the internet to check my emails, I kill some time until they arrive. At the same time as they walk up to the front of the hotel, the screen on the computer that I’m using freezes, leaving my personal emails for the whole of the world (well, anyone that’s in the hotel lobby. Let’s not get too dramatic here!) to see. I’m sure you’ve all experienced those occasions where the quicker you try to do something, the longer it takes to do. This is one of those occasions and it seems like an eternity before I can regain control of the computer and shut down my email, leaving poor Phil and Christine huddled together under the umbrella outside (it’s still raining quite heavily) while I do.

Giving my apologies while explaining the reason why I was standing in the hotel lobby shaking my fist at the computer while they look at me bemused from the other side of the glass, we all head off for yakiniku at Nankouen (Minami-6 branch!) about 10 minutes down the road. Although it is only a short distance away, the wind is driving the rain almost horizontally into us, so by the time we get there we’re pretty wet.

We sit down, order drinks and wait. Phil explains the principal of yakiniku to me (Order meat. Cook meat. Dunk (hopefully) cooked meat into the provided dipping sauce. Eat) while the waiter fires up the grill in the middle of the table (providing us with a welcome source of heat) He takes our food order and disappears out the back, returning a few minutes later with our drinks.

The meat arrives. Plate after plate of (thinly sliced) meat. It’s a meat parade!!! YAY! All kinds are here. Some with a marinade, some without. It’s a meat feast! A vegetarian’s nightmare! It’s also the best thing I’ve had to eat while I’ve been here!

I try some Kimchee. It’s a kind of Korean side dish made from cabbage, cucumbers, or radish roots seasoned with a Kimchee salted sauce, and then fermented or pickled in brine. A bit like sauerkraut.

It’s hot. It’s very hot…I like spicy things, but this I’m not too keen on...

We eat, drink (in my case, mostly to get rid of the taste of the Kimchee that’s still on my tongue. Yeuch! XP) and chat.

With enough meat consumed to equate to an animal the size of a large sofa, we head off into the night, past the slightly car park-esque looking entrance to the hostess bar next door (The only difference being is that car parks don’t have large pictures of young, very glamorous looking ladies with huge eyelashes in strange poses up on the wall. Not the ones in the UK at least)

Outside, we say our goodbyes and head off in our separate directions. I reach the hotel and collect my (already waiting! Hahaha!) key from reception, my shoes making a noise like a sea lion with bad colic on the highly polished floor as I head for my room to dry off for the forth and final time of the day.

2 Comments:

Blogger Eriko said...

Is it famous, "Zeiram"???
I happened to watch it on cable TV a few years ago(it must have been "2" though).
I thought it was an awfluly low-budgeted film and actually looked cheap but somehow I watched it through...mmm funny movie.

11:52 PM  
Blogger Colin said...

Yep, it's a really low budget film and the effects are strange, but I think that's part of it's charm!

Famous? Hmmm...I only know one other person here in the UK that's seen it! Hahaha!

I have a copy on video, but I wanted one on DVD...There's a Zeiram 2 out there somewhere too!

:D

2:14 AM  

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