popping out

Old Man with Taiyaki

On Wednesday, I cycled to the local library (actually, a 'children's play centre' which basically means a library where you can't tell the children to be quiet) for the morning. Before it opened I had a bit of a jaunt around Niseko. No one was around outside: everyone was in this place, the supermarket. 

This is where I surreptitously took a picture of the Taiyaki maker - he must have been about 98 years old, bent completely double over the fish-shaped grids. (For those who don't know - let's have a gratuitous picture of the Taiyaki:) 

They look like fish but don't taste like fish

I tried to ask whether they had dried fruits. I tried to speak Japanese, but it turns out the word for dried fruits is, in fact,ドライフルーツi.e. dried fruits. This painfully reminded me of the time I spent ten minutes describing eye-drops for dry eyes to a pharmacist (in the end, it turns out, in Japanese it'sドライアイーor Dry Eye) and the time in the conbini when I needed a spoon (スポーンor Spoon) and in the cafe, asking for butter (バター　or butter) and so on and so on...

Monkey in the supermarket. 

I cycled here and there (あっちこっち行って来た）and then gave up in exhaustion. A neighbour stopped me in the library and said how she'd passed me in the car - big hills around here aren't there? she said. Yes, I said. Yes, there are.  

Homemade Okonomiyaki on a special grill

For those who don't know, Okonomiyaki is usually referred to as Japanese pizza; however, it bares no resemblance to a pizza whatsoever. It is in fact a kind of cabbage omelette or tortilla, cooked on a griddle-like object, and onto which you can add extra ingredients - prawns or squid or pork - and afterwards, dry seaweed sprinkles, bonito flakes, and the obligatory, slightly mysterious 'Okonomiyaki sauce', which is brown and... well, I have no idea what it's in it really. 

My homestay father (let's call him T-San for short) poured me the usual Sapporo beer (no better in the world) and an extra tipple of Shochu mixed with hot water or Shochuoyu. Shochu is a distilled spirit made from sweet potato or potato, whereas Nihonshu - what we know as Sake - is made of rice. 

A long-standing mystery explained to me...