Sapporo Snow Festival

This February we traveled to Sapporo to experience the 63rd Snow Festival.  We had always wanted to visit Hokkaido, and booked a tour that included door to door transportation.  Experiencing winter weather in short bursts, we purchased snow boots and other items to prepare for the arctic temperatures.  The tour flew us out of Haneda airport in downtown Toyko on a short domestic flight north to Hokkaido.  And being in Japan, our plane was painted with Pokemon characters, it seems to make sense now.  Domestic air travel within Japan is a much more calm experience than American airports.  We did not have to take our shoes off for security and could even bring liquids on the plane with us.



They seriously had a "liquid" scanner to check your bottle of water, tea, beer, or canned coffee for explosives.  We observed the device with wonder as an indicator light would flash green after scanning a half empty bottle of water. Genius!  We had thought that Hokkaido is sort of like Alaska, but it definitely gets more foot traffic with over 45 large daily flights between Tokyo and New-Chitose (Sapporo's hub).  We landed and had some time at the airport before our tours began.  Before stepping foot outside of the airport we were immediately presented with every specialty item Hokkaido is known for to purchase, from dairy products, chocolates, and beer.  Japan really understands that money drives tourism.



New-Chitose airport is about an hours drive from Sapporo, and our tour stopped by Lake Shikotsu on the way for their annual Winter Ice Festival.  Along the drive we entered forest full of deer.  Large, hairy deer littered the snowy forest.  Hunting must not be as prevalent this time of year (if allowed at all, Japan has very strict gun laws).  Lake Shikotsu's ice festival was an experience you cannot have in America for fear of being sued by angry patrons.  Every year locals build frames for structures out of wood and steel pipes, then use sprinklers spraying lake water to cover them.



The result is large structures with differing themes.  We walked through tunnels of ice with green pine boughs decorating the sides, climbed to the top of a circular ice luge with artwork hanging inside, and paid our respects at an ice Shinto Shrine.  But nothing compared to the ice slides and ice rink for kids.  The ice slides were entertaining in we would watch children happily slide down the luge, stop, try to stand up and promptly fall again.  This happened over and over.  Nothing compared, however, to the controlled chaos observed on the ice rink.



Kids would strap on helmets (which is rare in Japan, at least for bike riders) and wait patiently on the side of the rink (no ice skates) for their parents to fling them into the middle of the rink.  Inevitably the sliding, shrieking, children would slam into another child, knock them over, both try to stand, then slip and fall again on the ice, and keep laughing.  It was marvelous to watch and a wonder to us Americans who watched parents willingly fling their precious children into strangers’ kids.  There was no crying or arguing, just controlled chaotic fun. We chuckled over the number of law suits that would arise from such activity in the states.



Cold we climbed onto the bus and fell asleep, waking up to our tour leader telling us to "wake up now!" This was after he told us to fall asleep while he read us boring facts about Sapporo (his words).  We checked into our hotel in downtown Sapporo, then headed to our final tour destination of the day, prepaid meal at the Sapporo Brewery Beer Garden.  The dinner was an American's and a glutton’s dream, all you can eat and drink for 90 minutes.  Except you had to cook your own food on a burner on the table, which turned out to be awesome.



We took up the challenge and grilled up endless fresh, local scallops, lamp strips (a Mongolian cut the locals named eating "Ghengis Khan") and some veggies for good measure.  Endless alcohol also puts everyone in good spirits and we had a great time, enjoying fresh Sapporo Classic beer on tap at the source.  Leaving the dinner in high spirits Angela, Brian, and I left the tour group and took a train to Sapporo's nightlife district around Susukino Crossing.  We sampled a few bars, ran into several foreigners, and got a glimpse at large ice sculptures lining the streets set to be unveiled the next morning.



