A nice video from a train and more words with Andy

So Andy, how're your beans?

My beans are cool, of course.

So, today I went to Hokkaido shrine. It was a very nice shrine, but i was attacked by swarms of mosquitoes, which wasn't so nice. After that I went to the Sapporo Beer Museum. I learnt all about how beer is made by snowmen with mouse-like tails, and after that I drank Sapporo beer fresh from the golden river. It was good beer.

Oh, and I had lunch with some lovely people. And then met up with you for sushi dinner.

How about that sushi huh? Special Hokkaido sushi. I bet you never had unicorn nigiri in Fukuoka.

Nope. The Special Hokkaido sushi was delicious, but not so different from Fukuoka sushi. I think Fukuoka has better kampachi. Here, the salmon and hotate might be better.

What did you think of Eminem's new song?

It has no hook. I was a bit disappointed. And he sounds less angry. I like him better when he's angry and stompy.

Something I've been meaning to ask you. It's been a while since I found something crazy and entertaining on TV that I can tune into regularly. SMAPXSMAP never seems to be on when I think it is, and Super Chample, the break-dancing show is like this mythic white whale that I only glimpse through a mist once every few weeks. What do you like watching?

Well, I like those too. Super Chample is seven kinds of ace. I also like Ai-Nori when I can catch it - reality TV featuring some boys and some girls in a pink minibus travelling around the world. The studio presenters pick apart the body language and the things they say. It's fun to see who fancies who, and how it progresses week after week.

Ai-Nori is so incredibly popular, and has been running for so long. I'm always impressed with its longevity and appeal, almost every Japanese girl I know watches it and it seems to have been running since the dawn of television. It's basically a dating show and travel show at the same time. Some boys and girls in a pink van go around the world, getting to know one another, and when they think they've "made a match" they confess their love. If it's reciprocated the happy couple head on home to Japan. If they're spurned, turned away like an unwanted piece of two day old sushi, then they have to go home alone.

Yes, that describes it pretty well.

We are listening to The Research as we write this. What else have you been listening to lately Alex?

Yeah, this is the second time I bought their album, which should tell anyone how good that album is (very good indeed). I was really excited to find the 2nd Art Brut record the other day, and that seems awesome. Other than that, my Zazen Boys fixation continues unabated, I got hold of Vast Aire's new album and that's fantastic, and since I went to see Radiohead I was listening to them a bunch. I was also listening to a bunch of arty indie-rock of the late 90s early 00s before you came, people like Milemarker and Unwound. Andy music wa?

The new Mogwai, the new Marnie Stern, High Places I really like a lot, some Nagisa Ni Te, some UA, and some Melvins.

Is it goodnight Alex?

It is Andy, thanks for writing so much!

Andy's Continuing Adventures in the Distant North

So hey Andy, since we went to the zoo you've experienced even more of the dazzling, glittering life that awaits all denizens of Hokkaido when they step out of their front doors. Today we ate Jingiskan (aka: Genghis Khan, a kind of mutton yaki-niku that's famous in Sapporo) how was that?

It was good. We ate a lot of meat, but it was delicious, and we also had some Hokkaido potatoes. They were very tasty. And lots of onion. I think I can still taste onion in my mouth.

Yeah, it was very satisfying I thought. Remember that was Hokkaido lamb too. You might as well have been eating Hokkaido SOIL Andy, that's how authentic it was. As real as the dirt beneath your Grandfather's fingernails. Also you walked the whole length of Odori park, how was that?

It was pretty good. Like you said, every section had something of interest, and I think there were 12 sections to it, if I remember correctly. there were some fountains, some statues, and a slide which I slid down. We saw the TV Tower and we could see Sapporo Battle Tower. I liked the trees, and seeing the colours of the autumn leaves on a crisp, sunny day.

