I think the cold season has finally hit the North of Japan. When I first arrived here, I couldnt believe how tropical the weather was in mid september, and I started thinking that maybe Japanese winters were just a myth. But after feeling like a gigantic ice cube all day, I am now becoming to realize that winter is on its way... unfortunately. The good thing is that winters here are not as cold as the ones in Canada. The only problem with Japan is that they have no idea how to heat or isolate houses... So in order to be warm, I need to seclude myself in one room of my apartment shut all the doors and close all the screens, put on my fleece suit, turn on my heater, cover myself with a blanket and make sure that the heat does not escape the room. But then again, this conventional Japanese technique leaves other rooms in the cold, and so I stay stagnant all evening isolated in my living room with nothing to do but try to stay warm. I read books, watch movies and wait by my cell phone to see if any of my friends would like to join me in my fight to stay warm. When I have friends over, there is not much of anything to do indoors or outdoors, and so we just talk and talk about nothing and everything for hours on end. I have gotten to know amazing people that way and so maybe Japanese winters are not only good for skiing, but to stay in the comfort of your own house with friends discussing the meaning of everything. So now you probably have a better idea of what setting I am in as I am writing you this entry.

Last Sunday, my friend Rio and I decided to host a Gyoza Party at my house. Gyozas are like dumplings usually stuffed with spiced pork and vegetables that you dip in soya sauce and garlic. Since Rio once went to cooking school in Vancouver, he knows all of these recipies and wanted to show us different kinds of Gyozas. We invited a few people to come over and all together we started making homemade gyozas from scratch. The first ones we prepared were boiled gyoza stuffed with shrimp, sake and onion and the second kind was fried stuffed with tofu, soy beans and carrots. Needless to say, it was all very delicious. Here are a few pictures of our party:

This is Rio, our cook and gyoza teacher for the evening. He just loves cooking for his friends and showing us tradional Japanese foods, and I love to eat, so he is one of my favourite people I have met here so far.








Here you have Donna and Ryuta carefully making the yummy dumplings.
This is what the dumplings look like before they get cooked. Unfortunately, I dont have a picture of them cooked, even though it wouldnt be very interesting since they dont really change that much...
But here is some of us eating them.. oh so good. This has nothing to do with Gyoza but in this picture you can see something typically Japanese. In this country, people are obssessed with their cell phones. They check it all the time, write intensive long text messages anytime anywhere. In this picture you see Ryuta taking a break from eating to read a text message from a friend. I have to admit that I even find myself writing many long messages a day. Im becoming pretty quick on the dial! I wonder if that is a good thing...

The Gyoza Party People: At the top you have Jax and Donna (both wonderful girls from Australia.) At the bottom you have Chef Rio, myself, Ryuta making a devilish sorta face and my neighbour Jason.

Now I know that some of you are interested to know how my apartment looks like. Well even though you cant really see much of it, all of these pictures were taken at my house, but this next picture is a picture of my living room where I spend most of my time (and where I am right now.)

And for a last picture before I go into my ice cold bedroom, here is a picture of the group hanging out in my bed. You see I am one of the rarest foreigner here who has a western style bed and I think that the only reason why people come over is to re-live the comfort of a normal bed even if it is for 5 minutes. This is the same group again for the exception of Michelle (the girl in the blue shirt), who will also be referred to as my swimming partner from California.

Well time for me to hit the sack. Hope you enjoyed these photos! I know it has been a while since the last time I posted some and I will try to send you some more that I meant to post before. Ihave been quite lazy and I apologize for that.

Hope all is well with everyone and cant wait to see some of you in December.

e.

P.S. by the way, I have good news for some. I have been able to extend my trip by a day. I know its only a day, but it is better than nothing :) I cant wait to see you guys!