Anthony Short

Syncing Models Across Views with Backbone.js

2012-02-11T00:00:00+11:00

Over the past few months I’ve been working with Backbone.js a lot. I ran into a problem recently where I needed to sync models between multiple views and collections on the page. I wanted all the views and collections to instantly update as soon as a model changed in any of them.

I thought of a couple of ways to approach this problem:

Use the same collection in multiple views
Use the same model in all the views using a manager or factory
Have the models listening for changes on other models directly

Passing the same collection through to the different views wasn’t possible because the multiple views used different data. This led me to try and create a model manager/factory to handle the creation of the models so that there would only be one instance of each model. That would require a great deal of restructuring and might not even work in the long run.

Over-abstracting code too early is a trap that I’ve been caught in before so I went with the simplest solution to the problem.

The models listen for a change event to update their attributes and broadcast an event with their own attributes when they change.

This would let me sync all the views instantly. Here’s a dummy model that uses this idea. Let’s assume that Events is whatever event emitter you’re using across the app.

Todo = Backbone.Model.extend({
    initialize: function(options){

        this.bind('change', function(){
            Events.publish('todo:change',this);
        }.bind(this), this);

        Events.subscribe('todo:change',function(model){
            if(model.id === this.id && model !== this){
                this.set(model.attributes);
            }
        }.bind(this));
    }
});

There is a very obvious problem with this though. If a model fired a change event it would update other models that would then fire off a change event causing the first model to update. The events aren’t entirely recursive as they won’t fire if the attributes don’t change. However, when the models change they will cause change events on every other model which would trigger any number of callbacks listening for those events.

This could be a real problem if further down the track there were lots of models with the same ID on the page.

You might think I could use silent:true but then if the change events never fired the views wouldn’t be updated. So I need a solution that would allow the change event to still fire but not trigger the global event on ‘child’ models.

So I opted to use a flag that would prevent events firing on the secondary models when they were synced.

Todo = Backbone.Model.extend({
    initialize: function(options){
    
        // Flag to prevent recursion
        this._syncChanges = true;

        this.bind('change', function(){
            if(this._syncChanges){
                Events.publish('todo:change',this);
            }
        }.bind(this), this);

        Events.subscribe('todo:change',function(model){
            if(model.id === this.id && model !== this){
                this._syncChanges = false;
                this.set(model.attributes);
                this._syncChanges = true;
            }
        }.bind(this));
    }
});

When the other models are synced with the changes they won’t fire the global event. Simple. I debated with myself for a long time whether it was appropriate to have this sort of logic in the model. The simplicity was jut too tasty.

With this I am able to sync models with the same ID anywhere on the page without needing to relying on code in each view or collection to stick everything together. This approach might not work as the application becomes more complicated but it works as a simple solution to the problem that we can work with right now.

Learning to avoid over-abstracting too early is something every developer needs to learn the hard way. Use the simplest solution first, make those tests pass, then refactor as needed.

Otaru Snow Festival

2012-02-05T00:00:00+11:00

Over the past week I’ve been traveling around Hokkaido a fair bit. The novelty the snow once offered is now all but gone. Nothing particularly interesting has happened over the past week apart from a bit of sightseeing, more interesting food and more snow-covered everything. The Otaru Snow Festival was the exception. The festival had amazing food, warm cherry beer and beautiful scenery. It was one of the best days I’ve had in Japan.

The main canal in Otaru where the snow festival was held.

But first I’ll explain how I finally made it to Otaru.

After leaving Kyoto the first place I ventured to was Jozenkei. It’s a small onsen town about hour west of Sapporo. I spent the night in a fancy, traditional hotel there and just relaxed for a while. Everything about this place made me feel out of place. It was clearly for rich, japanese people not backpacking Australians. But I was able to experience a traditional Japanese-style room with tatami mats, floor table (seems an appropriate name seeing as you sit on the floor to use it) and decor.

Jozenkei was covered with snow from heavy fall the night before.

