Sapporo Snow Festival!

Hello all - I just got back from the most amazing weekend in Sapporo!

I'll tell you a bit about my adventures...



Six Jets from my prefecture and I headed off from Kofu in a lovely bus to Shinjuku in Tokyo. Then we jumped on a train for the Haneda airport.

Lucky us we got to take a special Pikachu train to Sapporo. It was painted on the outside with Pikachu and his friends and inside the flight attendants wore pikachu aprons and we used pikachu cups
and we rested our heads on pikachu headrests. Too cute!

The flight was quite lovely and only one hour. Luckily, I got a window seat so I was able to watch the sun set as we were approaching Sapporo. It was the first time I have ever seen the sun glow so amazingly crimson red as it disapeared below the horizon (this being being a country with a red sun on its flag, it was quite apropriate). The city of Sapporo twinkled like a jewel below us with many colourful lights and sparkling snow.

We were met at the airport by this nice fellow, Bailey, who had organized the whole trip for all us jets across Japan. There were so many of us staying in Sapporo that our group from Kofu, along with a few others, were staying in a seperate hotel from the rest for friday and sat nights. Luckily, this seperate hotel happened to the Sheraton in Sapporo (a 4 star hotel). From the outside the hotel looked like a cathedral and inside there was a massive cupid fountain and church-like area complete with stained glass (many weddings are held there).

I got to share my room with very nice Jets from outside of my prefecture of Yamanashi - Kristine from just North of Tokyo and Janet from near Osaka.

That evening of Friday, I and several other Jets from Yamanashi headed out for some good eatings and drinking at two local izakayas (a japanese style restuarant/bar where you ordered lots of meat on sticks and alcohol to share). We had some great laughs and good times.

The next morning we got up and some of the Yamanashi jets, my roomate Janet, and I headed out to Teine, a ski/snowboard slope only about an hour from Sapporo city. It was a beautiful sunny day. Janet and I (both beginners to snowboarding) decided to be fools together on the slopes.

We took the ski lift to the very top of the mountain and got up the courage to go all the way down the biginners route. It took some time before i rembered how to balance on the board and turn properly. It was a beautiful route down the mountain on a tree lined trail, with some parts right at the edge of a steep cliff. We took a wrong turn and ended up on a more difficult stretch of the slopes, but we made it down with our bums a little sorer but very happy. Then we took a little lift up only part way on the mountain and practiced going down again and again. I was starting to get the hang of the whole boarding thing and just loving the rush of it all. We had a glorious day on the slopes.

That afternoon we headed back to our hotel. After a nice long soak in the bath, I headed up to the top floor of the hotel where there was a bar with a fantastic view of Sapporo city twinkling below. It was rediculously expensive but I ordered a Mojito and felt absolutely blissful. There was was the beauty of the city below and the warmth of my friends - Renee and Kat - beside me.

That evening Renee, JD (another Yamanshi Jet) and I decided to go check out the snow sculptures. We jumped on the subway and headed to sapporo station. The night was lovely, crisp, and clear. The snowsculptures were illuminated by many coloured lights and looked quite lovely. The smaller ones did look to be melting some, but the larger ones looked quite perfect and majestic. There was a large snow palace where a japanese rock band was performing infront of. There was a huge japanese style castle. There was a huge Disneyland themed sculpture, complete with a castle and mickey mouse. It was a beautiful night.

The next day I decided to head off on my own to see a placewith a snow maze called Sato Land. It was about a half hour by bus from Sapporo station. On the bus I met two gals named Eddah (originaly from Kenya) and Mahum (originaly from Pakistan) who live in Hiroshima prefecture. They invited me to come stay with them any time and they will show me around their area (yay!). Sato Land was really fun. There were little kids building hundreds of snowman all around. There were many slides of snow that children could slide down with inner tubes. Also there was a huge snow maze that we pretended to get lost in :)

I got quite cold, though, and ended up steping in some melted snow and getting my right foot all wet. So, I said goodbye to Eddah and Mahum and headed back to my hotel (we were staying in a cheaper hotel called the Mets for the last night).

I relaxed a bit and then headed out to sapporo station to go exploring and get omeyagi (a souvenier gift of food you buy for your coworkers when you go traveling in Japan). I left the station and wandered through the city until sunset.

I discovered a great brick building which was the Sapporo government building. It was surrounded with trees, many of which were bundled up with straw to protect them from the snow or tided with ropes to prevent the branches from braking. Everything looked so beautiful covered in snow.

That evening a whole bunch of us JETS headed out to a beer garden for an enkai (drinking party). We got to cook our own lamb and vegis at little cookers at our tables and we had nomeihodi (unlimited drinking) for the evening. I enjoyed walking around and just meeting Jets from all over Japan. I especially enjoyed meeting a really fun group of jets from Nara Prefecture (just near Kyoto). They were really layed back and fun and artsy people. They all invited me to go visit them in the spring and I could stay with any of them and they would give me a tour of their area. I am planning to go when the sakura are blooming the first weekend of April.

It was a late night and the next morning all of us from yamanashi had to wake up really early to catch our 8:30 flight back to Tokyo. After arriving in Tokyo we decided to head to Shinjuku to try some ramen that is notorious for being the most spiciest in Japan. They provide all patrons with a package of tissues and tons of water. I got my bowl of ramen and, dear oh dear, it was definetly really spicey. All the japanese patrons kept looking at me with a mixture of amusement and sympathy. My sinuses just became like a fountain, but I actually really enjoyed the ramen.

After our lips were pretty numb so we decided to get some icecream at the local 7-11. We were eating icecream infront of the combini when this older japanese guy came up and started dancing in the puddle of icecream we were making. He was so random and funny. He started talking with us and asking where we were all from. He then proceeded to pull out a banana for each of us (to go with our icecream). He then pulled out a half dozen carton of eggs from the same bag as the bananas. We had no clue what he was going to do next. He pulled out a single egg and proceeded to crack it dead center on his forehead, slirp up some of the raw egg and rub the rest all over his face!! omg! We just cracked up. He then told us, proudly, how this what people in japan used to wash their face with in the "old days". oh dear. He then cracked another egg on his head and started rubbing it all over his face. When it dried he proudly showed us how soft his skin was. dear oh dear. Then he passed us all out one of those japanese face masks you wear when you are sick. So we all put them on a posed for a picture with the wonderful old guy. He then said fairwell and disapeared.

We took the bus back to Kofu and the sun set just as we got into our little city. I was really tired, but happy. It was a crazy, memorable time way up in the cold north of Japan.




good times.