Blog Charaku

We're pleased to advise our new local web site, hope not too much is lost in English translation
http://locoplace.jp/t000131276/

Weight Loss – 22kg (49lbs) in 16 months
Some of you may remember my blog of July 27, last year, heralding what I thought then was the great achievement of losing 10kg in 3 months.
Thirteen months later I’m delighted to report a weight loss of 22kg. I now weigh in at a stable 87kg (192lbs), an ideal weight for my 195cm (6’5”) height.
I attribute this mainly to trading beverages from red wine and beer (which I still occasionally enjoy), to Japanese green tea.
Japanese green tea can’t take all the credit of course, though its regular drinking has helped to instill a certain discipline to my life. Other factors include a regular morning walk through the forest with Mr. Rooney, our American Cocker Spaniel, cutting snacks from my diet and becoming less sedentary by cooking in our newly opened café for a few hours a day.
Autumn (or fall, if you prefer)
“SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;” Keats
Autumn in Sapporo lives up to that magnificent observation. My morning walks through the forest are over a carpeted treasure of red, yellow, gold and brown leaves. The smell is pungent and the fungi abundant. The seasons are so important to the Japanese and their way of life. There is so much home grown produce here and as the seasons change so do the daily menus offering a variety of life that our grandparents so enjoyed.
So members and friends please continue to enjoy Japanese green tea and its health benefits and enjoy autumn, unless of course you’re ‘Downunder’ in which case enjoy your spring.
Ayers Rock Cafe
Yes, I know, I’ve been quiet for a few months.
Our new cafe venture is the reason. Our cafe is situated just outside of downtown Sapporo in Minami-ku (south ward); its half way up to Mt Moiwa, our local ski resort and affords a panoramic view from our windows and balcony of the mountains surrounding us. If you ever get to this beautiful part of the globe, maybe for winter sports or the ice sculptures each February please call in to say “Konnichiwa”, you’ll be regally treated and perhaps we can give you some good advice on what to do and where to visit to enhance your stay.

Well what an amusing day I had last Saturday.
It's a week before the 'Sapporo Snow Festival' starts in earnest but a close neighbour gave me an unexpected preview.
I first noticed him yesterday beavering away clearing the snow from his front driveway. By afternoon I thought he was a bit intense and that his discarded snow heap was growing in size. Later he seemed to patting it down with some affection and it was beginning to form a dome like shape, taller than him. This called for the binoculars for an up close inspection from the bowels of our second bedroom to avoid accusations of peeping.
Then I noticed that he was carving out an arched doorway. I thought he must have had a squabble with 'Her Indoors' and was preparing himself a 'dog house' for the night.
But no, he carefully placed a statuette in his 'shrine' and embellished it with head-wear and shawls. According to Ayano, my partner, it has no religious significance so it must just have been his creative way to spend a Saturday and why not? I must say that last night, when he illuminated it with a candle placed behind the figurine that it looked quite beautiful.

This is my second winter in beautiful Sapporo, the capital of Japan’s northern ‘Wilderness’ island of Hokkaido. Last winter I was incapacitated and unable to fully appreciate this very new (after 40 years living in Australia), climate for me. This winter is one of wonder and discovery. Winter can be breathtakingly beautiful.

Driving around with snow above the car roof on either side can be disconcerting akin to the bob-sleigh experience I would imagine, certainly exciting enough.

Until recently I’ve been taking ‘Mr Rooney’ our American Cocker Spaniel for early morning and mid-afternoon walks through the forest. He started to come home like a giant snowball and needed to be thawed in a warm bath to rediscover him. Now the snow is too deep to even consider the forest walk so I’m back to walking the streets. The other morning after a particularly heavy snowfall there was the eerie experience, in the half light of dawn, of our neighbours, several of them, busy as beavers shovelling snow from their driveways and footpaths in the total silence of the soft blanket that had covered the streetscape overnight.

I emailed my sisters in Australia about the experience; one replied that she could “almost hear the silence of the snow”. There’s poetry here somewhere, I’m sure someone must have captured it in verse.

