Greetings from Hokkaido

I am in the middle of a five day trip to Hokkaido, and find myself (yet again) on a highway bus at night, headed somewhere. (That's what you do on buses; go places.)

If you find yourself headed to Hokkaido, let me recommend Kamifurano. Kamifurano is a small, unassuming, and great place to spend two or three days. The inn I stayed at was more than sufficient, and the country scenery was all that I could have hoped for.

I only booked one night there, though, and now find myself headed to a city that sounds like a major tourist draw. Not my kind of place.

Next time, I think it'll be all about relaxing in the countryside.

Yeah.

Wildlife, After a Storm

Wildlife, After a Storm
Originally uploaded by gogakuhei

Rained really hard for a day or two a couple weeks back, and this little guy must've managed to get swept up into our little neighborhood stream. I keep looking for him, but I think he's gone now, back to the river.

(In case you're having a hard time spotting it, there's a turtle in the middle of the picure, hanging on to a the rock wall.)

Obey the Beer

Obey the Beer
Originally uploaded by gogakuhei

In case you can't make it out, the cap reads "If you can read this, you need to drink a beer."

What else could I do? I had to drink it.

I wish there were caps like this in the US, in various languages.

Genever

Genever
Originally uploaded by gogakuhei

Wandering around this evening, I found a 業務スパー (ぎょうむスパー, or gyoumusupaa) store not far from the station. It's basically close to a restaurant supply store -- think "Smart & Final" -- with plenty of things for cheap in bulk or near bulk sizes.

This place, however, also has a couple kickin' alcohol sections. The Japanese stuff (sake, shochu, awamori, and ume shuu) is on the first floor. The food goods and Western alcohol is on the second floor. There was a lot of good to be found in both alcohol sections; this is one of the shots I snuck from the Western section upstairs.

These are four bottles of genever. If my short-term memory still serves me, this could be something like the Dutch predecessor to our Gin of today. I'm going to have to get some of this. I wonder how it's different from gin.

Also, I wish I could have taken pictures of the whisky/ey section. It was beautiful. I have another pic I'll have to post soon, that's also from this store, but it's more about fairies.

Writing and Working

Okay, I'm still trying to get some things in some sort of rhythm. Posting is one of those. I apologize for the lengthy gaps.

I just uploaded a dozen or so photos to my Flickr account, and have a couple more videos awaiting reformatting and uploading. I think I'm going to keep them private on Flickr for now, until I post them. Hopefully I can manage one every other day, and keep the pace going.

It's not about being a good writer. It's about being a reliable writer.

And beer.