Yuki Matsuri 2009

(For those of you who forget, Yuki = snow and Matsuri= festival)

Last Saturday I left the safety of my little Koriyama to venture into the frozen north for a festival. Me! - a Florida girl who's been complaining all winter about the frigid wind. I even took off Monday and Tuesday so I could have a nice 4 day vacation with plenty of time to look around.

I met Shirley at the station on Saturday to catch our 8:30 Shinkansen (bullet train) to Sendai (1.5 hours), where we'd catch a second Shink to Hakucho (1.5 hours). Hakucho is the end of the line for the bullet train, so we boarded the limited express (meaning it's not express because it's limited by a brief number of stops) to Hakodate (3 hours).
Funny thing happened in Aomori. We pulled into the station, dismissing the Japanese announcements to general "This is the blahblah stop. We blahblahblah..." (cuz neither Shirls or I know enough Japanese to understand it) and were completely shocked when everyone stood and started moving around. At first we thought we might have to get and change trains, which would be bad if we had to rush because our stuff (including shoes) was all over our row. The we realized that everyone was merely changing their seats- as in they stepped on a little lever and swung their row of seats to face the opposite direction. Through a conversation of broken languages, we discovered that when the train left the station we'd be traveling in another direction, and who wants to sit backwards on a train?
This train to us under the sea and across to the the first station on Hokkaido, Hokodate. We took another slow.. I mean limited express to Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido and home to the 60th annual Snow festival.

The general things happened in the city- we got lost, I slipped a number of times, we ate lots really good Hokkaido-ian(??) food, we saw the whole city from the tv tower and the Ferris wheel, we drank at a rock and roll Americanized bar, and we were spoiled at our Comfort Hotel with central heating and a great complimentary breakfast.

The festival itself was absolutely amazing. I took so many pictures, but not one of them can show exactly what I saw. If you ever have to chance to go, I hope you do. It is well worth it.
There are 3 parts. The first site we stumbled upon while walking around our first night. Susukino site is the ice sculpture street. Huge (though not as huge as the snow sculptures) sculptures line the middle of the street in just about any form you can imagine birds, mermaids, characters, buildings. The coolest by far was the building that was made from blocks of ice with fish and crabs frozen inside. They were, at one time, living fish, but now they served as slightly morbid decorations.

(Sunday)The second site we saw was the Odori site, which is the main attraction. Odori park runs down the middle of the street, or maybe the street was built around the park. Either way, this is were you can view the colossal snow sculptures, also in a variety of of shapes. You have the huge castles or reliefs down to the smaller sculptures of bears or cows. Every sculpture is impressive. Each one is carved with such precision and care that you how how it's possible for anyone to knock it down right after the festival (which I heard they have to do. Festival ends, and down comes everything. Probably for safety reasons or such). One to the main center pieces was a relief of birds. A Mama eagle flew over her nest and babies on the left, while a Mama owl was hugging her babies on the right. The detail in the just wings is perfect, straight clear lines.

(Monday)The third site we went to was the Tsudome site, which the kid/family area. There are some sculptures, but the fun thing is you can make your own snowman. Brian made a snowman, and I helped. I didn't make one, but I found a snowman in the sea with the perfect message, so I took his picture. There were also 4 snow slides and a "bee" ride (which is like the banana boat ride you can do down at the beach, but on snow)

(Sunday night) We also took an unexpected side trip to Otaru
This was by far my favorite place. It was a lovely, lively decorated city and I fell in love. As of right now, I probably am not recontracting for another year, but if I were offered a job in Otaru I would seriously think about it.

I might even stay in Sendai if I had the chance. I really enjoyed my time in Hokkaido, and I didn't want to come back to Koriyama! Maybe it was just getting out of the city for the first time in 6 months, I don't know. I'd like to go back in the summer because I hear Hokkaido is beautiful then as well.

On Vacation!

I don't have a lot of time because as usual and am rushing to complete last minute things before I leave. In about an hour I will be boarding a train to Sapporo, Hokkaido (the North most island of Japan) for the 60th annual Snow Festival!

Going to this festival is something I've always wanted to do, since before I even came to Japan. So, I took 2 days off work and I'm on snow vacation! There are supposed to be over 200 statues and sculptures made of ice or snow. I don't know if I'll have a chance to get to an internet cafe, but I'll be taking tons of pictures and I'll be sure to update when I get back.

Gotta run!

Super Bowl XLIII

I've been really bummed because the Super Bowl was on while I was working. Usually I don't religiously follow sports, even football, but the Super Bowl was in Tampa AND the Steelers we playing.

A friend said he's keep me updated, so here is how my morning went.
Got up at 8 and got ready for work.
First text update received around 8:30 about Steelers touchdown then recall.
Drove to the kindergarten from 9-10.
Taught from 10:20-11.
Raced home to find an internet radio.
(I think my friend got into the game cause I didn't get anymore texts)
Found out we were loosing.
Got the radio running right after the last touchdown to learn Steelers were back in the lead.

Time and Steelers have a 6 title with a 27-23 game! WOOO WHOOOO STEELERS!!!!!!

But one of my favorite things is that I am work in Japan, get updates from a friend in France, and listen to a radio about a game in Tampa. Isn't it just great?!?!