First meal in Sapporo

 My first meal in Sapporo was Yakiniku Like. I was really craving yakiniku and it was indeed delicious. This restaurant wasn’t even rated more than 4 stars on Google but it is awesome. The interesting thing about yakiniku is that you have to play with fire to get your food. Cooking with fire was the whole reason why humans evolved into who we are today—before humans learned to use fire, their diet was so limited and they couldn’t eat meat. Without protein human spine could not be upright. And yet look at the civilization today; we don’t let children play with fire anymore and most kitchens in the world do not have a gas stove. IH heaters have replaced most fire stoves.

I remember playing with the fire a lot when I was a kid. I learned to use a lighter before I was in the first grade and I could cook leaves with a candle. I once set the floor on fire in my mom’s office and quickly put it out on my own. These experiences definitely shaped my vigilance and life skills, but kids these days simply can’t have access to these experiences. I don’t even know if they could learn to eat yakiniku. 

There are many tourists in Sapporo. Most of them travel in pairs. Some are just BFFs and some are romantic couples. I was once one of them, but now I don’t feel jealous looking at those couples—I now know that nothing can be guaranteed forever. Maybe what I see is just a transient moment in their lives where they are traveling with someone but it doesn’t mean they will forever be like that. Maybe they look happen on the outside, but that might just be because they’re with someone just so that they can avoid being lonely. I have been through all of those things. On the other hand I still want to believe in a happily ever after. Maybe some of the couples are really happily ever after. I saw a couple in their 60s shopping in Tanuki Koji. The wife found the second hand store and excitedly pointed it out to her husband, and the husband excitedly joined her. That kind of emotional attunement is exactly what I hope to have in life. I wonder if they have kids.