The really interesting part of this stay was the meal. Dinner was a 10-course meal of food I’d mostly never eaten before. In the restaurant and I had my own private cubicle in a tatami mat room with a floor table. Most of the food was decent. I even had to cook my own chicken in a pot of miso in the middle of the table. One of the fish meals looked suspiciously like chicken. I asked the waitress (who was a giant she-man of questionable gender who had been giving me giggling looks all night because I was a foreigner) but she didn’t speak a word of English so I was left questioning the mystery meat. I thought it best to put that one aside just in case I was supposed to cook it as well but I had a little taste first.

These kappa baths are all over the town for washing your hands and feet in warm spring water. This is the hand basin of friendship.

Unfortunately the town had been hit hard with snow fall the night I arrived and all of the tourist attractions of the area were completely inaccessible. The towns ‘mascot’ is the kappa. Which I’m assuming from all the statues everywhere is a turtle. All of the baths scattered around town had kappa statues and there were bigger kappa statues on the bridges. They remind me of Koopa Troopers. Everything about Japan is just so wacky and cutesy.

The next day I set off for Niseko. Most people travel to Niseko for snowboarding. I, however, went there just for the atmosphere. I’d heard that the town was overrun with Australians. The tales were true. Every store had English menus, the people who worked there spoke English and every person you bumped into on the street was an Australian. I became blisteringly aware of the rudeness of Australians during my stay in Niseko. Compared to the Japanese they are loud, foul-mouthed and arrogant. Maybe just the fact that the Japanese are so polite and friendly made it more obvious but I felt embarrassed to be Australian while I was there.

One of the beautiful display at the Otaru Snow Festival.

I spent two days in Niseko exploring the town by day and night. The highlight of the trip was definitely the hostel I stayed in. On the second night, me and Ryo, the hostel owner, stayed up late drinking a lot of sake from the sake factory next door and sharing stories. Another friend of Ryo’s was there with us but she didn’t speak English so every sentence needed to be translated back and forth by Ryo. It was easily the best and most friendly hostel I’ve ever stayed in. He even gave all the guests lifts to where ever they wanted to go and cleaned the house from top to bottom every single day.

After Niseko I traveled back to Sapporo. I had planned to see the Otaru and Sapporo Snow Festivals while in town. On Saturday Jono, Maria and myself caught the train to Otaru to see the snow festival being held there. The town was beautiful and a distinct European and American influence was noticeable in it’s architecture. It was actually quite weird. Otaru is primarily a fishing and tourist village and they didn’t disappoint with the food. There were lots of little shops selling seafood. Giant crabs, oysters and clams were sitting in tanks waiting to be cooked up for the people passing by the store. The whole town had the smell of the ocean wafting through it that reminded me very much of home.

Otaru beer factory. The cherry beer was the best!

Down near the canal we found the Otaru Beer Factory by accident. Inside was a large dining hall that you would expect to be in a European town. High roof, constructed from wood and with two giant brew devices in the centre of the room that are used to brew the local Otaru beer. During winter they sell hot cherry beer, hot honey beer and hot smokey beer. The cherry beer was delicious and warmed you from the inside. It help counteract the effects of the snow and freezing cold outside. It almost tasted like mulled wine. The honey beer had a very distinct taste of honey but was less sweet and the beer taste was much more noticeable. Cherry beer seems to be their signature drink at the snow festivals in Hokkaido.

Small street filled with quaint, little craft shops.

By the time we had finished eating, darkness and snow had started falling so we made our way outside. The ocean winds put a sharp edge on the cold that cut straight through you. It was only -4º but the wind made it seem much, much colder. We walked down the main shopping area of Otaru and went into every shop just to get away from the cold. There were some amazing shops down that street. They primarily sold leather and glass goods but they handcraft everything they make. One of the leather stores had some very complex bags and models made entirely from leather. I haven’t seen anything like that before. There were a lot of glass shops as this area was very famous for it’s glass-making in the past.

Fun fact: I nearly got hit by that car.

The town is also known for music boxes. We found a shop full of hand-made music boxes. Some of them were elaborately-carved wood and others were made from glass. They had a table full of pop music in the form of music boxes, most of which we had never heard of before as it was all japanese and korean pop music. But there were some gems in there, namely the Star Wars and Darth Vader music boxes. They would have made a great gift but the novelty of the music boxes fades fairly quickly. By the time we had tried out most of them once we were sick of them.

