Melty slush, mush, and other things that herald Spring

It has been getting warmer in Sapporo.  There are now long stretches of sidewalk that are free of snow.  The snow that remains is not the pretty snow that we once knew.  It is the melty, grimy, slushy snow that makes me wonder if Sapporo has a soot problem.  Even the snow far from the roads has a coating of grit.  All of this causes the snow to melt faster forming large icy puddles.  I went for a walk yesterday to see how the melting has gone and took these photos.

This spot reminded me of Shel Silverstein.  This is where the sidewalk ends.  It ends in a pile of dirty snow protected by the shadow of a wall.

The arterial streets have all formed these ice barriers at the side of their snowbanks.  They are formed as the melting snow is thrown up by passing vehicles.  It lands on the snowbank and cools down forming an icy slope covered in grit.  The photo below gives you a better idea of what it looks like.

I found this leaky pipe under the elevated train tracks.  It has been leaking for a while and formed an icy layer that was melting with the warm water from the afternoon.  I really like the photo below of the same ice.  I held the camera up at arms length and pointed it down at the ice.  It is very abstract.

I took the last photo through the fence at the JRA track at sunset.  Normally it is almost impossible to see through this fence, but with the low angle of the light you can see the other side.

That's all for now,

-Kyle (and Bre)

Snow melt and sonnets, it must be Springtime

The snow is starting to melt here in the city.  I am very excited for the coming of spring.  In honor of spring I found this on the internets:

Sonnet 98
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leapt with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer's story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
   Yet seemed it winter still, and you away,
   As with your shadow I with these did play.

The snow, which used to seem as if it was always growing deeper, has begun shrinking.  On the field that we cross to get to Bre's office some of the shrubs and grasses are starting to peek out of the snow.

In places where the snow was plowed it is melting quickly, allowing us to see the pavement below.  The slushy snow is difficult to walk in, but the biggest problems are the pools where the melting snow is trapped by an ice barrier that forms a mini ice-dam.  These pools are difficult to avoid and too deep for tennis shoes.

This pile of snow was by one of the main streets.  It collected lots of grit and sand from the road throughout the winter.  Now the dark grit helps it melt faster by collecting more heat from the sunlight.

Melty metly.  I am ready for it all to melt away.  Enough of the great Sapporo Ice-rink.  I want to be able to walk down the street without slipping and sliding.  Winter was nice, but spring will be twice as fun.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre) in Japan

Cross-country skiing

We went back to Takino last weekend for some cross-country(X-C) skiing.  We had a great time.  It was very sunny, which we were not expecting.  In hindsight some sunglasses would have been helpful.

Here Bre is ready to go.  Zoom Zoom!

I see in this photo that I managed to coordinate my hat and pants.

Catherine Chague-Goff, a visiting professor from Austrailia came with us.

Catherine and Bre are feeling good at 1.5 kilometers.

We did the 6k Nousaygi ko-su or Nousagi course.  It took us just over 2 hours, meaning we were not very fast.  There were a bunch of skiers who were going much faster than us.
[interjection from Bre-- it took Catherine and I two hours; Kyle skied the 6km course much faster than we did]

There were several points on the course where there was a steep downhill.  This sign is warning about the downhill section ahead.  Skiing down a hill on X-C skis is quite different from downhill skis.  They are much harder to steer.  I fell down when I went too fast down a hill.

Like all good racetracks they have a finish line!  ゴール = Go-ru  (aka Goal)

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)

Pizza

Kyle has found a new cooking passion.

Pizza.

We've had pizza once or twice a week for the past few weeks- ever since we learned how to use our microwave as a convection oven and finally found a pan that would fit inside.

We make the dough for the pizza in our bread machine.

Here's Kyle flattening the dough into the pan.  It's difficult because the dough is stretchy.  Kyle has to push and push to get the dough to stay.

Our favorite pizza is Hawaiian pizza (pineapple and canadian bacon).  This pizza is going to be like Hawaiian pizza, but instead we have kielbasa instead of canadian bacon.. and we added mushrooms and onions.  They have something like canadian bacon here... we just didn't use it this night.

We have not used the pizza sauce here.  Recently, we have been using tomato puree and adding salt, basil and oregano to the top.  We also tried spaghetti sauce, but it is expensive and more difficult to find.

Kyle has finished the pizza.

He puts it into the "oven".

20 minutes later.... it looks tasty!  It is not very cooked on the bottom, so we transfer it into the frying pan.

And cook it for a few minutes longer to crisp up the bottom.

Four pieces per pizza.  We usually make 2 pizzas for dinner.  

So far, the first pizza has always been tastier than the second.  But I think that's because we're so hungry when we eat the first one.

Anyone want to come over for dinner?

-Bre (and Kyle)

Preview to the new place

Kyle and I will be moving from our current place to a new apartment at the beginning of April.  Yesterday I went by to visit my friend Catherine, who currently lives in the same apartment building.  The new apartment will have many small differences from our current one, but we're excited about the change.

The photo above is of our current apartment building.  Very new, very modern. Only ~20 minutes to my office, but pretty far from everything else.

It was snowing hard and was very windy when I went on my walk to visit Catherine-- disappointing after two days of sunny weather above freezing!

Here is the new apartment building from afar.  There's a big open area between the building and the main road. We're hoping this means that in the summer there will be an open grassy place for picnics or frisbee.  But we're not sure what's underneath all the snow.

Our new apartment will be on the 2nd floor.  I think it's one of the two in the middle of the photo, but I'm not certain.

There's some building to the east of the apartments.  It had beautiful icicles hanging off it.  I'm not sure what's in the building.

Here's the backside of the new apartment building.  The little covered sheds are where we'll store our bicycles.

This is the door to our apartments.  I think the window on the 2nd floor on the left will be our window.  But we'll know for certain in 4 weeks.

My new walk to my office will no longer involve going through a field.  Instead I'll be walking along this road, then down the main road of campus.

My old walk home-- beautiful, but very cold if windy, like it was yesterday.

That's all for now.  We'll keep you updated!

-Bre (and Kyle)