Finding Zen in a Lump of Bread Dough

A Zen Philosopher once said that man's greatest work is done when he is not calculating or thinking. Staring at the lump of dough in front of me I would never have imagined that I'd be closer to understanding what that dude was talking about.

My Zen Teacher

A little bit of background story. I was living in Hokkaido working in a restaurant called Heart n' Tree that sells bread, pizza, salads, and curries where a lot of the ingredients are locally sourced. I was in charge of the pizza and making the bread.

 The Restaurant Floor

View of the local area

 The Garden Salad

The 3 Different Pizzas

The first step of making bread rolls is to weigh each piece of dough so that each one weighs the same as the last. Initially, I was really slow taking a piece and throwing it on the scale. Too much? Take some off. Too little? Put some more on. However, after I got into the flow of things I put the scale away and I instinctively knew what 100 grams of dough felt like in my hands.

Swear to God I did not measure this beforehand.

Then you've got to shape the dough into something sexy. My first roll took me ages because I had to make it look the way I was taught. I was constantly stopping, looking at my work, and redoing it. However, by the twenty third roll the bread was just coming out without me even thinking about it.

Proof of my amazing bread rolling skills

After I perfected my bread rolling technique I understood what that Zen Philosopher meant. The best work that we do is when our bodies do the work organically and our brains shut off and go into a calm Zen state. The irony is that when you realize you are in this state you start to get bored because the work has become robotic and mindless. In order to get into a Zen state you have to find a balance between work being too difficult and too easy, but when you go too far on either side your brain starts calculating and thinking making you lose your sense of calm.

My bread rolling skills after 2 weeks

 My bread rolling skills after a month

The tricky thing about staying in a state of Zen is that you need to keep changing how you do things. If I kept rolling bread the same way for a month I would have gotten bored easily, but I kept modifying my technique so that it became more difficult and my product became sexier. 

In life I think we need to constantly do this in order to keep things fresh and interesting. If we never change or never challenge ourselves then we risk getting too comfortable and prevent ourselves from growing.

Thanks for reading ;)

Homeless in Hokkaido Part 2

I looked at the clock... I was almost at 13 minutes! I was setting a personal record of how long an old lady could yell at me about how irresponsible, lazy, and immature I am without saying a word back. The last time I broke this record I was 15 years old, I had just been arrested by the police at 2 in the morning, and the yelling old lady was my mother. The difference was this time I was 28 years old, I quit my job a week early, and the yelling old lady was some crazy woman I met 4 days ago. Also the first old lady kicked me out 10 years later, and the second one kicked me out the next morning.

So if you ever find yourself homeless in Japan, here's how I got through the odeal.

Sold out! Sold out! Sold out! Not the thing you want to see after getting yelled at by someone who isn't your mother.

Step 1: See if you can find a hostel for the night. They are cheaper than hotels and completely booked when the Annual Hokkaido Marathon is in town. Unfortunately, I didn't know there was a marathon going on when I told my boss the bad news. So onto step 2 for me.

Step 2: Stalk people. I saw a guy walk up to the reception desk, ask a question in Japanese, look disappointed, and walk into the elevator. I don't understand Japanese, but I knew this guy was in the same situation as me. So I followed him and we became friends.

I think he has been stalked before... He seemed to know what was going on.
He even took the picture and emailed it to me

Step 3: Goto every expensive looking hotel and prepare to be disappointed. We were trying to find a hotel that would have a room cheaper than 200$ a night. After 6 hotels, I got so desperate and thought about busting into some crappy Carly Rae Jepsen parody that went like, "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy. But let's split the room cost, and have my babies."

Unfortunately for us, not even Hotel Dormy Inn had a room for us. So onto step 4 

Step 4: Enter the internet cafe. For Westerners this might sound insane, but sleeping in an internet cafe is pretty normal in Japan.

 You've got your choice of flat floor, computer chair, or reclining leather chair.

You've also got your own personal space inside your own little room.

 

                       And no Japanese Internet Cafe is complete without a shower room!

I chose the room with the mat and tucked my head under the table. I started to think really hard about karma because it was the only thing stopping me from thinking about the hundreds of people that have masturbated at the exact spot where my head was lying. I started to laugh at this perfect example of instant karma. I mess up somebody's plan; Now I lay awake staring at the bottom of a desk and listening to the penetrating snore of my neighbor with my feet uncomfortably pressed against the door of my "room". Life has a funny way of balancing out.

Homeless in Hokkaido Part 1

Homeless in Hokkaido... Now that's something I thought I wouldn't be on my trip, but here I am at 7:30 in the morning at a Mister Donut with a coffee and donut trying to figure out where I'll live for the next few days. I'll go back a little bit...

I am doing this program called  WOOFing where you work 6 hours a day and receive free food and accommodations. I was working in a daycare for 2-5 year old children that focuses on teaching them English. I started to hate the job because my boss would tell me to do something, but her plans would never actually work out the way she wanted. Here are some examples:

Expectation #1: Give children bottle caps and teach them about numbers and colors.

Reality #1: Children eat and fight over bottle caps. They do not learn English.

Expectation #2: Give children sheets of newspaper and teach them about the different shapes and animals they can rip paper into it.

