We've been in Toyama now for a couple of days and it has continued to be very hot and humid. I've heard that Eastern Canada can be extremely warm and muggy like this but it is something that I have never experienced. About half-way through each day, my body is sticky with sweat and water. I'd be lying if I were to say that I wasn't looking forward to getting back to the dryness of the prairies.
On our
first day here we went to a grape orchard that is right within the town
of Yatsuo. The grapes are incredible -- the best that I have ever
tasted. They are all vine-ripened and (perhaps) organic. We were able
to go out among the grape vines and pick our own. It was quite the
experience. Fresh grapes right off of the vine are vastly superior to
the chemically preserved, shipped 2000 km variety that we get in
Saskatchewan. I dislike the summer heat and humidity here and I would
not want this type of climate in Sask but if it meant that we could grow
fruit like this, I might change my opinion. In terms of fruit
orchards, Toyama is a lot like the Okanagan.
At the orchards (and
around Toyama in general) there is a large insect that is kind of like a
cross between a fly, a grasshopper, a dragonfly, and a beetle. It is
called a "semi" (it's actually a cicada). I've really seen nothing like them. At first I
thought that they were small birds, they are that large! Surprisingly,
they aren't as grotesque as I would have originally thought but they are
very noisy. These bugs chirp all day and all night at this time of
year. The noise is quite amazing (and annoying when you are trying to
sleep).
I had an interesting experience on our second day here. Hana's cousin has a friend who recently retired from a career in Tokyo and returned to Toyama to start a small tofu business. A crew from a national Japanese TV program came to Toyama to interview her cousin's friend as part of a special interest piece that they were doing. We were invited to go to the store during the filming and be a small part of the story. Thus, we might be on national Japanese TV sometime in mid-September. I'm sure that our part in the story will amount to about 10 seconds worth of time. I guess that's it for my ten seconds of fame: "foreigner travels all the way from Saskatchewan to buy tofu"!
It was fun though to participate in this. Hana's cousin's friend had a pretty good grasp of English as he had studied economics at the University of California 30 years ago. We were able to have a good but short chat.
Well, it is time to get back to the heat and humidity........
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