Not for the cricket novice, despite what the narrator claims near the books beginning. If you are like me, and have followed international cricket from the periphery for many years, this book can serve as a useful jump start to that cricket obsession brewing beneath anyone who has sat through a full days play – even if only from your armchair. I am just that kind kind of armchair fan, and this novel sent me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole that I have yet to climb out of.
This book is long. It reads long. Like a drawn out fifth day of a test with no result in sight. Be prepared to get yourself heavily invested in the Sri Lankan Civil War, its cricket team’s history, the urban layout of Colombo, arrack, Sinhala slang, and impossibly long surnames. If any of that interests you, then dig in. There will be times you will want to end it. But just as you begin to lose interest it will drag you back with some cricketing anecdote from the 1950s that is just too good leave, you have to dive deeper. The fictional elements of the mysterious Pradeep Mathew are interwoven so seamlessly with actual cricket history that by the novel’s conclusion it is difficult to dissect the two. I found myself checking historical scorecards for a mystery spinner that exists only in the mind of the author.
If you are looking to reinvigorate your interest in cricket, this is the book for you. But if you never followed a World Cup, read a Wisden Almanack, or scrolled Cricinfo for hours, I would advise to stay clear until your cricket knowledge is up to snuff.
With three ice fishing trips under our belt this winter, it’s finally time to update on some of the progress we have made into this new subsurface world. A lot of gear has been purchased, locations have been explored, and holes have been drilled in the last couple of months!
The destinations: Lake Shumarinai, about 4 hours north of Sapporo. Lake Kanayama near Minamifurano, about 2 hours east of Sapporo. And finally the smaller Lake Poroto about 90 minutes south.
Each location had its unique character. Shumarinai is a long haul for us. It’s the largest lake of the bunch and gets plenty of visitors for wakasagi fishing. It’s a good place to go if you don’t have all the gear to set off on your own. You can rent anything you need, and most of their holes are freshly drilled so you can get right to fishing.
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Kanayama is a do it yourself kind of place. It’s an unlicensed lake, so there are no fees to pay, but you will have to have your own ice auger, tent, and all the other accoutrements.
Poroto was the closest lake we most recently set out for. It a nice spot to go either beginning or end of season. Here too you will have to bring all your own gear, but there is a small licensing fee.
This is a rundown of the essential gear we used for our wakasagi (Japanese pond smelt) expeditions:
Coleman Ice Fishing Shelter Auto (Large) – This costs a pretty penny and seem to be fast flying off the shelves in Japan. The more heavy duty ice shelter seen in the U.S. aren’t available here, but this one is roomy and works well enough. It seems to be a Japanese exclusive and the go to tent for most wakasagi enthusiasts. Its a quick setup, folds up umbrella style, and has multiple entries.
North Eagle Ice Drill (auger) – Picked this up at the local Homac. It was the last in stock. These are flying off the shelf folks! Probably not the highest quality drill on the market, but we had no problem hand drilling through a little less than a meter of ice with this guy. It’s a decent work out.
Wakasagi Ranger Rod Set – we aren’t going too hard core with our rods (just yet). The sky can be the limit, but this bundle only cost about 2,000 yen at Corso, the local fishing gear depot. Short (maybe 2 feet with tip attached), light, and easy to detect strikes with. This came with a pretty basic Mirage mini reel (baitcasting style). We found similar reels at our neighborhood Homac for about 1,500 yen. We got a bunch as spares.
low fishing chair (Prox Inc.) – Posture and comfort is very important in this kind of fishing. Not a fan of the sitting Japanese zazen style, which seems to be the norm. This one gets you down low enough while saving your knees/legs from long term damage. Prox Inc. makes a ton of medium quality gear for all styles of fishing in Japan. My waders are made by Prox and they have been going strong for about 6 years now.
Hayabusa Wakasagi Hooks – These come in a wide range of lengths, hook sizes and hook quantities. It’s best not to over think it. We try to opt for the 4 hook 45 centimeter length system. You can go with a longer 7 or 8 hook system but that just takes too long to set the bait up on and sometimes you just want to get fishing. You add a weight to the bottom (with an optional hook hanging from that!) Our basic rig looks like this:
A cheap live well – Basically we’ve been using small rectangular 100 yen shop plastic containers filled about halfway with water. It does the job and and you can get an approximate count on your fish (which accumulate quickly).