Reality #2: Children rip newspaper. They do not learn English.

Expectation #3: Take one child aside and have a one-on-one lesson with them.

Reality #3: The other seven children get bored, start fighting, and one child gets bitten... Twice. They do not learn English.

On top of that there were rules that weren't easy to enforce with 2 year olds...

I got a day off and I went on a 4 hour bike ride...

and things became clearer...

                                                           and clearer...

until I finally reached the ocean.

I found a ramen shop owned by a family on the beach. The mother asked me where I am from and whether I'm a good skiier (because I'm from Canada), the father offered me his binoculars to look out at the ocean while I waited for my ramen, and one of the daughters let me hold her 6 month old baby. At this moment, I realized I was so frustrated and upset with my job because I was missing family. I came to this English school because I thought I would feel the warmth of a Japanese family and learn about the culture, but instead I was treated like a cold disposable worker that had to execute ridiculous orders.

So I told my boss that I wanted to shorten my stay to a week.  I know I was being selfish, but sometimes it's more important to take care of yourself, even if that means hurting others. I ended up paying the price for cancelling, but I'll tell you about that later.

For now, I leave you with a comment left by another person who had a terrible time with my boss.

I wish I read this earlier because it would have saved me a lot of pain and suffering.

How a Sushi Chef Taught Me How to Eat... Again

Click! We've all done it. Taking a picture of that fancy dish you just ordered at that fancy restaurant. I was doing it at Tsukuji Fish Market getting ready to brag to all my friends about the 30$ bowl of fish and rice in front of me. Sadly, after my first bite I tasted the sea, I tasted metal, and I tasted disappointment.

I was almost ready to punch this old man in the face and take my money back.

However, before I did that I took a second bite... Now I'm no pervert, but I literally had an orgasm sitting there at the sushi bar. As I chewed, I felt each layer of fat melt into each layer of muscle and I was left with this beautiful mash of tuna that was absolutely blowing my mind. It was at this point that I didn't just look at the bowl in front of me... I LOOKED. And when I did, I saw absolute beauty.

Firstly, there were 3 different parts of the tuna fish, each one possessing a different level of fat to muscle ratio. This means that the 3 different parts have 3 different levels of flavour. Secondly, the chef gives you big pieces and small pieces so that you can taste the fish in different ways. The small pieces are your experiments so you can try them with soy sauce, wasabi, or just the fish. When you find what you like, you do that with the biggest piece, throw that in your mouth, and you've got exactly what you want in the longest way possible.

I applied this principle to the best bowl of ramen I've ever had and this is what I saw...

I never noticed this, but pork can have darker cuts like chicken. This piece was very similar to a chicken drumstick.

And this piece, which looks like bacon, was very similar to a chicken breast.

These are some of the reasons why I decided to change my profession from teaching to cooking. I feel like the act of eating should be more than just something we do to survive. Instead it should be an experience by itself, not something we do while we swipe away on Facebook or watch TV. One way to do this is to give your undivided attention to the food you eat, like I did by noticing the different types of tuna or pork. Also you can make your food more interesting; take that boring bowl of Kraft Dinner and throw some chopped bacon on top! Give your food more dimensions and you'll find yourself paying attention to what you eat.

I hope y'all are hungry now :)

The Highs and Lows of Fuji

Hey Friends!

Just did a hike up Fuji and wanted to update y'all on it and the wisdom I gained. They are going to be split into highlights and lowlights.

I woke up at 5:30 AM to catch a 6:45 AM bus. Yes, I planned my route ahead to arrive at the bus station early. No, I did not catch the bus so I had to sleep on the floor like a homeless dude for 3 hours waiting for the next bus. Lowlight.

I started to get lonely, but a severely drunk Japanese man joined me along the way. We yelled おつかれさまです (Otsu Kare Sama Desu) which means "You can do it!" to everyone we passed by and made a lot of people laugh. Halfway through he bought me a coffee and gave me his walking stick branded with some of the stations along the way. Then he said goodbye and went to sleep. Highlight.

I got to my hotel where the staff told me not to set my phone alarm because it would wake everyone up. Instead they would wake me up at 2:30 AM so I could hike and see the sunset. I woke up at 1:00 AM to a very loud Japanese Man chanting each person's name who requested an earlier 1:00 AM wake up time. I guess this was their idea of not waking everyone up... So I started my very grumpy climb up the rest of Fuji at 1:00 AM. Lowlight.

My 0-Star Hotel that cost me $100 a night :(

I put on my glasses for the first time during my two weeks here and saw the stars from Japan for the first time. Easily the best view of the night sky I've ever seen at 3776 metres and every once in a while there were shooting stars. I took a nap at 3 AM under the stars and waited for the sun to greet me. Highlight.

It was a cold nap and every piece of clothing counted. Swimming trunks on my head included.

And now many obligatory shots of the sunrise...

Focusing on the lowlights will make you want to quit and take the easy way out, but around the corner there's always a highlight that is really freaking awesome and keeps you motivated. Fuji reminded me that in life there is always going to be both and you have to appreciate both equally.

Seeing this in the elevator at the end of my trip. Highlight

Can you remember when you were suffering through a lowlight, but a highlight kept you going?