Algae ball pet. I should have bought one of these for someone I hate.

The town had had one more surprise though. Pet algae balls. I kid you not. They are balls of algae that are only found in a few places on Earth. One of those places happens to be this town. You can buy them in various sizes and the water needs to be changed weekly. It’s probably only one step up from a pet rock.

The canal being lit up by candles and snow displays.

We walked back to the canal and the festival had started. The canal was filled with candles floating in the icy water. On the walkway there were snow and ice sculptures. There were stalls where they were selling warm cherry beer, seafood soup and tasty, local crab. There were candles lit everywhere and a big love heart made from snow and candles where couples could get a photo taken. Every sculpture had candles and the canal was full of them. It was really beautiful but the cold was making the whole thing very unpleasant. A couple of cups of hot cherry beer and we were good to go!

There were small houses, little caves filled with candles, little fortresses and towns, small snowmen with anime-style faces on them, little igloos filled with candles for kids, a miniature house, tunnels and brilliantly lit pathways. The light from a thousand candles lit the canal and the walkway with light bouncing off water and ice creating spectacular colours.

Unfortunately the iPhone’s camera really struggles to take decent photos in low-light so most of the photos I took are very grainy. They look too awful to really post up here. Next time I come to Japan I’ll bring my DSLR so that I can get some really great pictures.

I’m coming back to Otaru in the next few days so I’ll have a better chance to explore the town and try out their food. I think the snow festival is on for a week so I’ll have plenty of time to drink lots of cherry beer.

Climbing Mount Kurama

2012-01-31T00:00:00+11:00

The last couple of days have involved a lot of walking, hiking, and cold weather but yesterday is a day I’ll never forget. I took the train from Kyoto to Kurama. It’s a small, rural town about an hour north of Kyoto. The town is known for it’s onsen and the hiking trail between itself and Kibune. The path winds up to the top of Mount Kurama and is peppered with numerous shrines and temples that have existed in one form or another since the year 700.

My journey started from Kurama. Mainly because I missed the train stop at Kibune. The hike started by making your way past a small shrine at the base of the mountain. The gate itself is breath-taking. From there the path winds up and around the mountain. Snow had fallen earlier in the morning so there was a fresh blanket of fluffy, fresh snow across the mountains and trees. When I first started ascending the mountain path it started to lightly snow.

They put bibs on baby statues. I don't know why...

I noticed a few elderly couples doing the walk in the morning. The hike was no casual stroll either. It actually took me out of breath a couple of times so I’m fairly impressed that they can finish it.

The sights from the mountain as you scaled up towards the peak were amazing. I had to stop every 20 metres or so to take a photo so my climb took a lot longer than it probably should have. Along with the shrines up the trail, there were temizu basins with hot spring water flowing from them that, I’m assuming, had been sourced from the mountain itself.

A particularly badass temizu basins for washing your hands and soul.

A strange monument at the base of the mountain.

When I reached the temple near the peak of the mountain it was much bigger than I had expected. The main temple in the centre was surrounding by a large open area. There were buildings on either side of it. Inside the temple, there were monks praying in long, drawn-out humming sounds. It was nice and warm inside the temple and you could see the monks kneeling in front of the altar.

The main temple with a giant pot of incense burning and the temple guardians.

The whole thing seemed surreal at that point. I found it hard to believe that I was standing on top of a mountain in Japan at a buddhist temple that has existed for 1300 years. The building itself isn’t the original. The temples have been burnt down and rebuilt a number of times. The path up the mountain and the location of the temple itself is still the same as it was though.

There were all kinds of shrines and statues leading up to the top, including nobs.

Oh look, more friggin' stairs.

At the very top of the mountain there was only a small shrine. The ground was covered by the roots of the surrounding trees creating an obstacle course that managed to trip me up a few times. The tree is supposedly sacred to buddhists;

Mikao Usui meditated near the top of the mountain at a site called Osugi Gongen, at the site of a great sacred tree (kami) said to be an incarnation of the god Maoson.

More than six million years ago, Mao-son (the great king of the conquerors of evil and the spirit of the earth) descended upon Mt. Kurama from Venus, with the great mission of salvation of mankind. Since then, Mao-son’s powerful spirit governing the development and the evolution not only of mankind but of all living things on Earth has been emanating from Mt. Kurama

Sounds like something from scientology. Interesting story at least. It made my whole journey up the mountain feel more exciting. Because of the large trees there wasn’t much of a view unfortunately. But I decided to get a little souvenir while I was there. I took out a bottle and filled it with snow from the top of Mount Kurama and picked a leaf from a plant that was growing in the centre. I have no idea what I can possibly do with these souvenirs but it seems somewhat magical that I climbed a mountain in Japan and brought back some snow from the peak.

The path quality degraded a fair bit at the top.

At the peak of the mountain.

The path at the start of the trail was made from stone but after the main temple this quickly degraded into no path at all. All I had for a little while was the footprints of people who had walked before me. It was slightly unnerving but at the same time it felt great being lost in the mountain for a while and becoming completely disconnected from society for while.

One of the newer shrines up on the mountain by the look of the timber.

The 3km trail over the mountain was the most beautiful walk I’ve ever been on. It was also incredibly relaxing as I was alone on the mountain for most of the time and completely isolated from towns and cities for a few hours. It was just me, the mountain, the snow and the trees. If only there was an onsen at the peak I could have stayed there for the rest of the day.

The shops in Kibune were extremely traditional.

Kyoto

2012-01-29T00:00:00+11:00

I’ve spent the last two and a bit days here in Kyoto and I’ve fallen in love with the city. Everything about it is exactly what I expected of life in Japan. The streets are crowded and full of people walking down tiny alleys filled with shops, restaurants, cafés and more. Even the run-down areas in dirty alleys become alive at night. At night the city itself takes on a cyberpunk vibe with bright, colourful lights, loud incomprehensible advertising, crazy fashion and rustic building exteriors. This all combines with Japanese culture to produce something you’d expect to see in Bladerunner or Deus Ex. It’s really out of this world.

I've just fallen into Bladerunner. Every single alley way looks like this.

The sheer number of shops and the way the integrate their culture is what intrigues me the most. There are dozens of alleys in a couple of blocks and they are all filled with amazing and beautiful restaurants. Even down the dankest alley you might find a small, exquisitely japanese-fashioned restaurant deep within.

The first afternoon I arrived I just walked around looking at the city and getting my bearings. There’s so much to take in it’s almost overwhelming. For dinner I wandered down an alley and found a little restaurant called the Kitchen Barbeque (I think). I was the only person in the restaurant. This is something I’ve been doing lately as it gives me a chance to get to know the people there. I couldn’t understand the menu so I ordered the only item I could read, okonomiyaki. A japanaese-style, unsweetened pancake with vegetables, meat, japanese mayonnaise, a bbq-style sauce and bonito on top.

Okonomiyaki. The best I've ever had.

Afterwards I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Yasaka Shrine at night when all the lanterns are lit up and there were monks playing instruments inside the buildings.

My phone camera really couldn't do this justice.

Next I decided to go and find the British pub so I could meet some people who could give me some advice on Kyoto. So I wandered around the city some more and ended up in the red light district. There were so many nude bars and brothels and I couldn’t seem to escape. They even had people out the front selling their wares just like other stores in Japan. It’s like they had built an elaborate maze of alleys to trap you inside there. I stumbled upon an Irish pub in the area called Gael’s Irish Pub so I thought I could get a drink and find my way out of this sex hole.

Irish Pub. Japan-style. They even had irish folk music.

After discovering that I’d lost my bearings and had somehow crossed the river into Gion I was able to find the British pub called The HUB. Rather than drinking on my lonesome I joined up with a random group of people there who were kind enough to let me crash their gathering. It turns out they were all teaching english in Japan, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. So they enlightened me about the life of an english teacher in Japan. Many, many drinks later and many fun conversation had, I stumbled home.