That's pretty much it you know, after you see the Sapporo Beer Museum tomorrow you can probably just turn up and ask for your official Sapporo resident's permit. Then you can get free Sapporo beer and potatoes everywhere you go. FACT. Also yesterday we went out to Geijutsu no Mori, Sapporo Art Park, way south of the city and had a good look around the sculpture park. I really liked it, especially the Antony Gormley hidden away at the top of the hill. How about you?


I liked that one too. I also liked the big shiny steel poles with loops of wire between them. I could imagine lying underneath and looking up at the clouds through the loops. Looking at the picture will help you understand:


Then there was the secret hidden garden, including the seven water fountains, the cone in which our voices echoed wonderfully, and the stream which seemed to work by magic, because it took a long time to figure out where the water was coming from.


Do you remember this one Alex? It was called 'Woman with Cock'.


Yes. Yes, I do remember that one Andy. If I remember rightly the description in the guide referred to her as "mannish" or "manly" which put the fox amongst the chickens even more as it were.

Andy has come to visit Hokkaido!

Hi Andy, what are your impressions of Hokkaido so far?

Well, coming in on the train from the airport, I was looking out of the window at the trees and the houses thinking that it looked a little bit like Holland. There were some very pretty trees. And then i met you in the city and it was like Japan again.

But I'm English.

Yes, I think it was something to do the way you kept saying "sugoi!" at everything.

I'm practically naturalised yes. So when you were travelling through the countryside to get here I'm sure you saw lots of bears. What did you think of them?

They waved at me as I whizzed past on the train. I thought it was very friendly and welcoming.

They don't even train them to do that. The Hokkaido brown bear is a natural host, always warm and entertaining. What were your preconceptions of Hokkaido before you came up here?

I thought it would be colder. My mum told me to wrap up warm. But it isn't too cold. A bit chilly, but not too cold. And I thought that Sapporo beer would be flowing down the mountainsides in fizzy golden streams. I haven't investigated any streams yet, but I will be disappointed if that turns out not to be true.

Well, I'll take you to the factory and you can see the bears who work there bottling it. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. As part of your flash immersion into "Dosanko" culture you also had Sapporo soup curry tonight. How was that?

What's "Donsanko" culture, Alex? Yes, I tasted my first bowl of soup curry tonight, and it was very good indeed. I can see why you eat it every week. I had a level three curry on the hotness scale, as you know, and this was about right for me, but the scale goes right up to ten. A ten must be very hot.

I think ten is what the bears eat. Sorry, I threw that one in to test you. "Dosanko" is slang for someone from Hokkaido. So, what are you most looking forward to doing?

I'm looking forward to hanging out with you, going to the zoo, going up the mountain in a cable car, eating some Hokkaido ramen, and Hokkaido sushi, going to the beer factory and hopefully, if we get chance, playing some music together. Alex, how many pairs of trainers do you actually own?

Hmmmm.... I have four nice pairs now, one chunky pair for outdoorsy stuff, one pair of slip ons for stomping on guitar pedals, one pair of slip ons for going outside, one battered pair for sports... and one pair that don't quite fit me. I'm not sure what to do with them. Does that have anything to do with Hokkaido? Do people in Kyushu have less than nine pairs? I think that's probably a fair amount for Hokkaido. Yes, pretty fair. We're pretty far North here remember.

Yes, I think that the further North you go, the more pairs of trainers a person is likely to have. Alex, one last thing, when the airplane started to descend I looked down to see the sun glimmering on the suface of the sea below, there were some mountains in the background and the setting sun turning the sky a beautiful golden colour. I was coming down from the sky trying to take in all the colours and thinking that the world was a good place to be. Alex, do you feel like this sometimes?

I think I may have looked at the sun hitting the same mountains from a different place and felt exactly the same thing. Sometimes the world is the best place to be. Goodnight Andy!

Yes, it is. Goodnight Alex!

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(Andy is guest writing my blog with me this week! He normally writes on his own blog over at Polar Bear Is Dying but I'm going to be sucking his brain dry of ideas this week, so good luck with that Andy!)