Yes, the fish are small. Our simple live well also includes a wakasagi unhooker (orange clip on left) and the mounting area for the wakasagi antenna
Wakasagi Antenna (Prox Inc.) – What the hell is a wakasagi antenna? Believe me, I was right there with you when I heard about this piece of gear. Essentially it is a long adjustable telescoping “antenna” that you can connect to your live well (or something else low lying). The top of the antenna has some grooves in it and extends to about a meter. When you need to re-bait your hooks or unhook caught fish, it makes the process much simpler. Most importantly, you will avoid a ton of potential (and realized) hook snags on clothing and fingers. Dangling 5 or more extremely tiny hooks without one of these seemingly bizarre tools is a Japanese ice fishing nightmare. The base of the antenna is also magnetized, which proves invaluable for unsnagging hooks caught under the ice.
It seemed ridiculous at first, but this simple device saved us hours or frustration.
low bamboo table (Prox Inc.) – Another WTF? piece of kit that proved its worth. If there are lulls in fishing, it is best to get your rod level, low and completely still. It also helps makes your area a bit more homey.
Bait – Wakasagi “Rabbit” (Melon, Cheese) – There are a variety of tiny grubs you can use. We’ve been sticking with the Wakasagi “Rabbit” variety. No idea why they are called that. They are about half the size (a couple millimeters) of the standard aka mushi (red worm) or shiro mushi (white worm). They also come small pieces of cheese or melon mixed with finely shredded wood chips. We assume that by digesting these particles their bodies take on a flavor more to the wakasagi’s liking. Our local Homac sells these, as well as Corso and Amirikaya (the big fishing depots of Sapporo).
Those are the main purchases. Of course, there are quite a few other items we keep adding to our setup: rod holders, ice anchors, foam interlocking tiles for around our feet, wakasagi unhookers, etc. There really is no limit to what you could end up buying and we are in a constant struggle to refine our gear. There is also a whole other level of gear that we haven’t even touched on such as electric reels, fishfinders, and heaters. That’s for maybe next year’s gear dump.
This style of fishing may not be for everyone. The gear is very Japanese centric, and hauling in over a hundred tiny smelt might not be your cup of tea. It’s more like fish “harvesting” than “fishing”. If the fish are there and you’ve done the proper prep work, then you’ll be bringing them up pretty consistently. Watch the end of your rod tip with a keen eye, and keep warm!
Feet up, fishing nearly finished, enjoying all my gear.Bringing in a string of four. The record was six.Japanese Pond Smelt (wakasagi) is best prepared as a simple tempura.
This past year I explored the trails and waters around Heiwa Waterfall quite a lot. I took the trail up the backside of Mt. Teine in early summer and caught iwana (Arctic Char) above the waterfall on both bait (salmon eggs) and hand tied tenkara flies. I even did some low-level stream climbing (sawanobori) to get to some hidden fish deep off the beaten path. It’s been a fun year in that regard. And now I rounded out the winter season with some great snowshoeing at the falls, in a near blizzard.
We managed to hitch an automobile ride this time. Riding a bike, even a winterized fat bike, is next to impossible for this long a ride and in these conditions. Once we got to the surprisingly crowded line of cars along the narrow road at the trail head (the large parking lot hadn’t been plowed for weeks), we were anxious to explore.
The trail was surprising well groomed for a good portion of our trek. Other trekking parties, snowshoers, and cross country skiers, had plowed a narrow track that was quickly being devoured by the morning’s intense snowfall. We hiked about 2 kilometers in, past the dam, exploring some side trails and enjoying some deep powder.
Our iwana fishing hole in summer.
The stream still runs pretty fluidly in the middle of January.
With snowshoes, accessing the Kotoni-Hassamu River is actually easier. With some careful planning, I wouldn’t mind trying some winter tenkara fishing. But that is for another day. On this particular hike we decided to head back to the car a bit earlier than we would have liked, since the snow wasn’t abating and we didn’t feel like having to call JAF (Japan Automobile Federation) to dig our car out.
