White snow and black eggs

oh no it's snow

 There's that ski slope back there.

 The sun came out during the day and melted all the snow, but then it started falling again in the afternoon. It piled back up by the time I left work.

At work there was a souvenir on my desk. Black eggs from Owakudani.

Owakudani means the great boiling valley. It's also affectionately called Jigokudani, or hell valley. It's a volcanic crater formed by an eruption about 3000 years ago. The area is full of hot springs and sulfur geysers, giving the whole place a distinctive look and smell.

The famous black eggs are created by boiling in the natural spring water for about an hour. Sulfur reacts with minerals in the shells, turning them black.

It's said that eating a black egg adds 7 years to your lifespan. At sets of five eggs for ￥500, that's 35 years for about $5! But it's also said that eating more than two eggs will give you bad luck. The only thing worse than a long life is a long, unlucky life.

But...these aren't those eggs. Those eggs only have black shells, and these are peeled. They seem to have been turned black with soy sauce, brown sugar, and dye. But they're still from Owakudani. It's like making a knock-off of your own product.

Elementary school festival setup

There seems to be some kind of little festival planned at the elementary school. I saw some teachers and a bunch of kids setting things up in the gym.

Here's some pumpkin stuff.

 I think these are marble mazes.

A ball rolling game.

 These dartboards probably don't follow regulations.

 I don't know what these boxes of dried leaves and pinecones are for.

Milking station.

 Box cow.

 These are cute.

I also took pictures of some assignments - character quiz sheets.

This Mario drawing was just too good.

 This one made me double-take. I didn't teach them to write that.

This OKASHI sure is wordy. That's the spirit of OKASHI.

November Potluck

Michael hosted a potluck party at his place in Asahikawa. There was a good turnout, 14 people. It was great to see people and also to eat food that I don't get the chance to otherwise.

Like Shannon's deer chili!

According to her, it tastes extra good because she made it while wearing roller skates.

It took me a long time to think of something to bring, especially with the somewhat limited ingredient selection in my town. But I eventually had the idea to make bread and butter pudding. The bread available around here is practically dessert already.

I guess it turned out pretty well. It all got eaten and two people asked me for the recipe.

Now that I've read things online about baking in a rice cooker, I might be making more dessert type things. I even bought a measuring cup, which I had neglected to get since I didn't think I would be baking before now. (I didn't measure anything when making the bread pudding.) 

There was also pasta salad, smoked salmon, garlic noodles, taco dip, chocolate mousse, rum balls, and jelly desserts.

Seasonal specials from Mister Donut.

 Mike getting ready to chug a bottle of vodka.

Food really brings people together.

 I may not be good at socializing, but I really like social events.

When I got back to town, there was actually a thin layer of show on the cars. All the snow that fell on the roads had melted, but it's a sign of things to come. I don't know if I'm ready.

Omurice in Sapporo

The seminars on the second day of SDC were better! These were electives, so we got to choose more specific topics. I went to one about phonics which was really interesting.

I didn't end up taking a lot of pictures today. We went to an omurice restaurant for lunch.

Plastic food! There are even fabric omurices on the sides.

Some of the art on the walls was a little strange.

Here's our food.

And here's an ad in a store we went to. Look at this girl using the product to safely eat potato sticks while reading manga and playing video games. I like her cat with its paw on her hand. 

"It's time to stop."

My BOE only booked me for one night, but I thought I might as well spend part of my weekend in Sapporo too, since I'm here. I was going to look for another hotel (the one I was at was fully booked for tonight) but Gloria told me I could stay at her place.

Her apartment is really nice. It actually feels like a home! It's even bigger then my place, not counting my empty rooms I don't use. I'm kind of jealous. She even has another ALT right next door.

I really need to work on my place if I'm ever going to have people over.

Sapporo SDC

The annual Skills Development Conference is happening. Attendence is mandatory. Honestly, the seminars feels kind of repetitive. During the Tokyo orientation seminars I thought, "Some of these might be more helpful after I've actually been to classes and seen what the work is like." But I didn't mean I wanted to get basically the same seminars three months later.

But anyway, Sapporo is nice!

I went out with Carmen, Javin, Sophia, and Sophia's senpai, Michelle, to Jacksonville to get some burgers. 

 Like, real burgers! The inside of the restaurant was done up like a Portland hole-in-the-wall kind of place. (I say Portland specifically because of the wooden letters that spelled out "Portland".) 

It was a very nice change from the usual.

A bunch of plastic food.

After the seminars, Carmen left to meet her friend, and Gloria and Natalie joined our group.

For dinner we got soup curry. Nice and hearty, with thick pork belly.

Watch your step. Or foot attention, that works too.

 We went to check out a dessert buffet that Gloria is interested in visiting sometime. There are a lot of seasonal menus. Too bad we missed Alice in Harajuku.

 More plastic food. So many kinds of desserts.

No buffet, no life.

This is a sign for a fashion line directed at nurses for some reason.

Javin, Sophia, and Michelle left to their hotels, while I walked with Natalie and Gloria to the station. On the way Gloria's attention was caught by a parfait display. She said "Are we doing this?" and once she made it a thing we just had no other choice.

 A girls' bonding experience.

Performance art recital

On Sunday there were a bunch of music, song, and dance performances at the public hall in town.

I saw traditional dance, singing, taiko drumming, and taishōgoto performances.

The taiko was very energetic!

 The kids were drumming left and right and all over the place.

 A taiko group from Kenbuchi also came to perform. Queena joined this group, and it's giving her some serious biceps.

Here she is in her drumming outfit. That's Mark on the right, an ALT from another nearby town.

The taishōgoto performance was somewhat eerie. Here's an example of what this thing sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOnAkLnhoQ
There were about ten of them going at once.

That was a pretty short post, so here's a worksheet photo from Joyce. This kid is a genius.

Duolingo what are you doing