The next morning we awoke to fresh snow and realized the Super Bowl was being broadcast on NHK live.  So we watched the Super Bowl with Japanese play by play announcers while we got ready for the day.  It was a new way to watch the NFL in that there were no commercial breaks.  The announcers would zoom in on the team's benches and talk away while America watched the ridiculously expensive ads.  When a big play happened, the announcers (who were having the best week ever in Indianapolis) would yell, such as when Tom Brady was sacked on the Patriots last drive: "SAAACK-UUUU!!"



After a brunch of local seafood (AMAZING) we walked a few blocks to Odori Park in central Sapporo, the site for most of the snow festival. Sapporo as a city is unique in Japan in that it is easy for American's to navigate.  It was designed by Americans in the late 1800s on a grid pattern similar to what we find in the midwest, meaning addresses mean something... unlike in Tokyo where some streets are completely unnamed and/or were purposefully designed to stop an attacking Ninja force.



Great in 1598, but not so much in 2012.  In any case, we soon found ourselves in a large international crowd, walking around the park counterclockwise.  The Sapporo Snow Festival was started in the 1950s by a group of high schoolers who were bored or cold and built some large snow sculptures as a competition of sorts.  Somehow the Japanese military got involved and soon an international festival was born.  2 million people now visit Sapporo every February for the event, and we were three of them.



Of all the things to see, we came across Hawaiian Hula girls first. Seriously, there was a climate controlled building full of sand with hula girls.  The Japanese are obsessed with Hawaii, and we are further convinced of this every day.  Soon we came upon the big attractions, starting with a scale replica of the Indian Taj Mahal.  Every year Sapporo will build an international icon in snow, and this year the Indians had their famous building immortalized in snow.



The structure and details were amazing.  Next up on the "wow" factor was a replica Japanese castle.  This year they built a replica of a castle from Fukushima prefecture to show solidarity from the ongoing disaster there.  This sculpture was by far our favorite.  The detail of the stones and upper levels were simply awesome.



Continuing our walk around the park we saw hundreds of smaller snow sculptures, with many anime and Nintendo themed characters around. Reaching one end of the park we came upon the international competition area, and had some fun observing teams at work.  Many countries send teams to take a block of snow and build a design to be judged at the end of the week, somewhat similar to sand castle contests.



Teams from India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Hawaii, Taiwan, Oregon, and northern Europe wore team outfits and were hard at work.  Most used spray paint to mark where to cut the snow, but then whittled it down with small saws.  We wish we could have seen the final products, but some teams were clearly better than others (not sure why there were so many teams from countries that have absolutely NO SNOW).



Getting cold we started to purchase hot wine and sake and crab heads and warm crab legs.  As it began to get dark we came across the half of the park with lights on snow sculptures, upping the ante.  A crowd favorite was a gigantic Mickey Mouse and Magicians hat.  Behind that was an aquatic scene with fine detail on dolphins and a humpback whale.  Near the Sapporo TV Tower (every major Japanese city seems to have a gigantic metal tower with a mascot... why not?) we found a small park with ice sculptures based on designs children submitted.



One ice sculpture was lit up and set to music.  Looking around we found a little girl in a cage (a heated glass hut) playing the electric organ.  It seemed a little like child labor... but she was good!  Tired, cold and hungry we grabbed dinner along famed Ramen Alley in Susukino.  Sapporo is known as the creator of miso-ramen, and it was delicious, especially with large, fresh scallops.



Next we visited a string of ice bars.  Not every day you can literally have all your drinks on ice!  One hotel set up an elaborate ice bar outside their lobby, complete with ice stools and tables.  We ordered irish coffees and tequila sunrises, but they kept offering hot orange juice, which just seems gross to us, no matter how cold it is outside. A string of ice sculptures in the streets of Susukino were interrupted by magnificent ice sculptures.



While enjoying some hot wine at one ice bar, Angela got on the local news of a Russian affiliate as the reporter rattled on about the festival.  Some of the ice sculptures had fish and crabs frozen in them, and we realized that local restaurants had sponsored them and had advertisements with directions!  On our way back to the hotel we stopped by Odori Park to get some night pictures of the frozen Fukushima Castle lit up and ran into a delightful group from tourists from Hong Kong who had been snowboarding all week.



Our last day in Sapporo Angela and I woke up, checked out of the hotel, enjoyed a traditional Japanese breakfast, then headed out on an important mission.  We had to get a stamp in our Shrine book from Hokkaido, the second Japanese island we had visited.  We took a taxi to the Hokkaido Jingu Shrine, the largest shrine in all of Hokkaido, and discovered a beautiful garden covered in fresh snow.



A picturesque wet snow continued as we got our calligraphy stamp and walked through an old growth forest back to the city to catch a taxi back to our bus.  As a final tour event, we visited a ropeway, another singularly unique Japanese experience in that everywhere you go there is a ropeway of some kind.  The plan was to take a cable car to the top of Mt. Moiwa to see the entire city of Sapporo on the plain below you.  Except it was snowing, and became a blizzard/white out near the top of the mountain.



We spent an hour at the top, playing in several feet of snow but having no view but white.  After we got to the bottom to meet the bus again the sun came out, but our time in Sapporo was over.  The plane ride back was fast, and we were home in non-snowy Tokyo and back to work before we knew it.  All in all it was a great trip, and we would love to visit Hokkaido again!

Happy Year of the Dragon

Happy Year of the Dragon from our crazy little poodle.  Who also decided he didn't like 2011 (Year of the Rabbit) on New Years Day.

New Years Resolutions

2011 was a rough year on us, in multiple ways.  As we have been celebrating Japanese New Years traditions, Angela has been teaching about Resolutions to her English students.  The Wanderinghokies resolutions include updating this blog more regularly, making a concerted effort at learning the Japanese language (at a rudimentary level), and to travel internationally more.  We have a slightly bigger budget this year and plan on wandering throughout Asia when we have some time off.  If coming to visit this year please let us know when, as we are trying to book ourselves solid!

Okonomiyaki お好み焼き

Most people view pancakes as breakfast food, though IHOP and Ron Swanson might disagree.  Since moving to Japan, we have eaten many random foods we would have never considered as palatable in the states.  I can say, without a doubt, that we have definitely expanded our food horizons (and our definition of edible).



It seems like everywhere you turn in Japan, there are large food advertisements, enticing you and your taste buds to try something new.  It’s great, but we still don't always know what we are eating.  Our recent food adventures have taken us to Okonomiyaki お好み焼き, which we have seen defined on many menus as “Japanese Pancake.” I’m not sure I would call it a pancake, although it is kind of flat and in the shape of a circle.  Perhaps a thin, circular, grilled casserole would make for a more accurate description.



I’ll be honest….it looks kind of horrible.  In fact, it looks kind of disgusting the first time you see it, so we have always avoided these okonomiyaki restaurants.  This all changed last fall while we were in Kyoto.  I think we were really just tired of walking, but whatever the reason, we stumbled into an okonomiyaki restaurant.  What a pleasant surprise!  It turns out we picked a good place to start eating okonmiyaki, as it originated in nearby Osaka.  Though it is prepared differently in various regions of the country, the notion of the “pancake” remains the same.  Basically there is some flour batter and you can add whatever you want to the dish!



We chose mochi, shrimp, and beef, and watched as cabbage and noodles were added as well.  Some restaurants allow you make your own on a grill in the middle of the table, but we like paying other people to make our food.   In any case we tried a new food that is delicious, and in true Japanese style, we properly drizzled our meal with a copious amount of mayonnaise!

A Walk in the Neighborhood

Last night we went for a walk and took some pictures of a few New Year’s decorations in our neighborhood.  Enjoy a tiny taste of our town as it celebrates the coming of 2012.

A local shrine decorated.



The fire stations shimekazari 標飾り.



A local restaurant celebrates extravagantly.



Our New Year’s shimekazari!

Shishimai 獅子舞い

Last week, one of my students asked me if Shishimai visited us last year.  I didn't know what that was, so he explained it to me.  Shishimai is the Japanese Lion dance, where a Red Lion dances to bring good luck in the New Year.  And I believe to ward off bad spirits and to bring a blessing to your house.  It is an Asian tradition, and varieties of the Lion dance exist in China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.  They are pretty different in each country (based on my extensive wikipedia research).  In our region of Japan, one person dresses as the Red Lion, but in other countries sometimes it is 2, 3, or 4 people.  Last year, we had just moved into our house, but I remembered hearing the Japanese bamboo flute and drums.  We were too busy moving in to really investigate further, and figured it was something happening at our local shrine.  Apparently, it was Shishimai!



This year, I am excited to say, we were visited by Shishimai!  We thought we would not receive the visit, as Jan. 1st came and went.  However, on Jan. 2nd our doorbell rang and the Red Lion, along with a group of five or six musicians were at our door.  James came running into the bedroom, yelled "Shishimai is here," and I think I woke up faster than I ever have!  I ran down stairs just in time.  We tried to come outside, but they motioned us to go back in and then asked if they could come in.  Before we knew it we had a red lion dancing in our house to bring in the New Year.  AJ was not entertained and was a bit freaked out.  It was awesome.  Then someone with a mask came in and danced, but I'm not sure what that was.  After it was over, we thanked them, and then they invited us outside to take some pictures. When we were outside, the Lion was trying to bite AJ, which I think means good luck. I wish I had been more awake, but it was still a great way to start the year!

The Wanderinghokies vs Mt. Fuji Round Two - August 2011

At some point from August 2010 to August 2011 Angela and I were convinced to revisit the summit of Fuji-san.  We had several legit reasons for going back, including getting our newly acquired shrine book stamped at the summit by a Shinto priest calligrapher, taking several Japanese friends on their own first hike up it, and since the great Tohoku earthquake we wanted to experience MORE of Japan.  Only this time we would hike the mountain at night by moonlight to experience the sunrise from the summit.  Not sure how we were convinced, or maybe we thought we were more prepared with experienced knowledge.  Looking over our pictures from the first hike we somehow forgot how awful we felt and had not enjoyed the scenery from our miserable existence.


Being the nerd I am I spent hours researching which of the four trails to climb at night.  I settled on the Subashiri route, as it is less crowded (fewer Tokyo tourists) and the trail is supposedly less steep. We organized the trip, eventually taking a group of 7 American and Japanese friends on a rental van from base to drive ourselves in order to not feel rushed and take our time.  Angela and I figured we could outsmart Fuji-san by purchasing hiking poles for greater stability (these turned out to be worth their weight in gold, small victory) and floppy hats to avoid the morning sun.  We purchased extra camel backs for water, head lamps for the night climb, and SPF 70 sunscreen. Again, I am not kidding how awful that sun was in 2010. Apparently that is all I remembered being horrid.


With little difficulty we drove the two hours to a parking field around on a sweaty August evening. We paid for round trip bus tickets to the fifth station and said good bye to the rental van... and caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji laughing at us in the pink sky of sunset. The Fifth station on the Subashiri route is much smaller than the main one we visited in 2010, similar to a small hut.  We all bought hiking sticks and ice cream and adjusted to the altitude for an hour by taking pictures with other hikers (a group of Malaysians were carrying patriotic flags to the top and loved Americans!). The place was starting to fill up with other night hikers so we decided to start off sometime around 2000, thinking we had plenty of time for a leisurely ascent to catch the sunrise at 0440 the next morning.  Angela had found packs of emergency car glow sticks that were all different colors, so we hung them from our back packs.  These were genius (another small victory!), as we could see everyone in our group as they walked up the mountain in the dark ahead.


After a few minutes we made it out of the treeline and into a moonlit, moonlike world.  The hiking was good as the temperature was much cooler than muggy sea-level and we all made good time to the 7th station, get stamps on our sticks and staying together. At this point unit cohesiveness began to breakdown.  The altitude was hitting me already much harder than the previous August.  I felt very nauseous, but overcame it just as Angela came down with it.  We broke down and bought compressed, canned air at the 7th station and pretended it helped (might be mental, I don't know).   We let a few from the group keep going as we could not keep up, and started the longest stretch of the night.  One of our Japanese friends became REALLY sick from the altitude and could barely keep going.



Amazing to me that Angela and I had ascended the mountain in only five hours the year before, but the night started to drag on and hours went by.  And it started getting busy in the mad rush to get to the summit for sunrise.  Angela, me, and two Japanese girls ended up huddling at the third 8th Station (how many 8 stations can possibly exist?) in the cold pre-dawn sipping on Miso-soup waiting for the sunrise.  We had made it pretty far, but there was no way we would make the summit.  The other three in our group made a mad dash to the summit in waves and waves of Japanese.


The cool of dawn at high altitude began to fade away as amazing colors started appearing to the East.  In the Land of the Rising Sun we saw the rising sun above the clouds and the Kanto Plain containing the largest metropolis in the world.  It was sublime.


After sunrise we were feeling adventuresome and for some reason decided to make for the summit as we had come that far.  Someone was smart enough to bring portable radios, so I called to our group at the summit to wait for us.  The ascent from the 8th station to the summit was what I recalled from the previous year... war scene. You look up and everyone is lying down, exhausted and questioning their sanity.


I ran ahead and assembled our tiny band along the Torii Gate at the summit. We cheered heartily for our three women who made the trek to the summit, and got exuberant group photos taken.  Angela and I had a mission at the summit to get our shrine book stamped, so paid homage to Fuji-san himself.  Then we paid homage to our alma-mater and unfurled a Virginia Tech banner from the summit of Mt. Fuji for all the world to see, and take a picture. Tech Triumph.


Our stay at the summit was brief, but got the all-important "Sunrise from Mt. Fuji" stamp on our hiking sticks followed by expensive curry rice/ramen noodles and bathroom break.  Remembering our horrible trek down the mountain last year Angela and I pulled our trekking poles and tried to ski down.  We were slow and three members of our group raced down seeking to best the average time of 2 hours down.


This method worked for us stragglers until we reached the 7th station down on the Subashiri trail.  This trail, while apparently less steep, is also known for a "sandy" descent.  I had failed to notice this bit of news in my research on the trail... adventurous people use this route (personal FAIL).  We learned that a "sand" descent involved the trail abandoning switch backs and heading straight down an old lava flow that had been smoothed out.  Thus, one can run down the mountain bouncing on a foot of volcanic sand, taking a foot or two for each step.  This sounds like fun right?  Except there are still boulders in and under the sand, and our knees were about ready to die as it was.



So... we kind of slid on our backsides getting thoroughly dusty.  At one rest point we sat and watched other hikers slipping and hitting the sand at a fast rate. Very entertaining.  We even started making friends with other who were as miserable as we were. Once past the "sand luge from hell" we followed makeshift signs for the fifth station and the waiting bus to the parking lot.  In the night we had missed the fact that the trail was literally a dry creek bed/lava flow and it never seemed to end.  Dragging ourselves into the fifth station we slurped down some mushroom tea a nice lady gave us, feeling we had survived a battle.  To add insult to injuries (Angela's toenails were not going to make it again!) to get to the shuttle bus we were forced to walk up a hill... again.
We spent over 20 hours on that mountain this year, as opposed to 8 the year before.  Yes the sunrise was breathtaking, but so are sunrises from beaches. Remember that. So, let it be known, please do not try to convince us to hike Fuji-san again.  The mountain wins, let it.