The next day I walked over into the old area of Gion where there are traditional Japanese streets and buildings. It was an amazing thing to behold. Not just a single street but what seemed like an entire suburb of the city was dedicated to this traditional style. It felt like I had gone back in time and took the opportunity to soak it all in.

Every street and alley is beautiful and very well maintained.

This is my favourite photo from the trip so far. Taken with a decent camera, it would have been a stunning shot, but alas I only had my iPhone.

She's asking people to come into the shop. She was kind enough to pose for a stranger.

This is where I found my first temple, Kennin-ji. I’d love to have a house like this. It was just like every traditional house I’ve ever seen in a movie and they are even more beautiful in person. Tatami mats are extremely comfortable to walk and sit on. From the gift shop I bought a sensu (japanese fan) and a sweet, hand-made japanese calligraphy calendar to put up on the wall at home.

On the way home I found a little shop that sold lots of sake sets which is exactly what I need on these cold Kyoto nights.

There were 3 girls dressed as Geisha who were happy enough to let me takes a few photos of them. They really loved the attention.

Outside there were beautiful gardens.

Inside there were tatami mats, miniature shrines and living quarters.

The shrine itself was, from what I could gather, focused on the idea of the God of Storms and the God of Lightening as they were depicted everywhere. I really should have read the brochure, but just looking at the badass dragons on the roof was enough. If I could have a shrine I’d definitely put dragons in mine, so this guy must have had good taste.

The shrine itself. Again, I didn't read the brochure so I have no idea what it's about.

This covered the entire roof. It was massive. Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam' or two badass dragons on your roof? The Japanese made the right choice.

Outside the temple there were some gardens covering a large area which would have been even more impressive in spring. In winter the parks and gardens are not so great. But I did find one a place to hang ema (wooden plaques) on which you write your wish and hang it up for the spirits to take. I wish I could read japanese just so I could see what everyone was asking for.

You can buy ema from the shrine to hang here.

Dinner this night was rather entertaining. I was wandering around looking for a nice, small, traditional shop and I found one in an alley in Gion. The restaurant was traditionally-fashioned and the only lady who worked there wore a kimono. I was the only person there and she didn’t speak english.

There was no english menu or any pictures of food so I was a bit stumped as to how I was going to order any food. Most of the cheaper restaurants have pictures of food on the menu and model replicas of the food on display at the front. I tried to use my best japanese and she tried to use her best english. Eventually I just asked her to pick something for me. Instead, she asked me what I’d like and then went out the back and made it for me even though it’s not on the menu.

While I was eating we talked about Japan, my travels, her son (who happened to be the same age) and various other things. It’s surprising how well we were able to communicate with so few words. I must have made an impression because it was then she went out the back and came back with more food as a present. I figured that maybe I reminded her of her son in some way.

So I continued to eat and drink, enjoying the conversation with the lovely woman, impressing her with my simple skills such as being able to say my age in japanese and knowing a few japanese words. A little while later she came back with some chips she cut up and made from scratch just for me, including tomato sauce. I was in shock at just how wonderful japanese people treat their customers and they really appreciate small acts of kindness, like having a nice conversation. I think I’ll go back there tomorrow night just because she was so wonderful. It was one of the highlights of my trip.

The next day I got up early and went on a walking tour arranged by the hostel I was staying in. The two girls who ran it were from a local university and were volunteering. Only one other person showed up for the walk, a german lady (whose name I can’t rememeber, I’m sorry!) who lived in China and was visiting. The small group turned out to be a great thing. The four of us explored the city and temples and became great friends after spending the entire day together. Most of the time we didn’t even seem to talk about Kyoto, instead we were just getting to know each other.

We walked through Gion where I had been the previous day but they took us up through Maruyama Park and further up towards Kiyomizudera Temple. The walk up to the temple included more traditional-styled terraces, shops, streets and alleyways and was even more impressive than those that I found the previous day.

Some of the shops leading to Kiyomizudera Temple in the mountains. These shops have been here selling wares to tourists and pilgrims for centuries.

The streets are lined with hundreds of restaurants and shops selling food and souvenirs.

