WELCOME!!

Welcome to Oyaji Tales, the greatest blog in the history of the world. No, I'm not joking. It seriously is the best blog ever. Just take a look at this first post. Good stuff, isn't it.

So, if you're reading this you're probably friends or family (or someone with way too much spare time on their hands), and you proably know I'm off to Japan. Again. Yes, I wasn't really sure whether or not I'd be going back to the land of the rising sun. I spent lots of time weighing up the pros and cons. In the end, the pros (a decent job, golf in summer, powder snow in winter, endless fringe benefits ... yes, you know what I mean) just outweighed the cons (bye bye family and Aussie mates, bye bye dog, no fish and chips, no more Neighbours ... no, wait, that's a pro). And, of course, I still have a few more semesters to go until I finish my Masters, so what the hell else was I going to do. I certainly couldn't spend another summer on the couch watching every single Aussie cricket game (though I'm disappointed that I'll miss the Ashes).

So, after 6 months looking for the right job (good location, good pay, lots of spare time and holidays), I finally found an advertisement for an Assistant English Teacher in Hokkaido (the north island of Japan). I applied, beat off about 50,000 other applicants, and here I am, sitting at my computer the night before departure.

Anyhoo, I figured that I'd better get into this whole interweb world wide net thingy and start my own blog. Last time I was in Japan I did a pretty poor job of keeping in touch. Nothing for months, then a monster e-mail that would take about 2 hours to read. This time I'm going to try for smaller updates on a more regular basis (don't laugh). I'm really going to try hard (seriously, stop laughing). Starting a blog seemed like a good idea. Besides, I can use it as a public forum to air any opinions or feelings I have about ... stuff ... and nobody can do anything about it. For example, if I wanted to say "women comedians are all crap" (a family argument we've been having recently), then I can. And nobody can stop me. HA HA HA! I'll try and refrain from posting anything too controversial, and I'll really try and refrain from posting my opinions about stuff like Big Brother, Australian Idol etc. Seriously, nobody wants to hear about that stuff (take a hint Channel 10).

Moving along...

Would you like to know where I'll be living and working for the next 18 months? If you answered "no" to that question, too bad because I'm going to tell you anyway.

I'm going to be living in a little town called Horokanai, in the northeast part of Hokkaido. I'll be working on the town 3 days a week, and commuting to nearby Wassamu for the other 2 days. I haven't actually been to this part of Hokkaido before, but I did a little research before I accepted the job and I found out a few interesting things.

When I said a "little town", I really meant a "very, very, very little town". According to the town website, there are less than 2000 people living there, with a population density of 2.67 persons per square kilometre (I'd hate to be a .67). Needless to say, I'll be the only foreigner there, so my celebrity status should be astronomical.



I also found out that summer is hot and winter is cold. By "cold", I mean "arctic cold". In fact, one of the towns claims to fame is that it has the record for the coldest recorded temperature in Japan, back in 1978. -41.2C!! That's colder than an eskimo drinking a slurpee inside a freezer(ok, that was pretty lame). To commemorate this record, the town signs have a picture of some ice and the number -41.2 written next to it. Check out the picture <---



Next, a little comparison.

This is summer.










This is winter.










Heh, heh, heh.

The other thing that the town is famous for is soba. Soba is a type of noodle. Every year they have a soba matsuri, or "soba festival".

This is what soba looks like when its growing.











This is soba after its been prepared. Mmm, yum.














Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how these images of the town compare to what it actually looks like. I guess I'll find out soon.

Finally, I suppose you're wondering about the title of my blog, "Oyaji Tales". Like to know what it means? I'll save that for the next installment.

Bye bye now.