Hassles...

So, as the title indicates, there have been a few hassles of late - not the least of which was Joisan bugging me about not updating the blog regularly!! But as I told Joisan, there really hasn't been much of note happening.
We went to see Harry Potter two weekends ago. Anyone who has seen it should please skype with us soon - we are anxious to talk about it!

Until last weekend the weather was warm and balmy during the day and a bit chilly at night. On the weekend there was a bit of a wind storm and it blew in some serious arctic air! We had about ten centimetres of dry snow over two days, along with some serious cold. The roads were a bit treacherous for my drive to Date Chugakko on Tuesday but I made it safely. Thankfully, we are back to balmy sunshine during the day and the snow is retreating quickly!

Ian has been busy over the last couple of weeks, helping his friend Takaaki-san. He has been harvesting Nagaimo - a long potato-type vegetable and also helping with a structure Takaaki is building. They are working on the foundation for a pizza oven that Takaaki will build outside his back door. It's a bit weird and the poor planning and execution is driving Ian crazy but he still goes to help.

Last weekend, with the help of Takaaki-san we were able to order some discount lift tickets for the local ski-resort. We have been looking at the 2nd hand stores for ski and snowboard stuff so that we wouldn't have to rent them this year and we were able to find a great deal for some skis and boots for Joisan. Taran, with his skookum sized feet have been more of a challenge to fit in the land of tiny people. Today though, I think I may have found something!!! In desperation I went to the Hokkaido JET forums in case anyone had posted any equipment for sale and there it was!!! A posting only 3 days old!!! A snowboard with step-in bindings for sale - complete with size 30 (cm) boots!!! (Picture the following in slow motion...) I ran to the conference room where Taran was working and yanked the shoe off his foot... I frantically (in slow motion) searched for the size of said shoe... (suspenseful music here) a 30!!!! (Switch to hyper-speed) I raced back to the computer and frantically registered for the HAJET forum so that I could post a response saying that I would buy the set (for the equivalent of about $40 mind you!!) I haven't heard back about it yet but I'm feeling like it was meant to be!!! It's a good thing - I need something to go right just now.

We found out this week that the cheap train passes that we had been counting on for our January holiday with my mum and my sister are not available when we need them. (Never trust the internet - lesson learned!) Mum and I have been frantically working on alternatives to make all our travel dreams come true... details to be posted as they are determined.

Sorry for the lack of photos to break up the monotony of my ramblings. There hasn't been much to take photos of... I'll work on it for next time!