My tour guide Yumiko helped me out with my japanese and the local customs. We bought some dango (sweet rice dough balls on a stick) and tried lots of different food at the shops towards to the temples. There were soy sauce pickled plums, fiery hot chips, pickled just about everything, dango and these very nice sweet rice dough cakes filled with sweets like chocolate and fruit. I learnt a few new words from Yumi and a lot of interesting facts about the temples, the temple gates, the guardians, the meaning of the levels of the pavilions and a lot more. It was a great day learning a lot about japan, kyoto and making some really great new friends.

Up along the path the temple we found a bunch of locals smashing something with a hammer. Apparently it was the same dough as the dango but they smash it with the hammer to smooth it out and produce a better flavour. It’s a local custom and being asked to use the hammer is supposed to be a very honourable task.

You can see the hammer and platform they were using to smash it

I don't think I'm supposed to be here. Also, he looks like the neighbour from Dennis the Menace except without a mustache and neither of them look japanese from here.

Kiyomizudera Temple overlooked Kyoto and was a series of massive wooden shrines, temples and other buildings scattered across the mountain. There are Temizu basins at the entrance of the temple for cleansing the soul of impurities before entering the shrine.

The entrance to Kiyomizudera Temple

Temizu basin at Kiyomizudera Temple

One very interesting fact about this temple that Yumi was telling me was that it was believed that jumping from the 20m high balcony of this building would grant you your dreams…

…if you survived.

Amazingly, 85% of people survived the jump, but I’m assuming their only wish at that point was to be able to walk again. Obviously they’ve banned this now so people are just throwing themselves off the edge.

Jump off this and try and survive.

Incense at Kiyomizudera Temple. I'm assuming these give +1 Purification as everyone was sniffing up the smoke.

You can pick up and light incense to get a really good sniff.

My new friends!

This is the only temple in Japan to also have a shrine. Up at the shrine there are two stones called the love stones. It was believed that if you could walk between the two love stones with your eyes closed and with no help that you would find love. There were a few people trying it and one girl who nearly fell down the stairs.

You can also buy good luck charms at the shrine. I bought myself a traditional happiness charm which was is a little bell on string. So fingers crossed that it gives me lots of happiness!

One of the love rocks.

Three drinking fountains that each give a different type of luck. Pick one!

This area at the bottom of the temple would be amazing in Spring.

And so that finished up the walking tour of Kiyomizudera Temple, but we decided that we weren’t ready to leave just yet so we all went and had lunch together. I tried some uzi-soba noodles with fermented soy beans and whipped, raw egg on top. It was actually really delicious. Besides, any meal where they ask you if you have any health problems before you order the dish, must be good.

Afterwards, I went to have a look at the Imperial Palace, but it was closed. Damn. It would probably look better in spring anyway as it’s surrounded by cherry blossoms. So looks like I’m going to have to come back soon.

For dinner, I had decided that I was sick of Japanese food so I found an italian restaurant. I was surprised at how good that japanese-italian food was. Highlight of the evening though was discovering that the towel they put down at the bar when you eat there isn’t for wiping your hands and face, it’s for wiping the bar down when you’ve finished you meal. So that’s why everyone has been laughing at me weird and I wipe my face with it…

Tomorrow, I’m headed north to the rural town of Karuma for some hot spring and hiking action. I should able to hike in the woods between two towns but hopefully I don’t get lost.

The end of the walking tour. Time to part ways with my new friends :(

My Journey To Kyoto

2012-01-27T00:00:00+11:00

Today is the second day traveling by myself in Japan and I’ve headed from Furano, through Sapporo and down to Kyoto. It was always going to be a bit of a character builder traveling around by myself in a country I didn’t know and not being able to speak the local tongue. But next couple of days would prove to be the most interesting days yet involving tunnels, new friends and running shoe-less (and almost pants-less) through the airport.

Snow still blankets the entire city

Going Underground

Last time I was in Sapporo I was wandering around the city with Justin and we couldn’t figure out why there were so few people on the streets in the middle of the day on a weekday. It turns out that there are tunnels that run underneath the entire CBD so you don’t have to walk around in the cold!

Braiiiiiinnnnsss...

