Making up for lost time - What you've been missing.

View of Mt Yotei from the slopes of Hirafu

After an extended period with no updates on my travels I thought it was high time I filled people in on the goings on, if they are interested, or indeed if they even remember who I am.

Anyway, for those who ARE curious to know my whereabouts, I am still on Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four main Japanese islands, working in Hirafu, a ski town in the Niseko area, famous for getting some of the best powder in the world.  I’ve been here since the end of November and have been working all the hours I can so that I’ll have a few yen to rub together so that the adventure can continue when I leave here on the 25 of March.  I won’t be riding first class, but I will be moving.

Now to try to bring you up to speed with some of the goings on between this and my last post in November.

Got from Sapporo, where I had been living, to Hirafu, by getting a lift from a friend from work who had very nicely offered to drive me, which was great as it meant that I didn’t have to be quite as painfully slow and careful in folding and rolling my gear so that every available crevice in the bag was filled (a process which usually requires several attempts and much repositioning of t-shirts and my other pair of shoes before achieving success).  It also meant that I could take much of my leftover herbs, spices and contents of my cupboards in the three small bins that I had bought to help separate my rubbish for collection and load them into the back of the car instead of leaving them behind.  I was not sorry to leave the house and my senile old landlady behind, particularly after her carry on during the few days leading up to my escape from the city.

For the two weeks prior to my departure, it had been no secret that I was planning to leave on the last Sunday of August, and my landlady had acknowledged “28^th, Sunday, Damien bye-bye”.  I knew that I’d originally paid for the apartment on the 26^th of August and that technically speaking the contract was up on the Friday, but I thought she was going to give me the two extra days until my accommodation in Niseko opened up.  I should have known better.  At 14:05 on Friday afternoon she started banging on the door, and I answered to find her pointing at the contract and basically telling me to beat it.  I hadn’t even begun packing yet, so I told her I wasn’t going, and then she told me to wait a minute while she went upstairs to get something.  I had to meet a guy who had agreed to teach me Japanese chess, so while she was up there I jumped on my bike and scarpered.

I came back later on to find a bill for the extra two days I’d be staying stuck in my letter box.  But I had absolutely no intention of paying it, even though it was under 15€ for the two nights.  I figured that I’d been done out of enough money in the bar already.

I thought that she’d probably try to get into the house while I was gone (I was going to a friend’s house for another going away dinner), so I took the door handle off the living room door, so that she’d only be able to get into the genkan (entrance area where you leave your shoes before entering the house) but no further.  I also booby trapped the front door so a few empty plastic fuel drums would tumble out when the door was opened.  Not so much to cause harm or injury, but rather so I’d know if she’d gone in.  I also left a note on the door saying “600yen per hour =” over a picture of a police car and the old woman in the back, followed by “2 days – 1500 SALE”.  A bit cheeky but I was high on rebellion at that stage.

After a lovely dinner at my friend's house I got back home before the old woman came back from the bar, forgetting about the door and so the drums tumbled out around my feet, scaring the absolute be-jojo’s out of me.  And there I waited.

My chess lessons had put me in a bit of a tactical frame of mind and so I was trying to play out all possible scenarios in my mind.  I reckoned that as she was paying me 600yen per month, which is below minimum wage, that I had her over a barrel in terms of bar work.  I also figured that she would be slow to call the guards anyway as she’d had a bit of trouble with them the week before for breaking into my neighbours place.  Her main argument in my view was the fact that the contract was very much in her favour, but I was hoping that my position was slightly stronger, especially as I could also blow the whistle on her illegally paying people to work on an incorrect visa.  Of course she also had the added advantage of being pretty proficient in Japanese, elderly and a native Sapporo-ite, but these things didn’t occur to me at the time.

When she knocked on my window at 2am she asked me about the note, saying that I was getting paid 680 yen per hour, and that the times I arrived in at 21:05 I was paid from 21:30.  No one had told me this, and I suspected it was lies, but it did undermine my main argument.  After a long debate (in which I impressed myself with my ability to make myself understood in Japanese) it was decided that I could stay in the apartment for nothing for the remaining few days, but she would be bringing a copy of my visa to immigration on Monday to see if I could really work in the bar legally (I think her ace in the hole was the threat of immigration as she thought my visa excluded me from bar work).  I was pretty confident my visa was sound, so we made peace and left it at that.

I was among the first four to arrive in the staff house, which made it easy to remember names and faces as the new staff members trickled in, as within two to three weeks nearly all of the twenty-three beds had been filled, which was, I imagine, a bit overwhelming for the last to come.

One thing I discovered on my arrival was that I would not be working in a bar as I had originally thought, but rather in the café/deli, just beside the bar.  I also would not be working nights as I thought, but in fact it would be more mornings.  These things didn’t really put me out at all; except for the fact that everyone from Sapporo keeps asking me how the bar work is going.  Actually I’m quite happy with the hours and the work, although I do need to get an early night before my 06:30 starts, but I more or less have a routine going now. 

I didn’t think that working in this area would be any good for my Japanese skills, as I’d heard most of the businesses are Aussie owned, and most of the tourists are also from down under, but, while this is almost certainly true, with the exception of Chinese New Year at the end of January when there was an invasion of punters from Hong Kong, Singapore and surrounds, I have made some good progress in my spoken ability.  At least, I think so.  What has helped most has been the fact that as well as my hours in the deli I also work a few shifts a week in another small shop owned by the same company, where I work alongside one of several Japanese girls, most of whom don’t speak all that much English, so we have to struggle through conversations with a bit of a mix of both languages.  Lately I’ve noticed that there has been a lot less English in the mix, though, which is surely a positive sign.

As for the snowboarding, well…

Before I left I had received not one but two snowboards for absolutely nothing from a neighbour and a friend of a friend (but now a friend of mine as well) who had no more use for them, as well as boots, snowboard pants, and jacket.  The gear was great, and even if it wasn’t I couldn’t say much as the guys hadn’t asked for anything in return for them (although I did drop them out a bottle of whiskey – Jameson, naturally – and wine as a thank you gift).  In the end though, the boots were a little bit too big for me, and while I was searching for new ones I came across a set of skis, boots and poles for about the same price as the boots alone.  So I made the switch, and so it is that I’ve been on the skis since.

I don’t get out as much as I’d originally thought I would, partially because I was working 50 hour weeks during the busy period, but mostly because generally I tend to go out for a few days, do something stupid, hurt myself and then spend a week or so recovering, and then go out and do it all again.  I am improving, but slowly.

This will have to do for now, as it’s already a bit of an epic tale that tells of nothing, but at least it will let people know I’m still alive and typing the same drivel.

There will hopefully be more exciting updates quite soon.

Oh, by the way, one of the guys I'm living with is rocking the video blogs on Youtube every week.  He has some great snowboarding footage, along with wicked music.  And now and again I pop up in the background, although there are no ski shots yet.  But one of these days I might make the cut.  Worth a look, so here's the link to his channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kieranjamesharris