Burn's supper of tea and irish chocolates...hmmmm

Monday was Burns night in Scotland; a chance to eat Haggis, read poetry, drink and be merry (well if you attend a Burn's supper). I"m missing the little things like that and a good old ceilidh (Scottish dances, excellent music, super exercise).
One of the chaps in my lab went off to Scotland last week for an interview so I handed him my last Scottish 5 pound note with a list of getting some oatcakes and haggis, tinned, on account I don't think Japan would let real haggis in (Real haggis live on the mountains of Scotland and have 2 legs shorter on one side of their body, making them quite easy to catch as they can only run one way round the mountain....really....I'm not telling porky pies here oooh nooo).
Today I got in to find on my desk...
Oatcakes (Orkney ones, excellent)
Scottish blend tea (ok, not on my list, but I'm not complaining)
Butlers chocolate caramels and pralines


NO HAGGIS! I have infact Irish chocolates instead. As nice as they are, I would prefer a tin of haggis. I'm feeling a bit deflated,cause I"ve been really looking forward to it. According to him, he didn't think even tinned Haggis would make it into Japan.

So excuse me while I go and lament my loss of haggis with a wee cup o' tea and a chocolate

Oooomph? where are you?

Its gone and I can't seem to do or achieve anything in a day.
In serious need of resetting January and trying again with more energy.
I feel like I've lost direction and purpose in my projects at work and its sucking energy from the rest of my life.
Need some Oomph...

I love Hokkaido winters!

We had our first really big fall of snow this weekend over 30cm in about 24hrs. It makes me smile... and giddy like a 3 year old even though this is my third winter here and they last so much longer than the UK. Maybe its cause for the first time this this year I've finally got more snow than my friends and parents in Scotland. I've been a little bit jealous of the cold and snow the UK have had the last few weeks, sad I know, but I was born for winters. I'm finally at a temperature thats comfortable for me and I can wear all my favourite pink jumpers. Summer is too hot for my liking. Thanks for the toasty, fun socks Mum! You can wear these in winter and get away with it!
What I really like is the gorgeous blue sky that follows a snow storm...that clear blue sky, white misty breath as you crunch through deep white fluffy snow. Mmmmmmmmm....
There are stairs there somewhere....


I love how the snow lies on the branches of the tree's and the soft sparkle that it has in the sunshine or at night in the streetlights as I walk home from work.
This is other thing I love about winter... I would have never considered skiing before I came to Hokkaido, but I've been bitten by the ski bug. Bring on more snow is all I can say

Theres only 2 things certain in life.........

I've been trying to write a paper this week and failing miserably. Today I've been especially bad at writing anything (as me writing this post during work time testifies to), I just got back to the lab after a long coffee break with a fellow gaijin scientist and opened up the word file when the phone goes and M.san the technician is waving me over to the phone. This is strange, no one usually wants to speak to me, except the big boss and I know he's still on holiday (oh, god I hope he's still on holiday!). She says something to me about who's on the phone and not one syllable makes any sense, but still she hands the phone across to me
.....moshi, moshi... I say in my best Japanese. I have an inate fear of using phones in Japanese, because people rarely say the phrases or words that you're taught in the language text books.
A serious sounding male voice replies and I think the look of horror and non- comprehension on my face told M. san I didn't have a clue as to anything he was saying.
He paused and I squeezed in
sumimasen...chotto wakarimasen (more like a thumping great big wakarimasen) and handed the phone back to her appealing for help.
She starts writing down kanji and then more kanji with connecting arrows, non of this kanji is familiar and there's no hint of hiragana or anything in it to help.
.... It must be serious, she sounds serious and I"m getting a little nervous here- who is it? Am I about to be hauled off by the police? Has someone died? Is there a nest of criminal masterminds living in my building I should have been aware of?
She stands up and directs them to the departmental secreteries and hangs up. N. sensei looks over at the note and helps translate
I'm very sorry....the Japanese government (oh crap, my visa? my apartment? no, no...I've still got a year and more left on those)
...needs you to pay tax

TAX? is that it? Definately not the end of the world then, especially since the tax rate is nothing like European levels.
Apparently my tax free period of living in Japan is up....

Happy New Year!

New Year at Hokkaido Shrine- crowds throwing money and praying

Happy New Year!

あけましておめでとう！

This year I'm going to try and blog more and maybe work out what to blog about- should I stick to general stuff? put in more science? put more weird observations?

And this year I have resolved to get fit and climb Fuji san- NO excuses this year.