Up on the surface it was a zombie apocalypse-esque ghost town albeit minus the zombies (unfortunately). But I found the entrance to the tunnel. It was another world down there. There are shops, markets and cafes with literally thousands of people walking through the tunnels underground!

For some reason the entire time I was down there I was imagining the underground music from Super Mario Bros.

Wait... A costume wearing a costume?

I managed to snag this photo with this fat, cute thing. I have no idea what this is supposed to be or what they were trying to sell me so I just smiled and handed them my phone to take a photo.

A Night in Susukino

I stayed in a very small hostel in Sapporo called Time Peace Apartment. It was run by a Japanese couple. The only other people staying there were two Korean brothers roughly my age. After a brief attempt at a conversation we both seem to give up and close the curtains on our beds.

Susukino has a lot of butt-load of restaurants

At night I explored Susukino, the trendy, restaurant and club-filled area of Sapporo. I’d had enough awkward and challenging conversations and found the closest english-speaking pub - TK6. In there I ended up talking to Jonno from Brisbane, Australia who was over here working at the university in Sapporo for a month. Seeing as it was Australia Day the bar was selling Australian beers and food. I didn’t come to Japan to have Australia food, but we ended up drinking and talking all night. Good beer, good company.

It’s amazing what little adventures you can have you when you just go looking for them.

My Pants! I’m losing my pants!

The next day I ended up at the airport at 9:45 when the plane was supposed to be leaving at 10:00am. I had to run with my huge bag to the check-in. After yet another difficult conversation they decided to run with me to the gate. But first I had to pass the checkpoint. They made me take of my belt, my shoes and spent the next 5 minutes searching through my bag. When that was all sorted out we had to run to the gate. I didn’t have shoes on, or a belt and I had to carry my huge bag whilst running at least 100m to the gate. To top it off my pants need that belt to stay up and my hands were full so I ended up giving the people in the airport terminal a bit of a show as my pants started falling down…

…and the worst thing about the day is still the fact they took my shuriken at the checkpoint.

But at least I made it to Kyoto.

My First Days in Japan

2012-01-25T00:00:00+11:00

I arrived in Japan a couple of days ago for the start of an epic 18 day adventure across Japan. I wasn’t ready for the weather. I knew it would be cold but I didn’t know it would be this cold. I easily forget the bite of a snowy winter when I live in toasty east-coast Australia.

My first destination was Furano in Hokkaido (the north island). To get there I had to travel through Sapporo, which is one of the larger cities in Japan, but not very old. We walked out of the train station in Sapporo and had to throw on all of our snow gear to deal with the cold but the locals seemed happy enough walking around in short skirts and t-shirts.

Building in Takikawa where we were stuck for a couple of hours

We couldn’t seem to work out what the locals ate for breakfast, so on the first we found a tiny curry shop in Sapporo and had curry for breakfast. I paid for that one a little while later. Justin continued his Japan holiday tradition and had beer with breakfast. The restaurant was tiny and traditional. You walked into the store and were greeted with a friendly ohiyo gozaimasu!. The lady was very polite and I had a chance to practice my Japanese on a real-life person for the first time. She seemed to understand what I was saying so mission accomplished!

We had a bit of time to kill in Sapporo because the trains to Furano were cancelled because of heavy snow (which was a good sign for our upcoming snowboarding adventures) so we went and explored Susukino district where all the shops and restaurants are. We found a shop ran by an old man that stocked swords, shuriken, BB guns and a whole lot of inappropriate paraphernalia that wouldn’t be able to leave Japan. Alas, I walked out of there with a blunt, metal shuriken for ¥1000. Hopefully I can get it back into Australia.

A blunt shuriken I bought in Sapporo. Hopefully this gets through customs.

We traveled to Furano and met up with the rest of the guys staying at the house and went out for dinner at a restaurant named Sai that had a bbq grill in the centre of each table for cooking your own food. We had deer, pork, beef and what I’m assuming was intestines. Two bottles of sake later and much meat consumed we ventured out to the local bar called Bridge Bar.

