It is to my understanding that the weather back in Canada has been… fluxuating… to say the very least. Reports have come to me stating that the weather in Saskatoon (my home city) was -30 one day yet +4 the next! What the heck is wrong with your climate!?

Out here, I really shouldn’t complain…. but I will anyways. The temperatures here for a normal day have been balmy by comparison. An average daytime temperature here in Yokohama is about +8 (celcius) while the evenings tend to drop to 1 or 0. Only a couple times has the temperature been sub-zero. ‘Not Bad’ you say? Well for me, it’s there’s a couple small troubles with that.

I have recently, and almost overnight, acclimated to the weather out here. For me, anything less than about +10 is cold enough to consider using a taxi to walk the 1.5 kilometers home. Night-time is always a strugle against with my “freezing” hands stuffed down in my pockets versus my will-power against hailing the closest taxi. That’s what I get for going back and forth between different temperatures! I BLAME CANADA!

I’m in a half-sleep state right now, so I should stop writing, and you know, I WOULD but it just is so time consuming. Killing time has become somewhat of an art out here in Japan. I can do it flawlessly now and with such grace that similar murderers of time would be envious.

See? I did it again!

It was a fairly late night after NEEDING to do 3 hours of laundry so I didn’t get to sleep untill roughly 4am. That’s not too bad though since I need to get up at 12pm in time to get ready for work.

The problem arrises when you are woken up by a high-pitch shrieking sound coming from a fire alarm placed conviniently outside of your bedroom door. I woke up… donned my closest available clothing (which happened to be a Calgary Flames ball-cap, dress-pants and a plaid over-shirt… thanks Dale!), snagged my camera and passport then off I went.

I get to the front door of the house to see many people wandering in similar attire only to have the bell suddenly shut off. In a thick Japanese accent, a little old lady who is the keeper of the house announces in broken English “Farsu Araahhmu!” As it turns out, someone was showering in the early-morning hours and as it was a cold day, they decided NOT to ventilate the shower room for fear of getting a little cold… so the steam built up and built up and built up and seeped into the rest of the house, causing a layer of steam to creep across the celing which was a good foot thick.

Good morning to you!

18.

That’s how many snow-flakes I counted between Aobadai Station and my office.

3784396730.

That’s how many of the buggers fell on me when I was walking home WITHOUT an umbrella.

Mmmm…. Kraft Dinner.

Tonite I decided to make myself a Canadian supper made from the food “Kraft Dinner” (Macaroni & Cheese). I didn’t have any milk, so beig in Japan I simply went to the closest vending machine and purchased a bottle for 120 yen. There’s nothing uncommon about that, in fact the dairy products there (Milk, Coffee & Milk, Milk-Tea, etc etc) are all brought in fresh every morning.

I come back home, fire up the stove and begin to boil the water (the first step in cooking Kraft Dinner). After the water is at a boil, I added the noodles and stirred for 5 minutes. After testing a noodle to make sure it was tender and soft, I drained the water and added the cheese and milk.

At first, it looked delicious! I had two packets of cheese-powder, one white-cheese and one yellow-cheese. I smelled it and it smelled…. pretty good. I added a bit of milk and continued to stir, NOW it’s starting to look like real Kraft Dinner!

Finally, I sat down and took a BIG spoon-full of K.D. and shoveled it into my mouth….. only to stop mid-chew… something was wrong with this milk.

I swallowed….

I took another bite… something was DEFINATLY wrong with this milk. I finally took the remainder of the bottle and smelled it… what the hell….

YOGURT!!!!!! SWEET YOGURT!!!!!!!

I think the following photo explains things better than any words can….

Two pass’s…. special entrance…. 14th only….. MEDIA PASS!!!!!