Every day on my morning walk I pass the Nakamura General Store (中村商店), or shouten as they say in the common parlance. It primarily sells Japanese sake and other alcohol. Somehow they are hanging in there, even with a massive Sapporo Drug Store right on its doorstep across the street. Less and less of these places are existing these days.
Christmas and the New Year often bring with it an assortment of paper/wood models that I can’t wait to get started on. Japan has been really upping its game in this field in the last decade so I am always excited when a different brand I haven’t heard of before catches my eye. Ki-Gu-Mi has a large variety of balsa wood projects and I was gifted their miniature schnauzer set from Old St. Nick, I so wasted no time assembling.
Ki-Gu-Mi’s wooden art comes in simple, flat, easy to store packaging
This little guy shows a ton of detail!
This one was pretty straight forward and took only about 30 minutes, which is unheard in my experience. That too star difficulty rating is pretty spot on. There is a remarkable amount of detail in the dog’s muzzle and it really ties my micro man cave together.
Some decent snowfall overnight brought levels up for some decent snowshoeing in and around the city. We took a drive out to Nopporo Forest Park, near Ebetsu, to explore its trails. Although most of the trails are groomed, there are a lot of open spaces for some great snowshoeing.
The visitor center is ultra modern and has all the maps and resources (Japanese only) you might needDownload a this map here.
We started at the visitor/nature center and after a quick onigiri, hit the trail. The park has a lot of trails, you can get lost for hours if you choose, but we decided to do a simple loop to the Centennial Memorial Tower, a monolithic art installation slated to be demolished later this year. Its eerie presence will be missed.
The snow was fresh and it was a great day. Nopporo’s trail network, although extensive, is relatively flat, so it’s the perfect place for low intensity snowshoeing. Most trails are well groomed in winter, so even without snowshoes you can still have a decent hike (some simple crampons might help).
We saw a flock of Great and/or Lesser spotted woodpeckers, encountered quite a few cross-country skiers, and got a decent workout in.
But don’t just take my word for it, go to Hokkaido Wilds’ guide to Nopporo Forest Park for a great deep dive (in English) on this under utilized trail network and snowshoeing location.
Japan’s postal system really does a crack up job. Some of that comes down to geography, some of it comes down to history. Japan closed itself off for several hundred years prior to the 20th century. It had a lot of “me” time to focus on its overland highway system, getting messages from one village to the next, transporting goods quickly, and all the rest. That streamlined focus of the postal system carried over into the modern era. Even today, letters rarely take more than a full day to reach their destination. Packages can usually be delivered within three. Japan Post and independent couriers like Yamato make package deliveries seven days a week, 9 AM to 8 PM. Not around to receive your package? Just call the number on their delivery slip and schedule a re-delivery whenever is best for you, even as little as an hour later! It really is bizarre…
Well, the snow is starting to really settle in, just in time for the New Year. In the past few days I’ve had the privilege of obsessively tracking several parcels sent from the U.S. for Christmas. As relatives cursed the heavens at the inefficiencies of America’s postal service (our boxes took more than a week to finally get on a plane to Japan), I was pondering on a trip we took about 10 years ago with my in-laws along the Nakasendo. I already documented my stay a long while back, but I thought I share some hand sketched postcards that I bought on that trip. They really capture the overall mood of the old postal towns.
No major snowfall yet here in Sapporo. It’s that time of the year when we all just wait. I’m expecting a big snow dump this year. We’ve had some relatively mild winters the last few years, and one would think that we are due. Get ready for longer walks to work. Hours of shoveling at the in-laws. But most importantly, long snowshoe treks into the local woods… to escape it all.
It won’t be long, usually by Christmas Day we have some accumulation. Even the Buddhist stone deities along the trails have sprouted newly knitted sweaters (they know what’s up). Always a nice site to see.
These Jizo statues will be buried soon enough by the snow.
Due to the pandemic, which apparently continues until further notice, this year’s Snow Festival will be scaled back, presumably to dissuade tourists. Fine by me. One of the benefits Sapporo’s intense winter is how the streets become mostly abandoned, everyone huddled inside I assume. Always hated the throngs of people that descend on the town in February to see some snow statues of their favorite anime characters. Ruined the mood.