Various meats and onion at Sai, a Japanese BBQ Restaurant in Furano

Bridge Bar is run by an American fellow named Bill who was kind enough to translate a few things for us and just help us out with Japanese culture in general. It’s called Bridge Bar because he encourages western tourists and local japanese people to ‘bridge the language barrier’ and hang out and talk. Bill runs english classes for locals and hosts dinners for his students and tourists.

Bridge Bar in Furano. Bill, the owner, is on the left (half cut off) and helped translate a few things for us as well as having an awesome beer collection.

The next day, with a mild hangover, we set out to snowboard on the slopes of Furano. I’ve only been snowboarding a couple of times so my levels of suck are quite high. Nevertheless, we went to the topmost peak of the mountain to start off with. Probably a bad idea. The slopes were extreme steep but we managed to make our way down. The course is huge. It took us a while to get down the roughly 3km run. We spent the day here trying out various courses and going to the other side of the mountain and back via chair lift and snowboard.

The top of the slopes in Furano. The view was amazing. You can see an active volcano lies near the town in the distance.

We split up the day with some food from the restaurant at the foot of the mountain. I had a delicious ramen noodle soup with egg, beef and seaweed in a chicken broth. It warmed me up and gave me the energy to make my way back out to the mountain for some more awful snowboarding attempts and many falls. While we were there the mountain was covered with children from local schools who appear to do snowboarding and skiing as a school sport. It was amazing watching little kids blaze past me on their skis whilst I was fumbling around on the ground struggling to stand up from my last fall.

The trees were iced with the snowfall from the previous night at the top of the mountain.

For dinner we found a local sushi train restaurant called Topical Sushi (I’m fairly sure it’s meant to say ‘Tropical’ seeing as the whole restaurant had a tropical theme and branding). They had great sushi and a great atmosphere. They didn’t speak much english and there seemed to be more westerners at the restaurant than they were used to. Most of the ordering consisted of a ‘sumimasen’ and just pointing at something. I had a lot of food, various fish sushi, sweet potato balls on a stick, octopus and a tasty coffee jelly with coffee ice cream for dessert.

After that, we tried to push on to Bridge Bar but snowboarding all day had made us weary. I tried an american micro-brewery amber ale and cider then we head home to finish off the night.

Sushi Train restaurant in Furano. They didn't speak any english so it involved a lot of pointing and awkward conversations. Killer crepe cake though.

One thing I noticed since being here was the proliferation of vending machines. They’re on every corner and sell the craziest drinks I’ve ever seen — Beer, corn soup, hot chocolate, coffee, green tea, milkshakes. I’m slowly making my way through all the different drinks but most seem to taste like ass.

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan. They sell alcohol in them as well!

All in all, it’s been a great trip so far and very eye opening. I’ve probably learned more Japanese in the last couple of days than in the past year (which isn’t much anyway). I’ve felt more comfortable here than in America a couple of years ago, even though I don’t speak Japanese. Today I’m heading out on my own to explore the rest of Hokkaido and Kyoto. My first stop is to an onsen (a natural hot spring bath) near Furano then I’ll make my way back to Sapporo to find my hostel and hopefully I’ll be able to pick up a copy of the latest Shonen Jump weekly manga magazine so I can read Naruto in it’s natural habitat.

The mountain after a day of hard boarding. Beautiful.

Hello World

2012-01-21T00:00:00+11:00

So I’ve finally managed to put a blog together. It’s only taken 5 years, dozens of design iterations and now finally I think I have something I can work with. I’m headed to Japan in a couple of days and decided that this was definitely something I wanted to record somehow. I couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste.

So I put my mind to it and put this site together in probably 3 hours from start to finish. No Photoshop, just plain HTML. I didn’t use Sass or Coffeescript. I didn’t think about design. I just wanted something that would let me write down my thoughts and post funny cat pictures.

I’m really sick of designs that include icons everywhere. Fancy javascript widgets. Sidebars with links all over the place. People come to blogs to read. That’s what we should be giving them. I think I’ve done a bit better in that regard. One thing I am realising as I’m putting together this quick first blog post is that I definitely need to practice writing more often. Hopefully writing on this blog every week will turn my caveman ranting into intellectual observations about life and the web industry.

Or maybe it will just end up being photos of cats.