Japanese brides are drawn to Christian style bridal gowns and even wedding ceremonies. Hence, to a visitor it may seem that Sapporo has a large Christian fellowship but the steeples and spires are likely to be a reception center which primary purpose is to host weddings.
Many Japanese couples have two ceremonies, one traditional Shinto dressed in kimonos followed immediately by a western style wedding and reception.
It was our honor and privilege to attend a close family wedding recently. This couple decided to forgo the traditional element.
The church/reception venue was amusingly named the 'Shalom Church'. The complex itself was very tasteful, the attendants effusive, the mood serious. The bride looked fantastic and the groom very elegant. The grandmother and the mother of the bride both wore kimonos. The bridal gown had a trail about 3 yards long.
The service was good, the chapel quite large, as big as a small English church. We were greeted at the front doors of the church by two girls, dressed as choir girls (they later became part of a good mini choir of 4, one of them doubling as a flautist), carrying large candles. When the doors opened we all trailed in, brides family to the left, groom's to the right. There was a large stain glass window behind the altar, a female organist also dressed in a surplus to the left of a central raised pulpit. The priest was a real one, the service conventional with prayers, hymns (the whole congregation sang) and the wedding ceremony. Much of the service was in Latin. Even though the whole affair had a touch of ‘Gone with the Wind’ it got away with it and the gravity and sincerity of the occasion won over the day.
All in all it was a very well orchestrated affair with nothing left to chance. The facilities were so good and well planned. Comfortable guest waiting rooms, gigantic dressing rooms for the bride and groom, sweeping stairway and fresh petals for the flower shower leading down to a very fine restaurant/reception area and very good food. Everyone at the dining table got up in turn to say a few words. All in all a good and dignified if somewhat serious day.

There’s a quaintness about Sapporo that takes me back to my childhood in Kent (now suburban London), 55 years ago. It’s a comfort zone that’s delightful to revisit and a reminder of how community pride and concern, home grown produce (a war time legacy when I was a kid), for the family and sharing with neighbours and the consequent slow cooking improves one’s wellbeing.

In our street the young mum’s seem happy to be working at home, maybe a luxury in this modern world because house prices are affordable to pay off on a single income here. Cars are driven with caution allowing children to play in the road with confidence; tiny tots walk to school unescorted without fear and seniors are active in their gardens, taking a stroll or enjoying their cross between ‘pitch and put' and putting golf-like game. In essence the streets are alive and therefore, safe. In nearly a year of living here now I’ve not witnessed an act of vandalism; seen a drunk or had hoons dropping ‘wheelies’ on the street in the early hours of the morning.

Apart from the home grown food Sapporo benefits from a rich volcanic soil, it’s still host to dormant volcanoes and frequent earth tremors (you seldom feel them and get used to the TV. announcements); subsequently agriculture is evident on a massive scale. On my now regular summer drives into the country I’ve witnessed onions, melons (in hot houses), rice, asparagus and potatoes on farms stretching as far as the eye can see. Fish and other seafood are plentiful and cheap here too.











Yesterday we visited Kyogoku park which sits on the foothills of Yotiezan (Hokkaido’s Mt Fuji), and hosts a magnificent spring. The water is fast running, cold, pure and sweet. The authorities of this beautiful park have been thoughtful enough to supply mugs for visitors to capture a taste from the water cascading through wooden pipes running adjacent to a waterfall.
Peace of mind, Japanese Green Tea and a healthy diet have improved this scribe’s life immensely. Thanks Sapporo.

Like most ex-pat Australians, especially those from Melbourne I’ve been agonizing over the bush fire tragedy over the past two weeks. To see the beautiful township of Marysville reduced to rubble invokes fond memories of holidays there, last time befriending a koala that made its home in a gum tree adjacent to the decking where I enjoyed my afternoon glass of red. Sadly the resort where I stayed then is totally destroyed. So many townships made familiar my fishing weekends have fallen victim to the fires from Redesdale, near Bendigo to Buxton and even as far as Yarram.

When I left Melbourne last July we had already experienced a 10 year drought and water restrictions were severe. We could only water the garden by hand for two hours a week from 6am to 8am, showers were limited to 4 minutes and washing water was saved to bucket onto the roses. Here’s a copy of an email I sent recently to my sister who lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales which describes my dramatic change of environment.

“Ah, Margaretta, bath time, one of the delights of Japanese life. Our bathroom is about 3m x 2m and the whole room is the bath really. The shower is attached to the wall, one low fixture for sitting on a stool and a high setting for a stand up shower. The tub is the same as a large Aussie bath. The concept is that you shower in the room to get clean before relaxing in the tub. The main thing here is no shortage of water. I remember when I first arrived being shocked at seeing a restaurant owner hosing down his outdoor furniture, coming from Melbourne where you could water your garden for an hour twice a week at about 6am in the morning, I felt a twinge of guilt at the sight. Now of course I'm used to the extravagance. By the way Sapporo also boasts some great spa resorts and it's not uncommon to go to a bath house for the day or to stay over. The resorts are quite beautiful, the bathing facilities superb in both public and private bath rooms that you can hire by the hour. You can even sit in a hot tub outside at this time of the year with the snow falling around a beautiful garden setting. The food is great in the resorts too.
Love d”

For those whose lives have been devastated by the Victorian bush fires you can donate to
http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm

It’s said that a picture tells 1,000 words, so I’ll hand it over to the City of Sapporo to say a few thousand words on its behalf.
http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/photolibrary/indexe.php provides a user friendly photo library that describes this beautiful city far more eloquently than I could hope to achieve.
Sapporo houses the head quarters of Charaku Co., Ltd ‘The Japanese Green Tea Club’, far from the tea growing areas of Japan but a scenic, affordable, clean and efficient city to live and conduct a business from.

Hi, I’m Derek, one of the ’Charaku’ team who’s privilege it is to bring this selection of premium quality Japanese green tea to your doorstep, or in this case desk top. As a westerner living in Japan my blogs over the forthcoming year will include aspects of everyday life experiences in Sapporo. My partner Ayano, whose family is steeped in the tea-making tradition, will contribute from time to time with tips garnered from our own experiences in trialing different teas and blends.

I’ll start my living in Japan blog with an account of the Christmas/New Year holiday season. In the shops you’d be excused for feeling that you were anywhere in The West starting from October. Canned Christmas music, decorations, Santa’s, fake Christmas trees and gift boxes of presents are everywhere. The similarity ends in the food halls and supermarkets. Tokyo maybe different but in Sapporo there were no signs of mince pies, Christmas puddings, short bread, turkey’s or any other roasts. I ordered my frozen turkey from a butcher friend, the first order for a turkey he’s ever had. The bird was from Brazil and proudly announced on its packaging that it was slaughtered in the true Halal manner; how it ever arrived in Sapporo I really don’t know, it’s a very long magic carpet ride to the nearest mosque from here. I will add that the bird was quite delicious and did its job admirably. So what’s the climax of all this spending? Christmas day is just another working day. I understand that in Japan it really is just for the kids and that KFC is the traditional Christmas dinner.

New Year is the BIG holiday here, people start travelling back to their families late in December and take about a week’s holiday from about December 28. New Year’s Eve is not for the drunken reveler; everyone’s much too busy preparing for the New Year’s Day feast. The evening is spent watching a marathon singing competition between the sexes on TV. This year the men won. At 11:45pm the TV coverage swings across to a temple service from Kyoto to see in the New Year. The mood is somber, reflective and reverent. After mid night my family and friends trudged through the snow to pay their respects at the local temple, state their wishes for next year and receive a cup of sweetened hot sake. Then everyone headed to bed.

On New Year’s Day the dining table groaned; full of those quaint Japanese food boxes brimming with 20 to 30 varieties of seafood, chicken roll, cold meats, pickles, veggies of every description, miniature soufflés and a vast array of dipping sauces. The main presentation was whole crab, in this instance ‘Hairy Crab’ a specialty of Sapporo, Hokkaido. Rice cakes cooked in a delicious soup were a side dish. (Only a side dish because it didn’t fit on the table).
The eating and family conviviality is an all-day affair liberally lubricated with sake and/or beer. Naturally we finished the day with a soothing cup of Saitama Sencha.

Feel free to recount your experiences of Christmas in Japan or ask any questions about life in Japan.
derek@tea-charaku.com