I quit the news. It’s been a struggle, but for the last month leading up to the U.S. election I managed to pretty much eliminate it from my life. Of course it seeps in at times. I stamp it out like a grease fire in the kitchen. It tries so hard to tell me things. Especially the last few days. I know something is happening that is pretty monumental. But I’ve replaced all of that with art, creativity, books, and what I feel is a better life.
“If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters.” —Epictetus
What is extraneous? Mostly everything. It doesn’t mean I do nothing. I voted. Not sure if my vote ever arrived. It got mailed off into the ether. But I did what I could. I’ll continue to do what I can with my actions. I’ll still hear about the news, but it will have to come from the lips of others. I won’t deny them their talking points.
“But what if something happens?” Like what, a pandemic? The hostile takeover of my birth nation? All those are already in play. I probably will get some emails. I’ll look forward to reading them. In the past it would have just been old news, stuff I read about prior. Now everything can be a neat little surprise. But that’s where it ends.
“The News”. It’s a terrible show I should have gave up on a long time ago. Now I can focus on things that matter like reading the complete works of Cormac McCarthy, watching Twin Peaks for the first time, and building a homemade rod for ice fishing this February. Also there will be more time to just space out…
“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.” —Blaise Pascal
As George Costanza once said, “This is no longer just some crazy notion… this is my religion.”
How to cope with a robot co-worker? Each day I come to work and have to deal with a man who refuses to speak like a human. I just want normal. A normal, simple, English speaker. Not a simple person. I don’t want anyone to be simple. I am just asking for clarity.
For example. “Is this sentence correct?” That would be a basic way of clarifying whether an error has been made in syntax or grammar. I could thus respond in my own standard, simple, understandable way something like, “Yes, it is.” Or some derivative.
Instead, each day I am confronted with bespoke works of linguistic gymnastics so bizarre that I barely have the energy to respond upon hearing them.
“Is this sentence correct?” becomes “In your perception, this sentence which has been written on the blackboard, is it accurate, in your opinion?”
An exchange like this might seem innocuous. Maybe just the spoken English of a man trying to impress with his second language skills. But it is the default of so many “elder” speakers of English in Japan to use unnecessary verbiage for such mundane conversations.
This default must have been encouraged in them when they learned English. Speak to impress, not to communicate. And those who “impressed” the most find themselves as teachers of English, or translators, or government advisors.
It leads to Japan’s “Go to Travel” tourism campaign. It leads to Homac, a popular home supply depot, displaying slogans like “Do Create Mystyle”. Of course there are an infinite amount of other horrific Japanlish examples, just search. My point being that these painful expressions of English, whether in advertising or in conversation, badly reflect on how English has been commodified in the last century in Japan.
You see it’s not about communicating. It’s about status. Memorize this list of words, pay for a juku to train to pass an Eiken test, “earn” your certificate. Congratulations! Now you are qualified to develop our national ad campaign. Of course, use English, use ridiculous words, string them together any which way! You have credentials.
Back to the schools, where I witness the worst of these offenses. I taught a special needs class the other day. Usually the special needs students have the best communicative ability because they haven’t been beaten down by the Japanese pressure to conform. They bypass that, which is great for me. Kids raise their hands in special needs class. They try to speak, out loud, with enthusiasm. But even there English is bastardized by this need to be impressive, rather than expressive.
Students where giving a brief introduction of themselves to me and the class. They had prepared their short speeches, probably worked on them for weeks. A few simple sentences about what they like, don’t like, hobbies, etc. But it seems that a robot infiltrated the class, and made some “adjustments”. Here’s a snippet from a girl’s speech, let’s call her Sakura:
Hello, I’m Sakura.
What I’m addicted to is making videos.
My current hobby is to acquire singing techniques.
Now, I don’t know about you, but the last time I heard a speech like that was from the android Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I certainly wouldn’t expect a 13 year old girl from Japan, or any other nation on the planet, to speak about themselves in such a manner. Of course Sakura, could never reproduce that speech spontaneously because it was completely fabricated by a Japanese teaching assistant, and most of the words aren’t even taught at the junior high school level. It was rote memorized.
As soon as you decouple English language learning from the business of handing out Eiken certificates and emphasize simple down-to-Earth communication, the ability of students will grow in a more organic way. No more robots! No more ridiculous English signs and slogans. (Which are often unnecessary anyway!)
Chinaman: The legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka
